Briefs (Spotlight Weekly)

KING GYANENDRA HAS APPOINTED DR. BHEKH Bahadur Thapa as special representative or the ambassador-at-large on foreign affairs, in accordance with the Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal 1990. Thapa, former envoy to India, will work as per the policy directives of the Prime Minister, a notice issued on Friday (September 12) by the King’s press secretariat stated. Meanwhile, Attorney General Krishna Ram Shrestha has resigned from his position.

THE JOINT SECRETARIES OF NEPAL AND India are to meet in New Delhi sometime during the last week of September to discuss amendments in the existing extradition laws between the two countries. The extradition treaty between the two countries is 50 year old. After the meeting finalizes the draft treaty, home secretaries will ratify it.

THE WATER RESOURCE OFFICIALS OF NEPAL AND India met in kathmandu this week to discuss the construction of the Upper Karnali and Budhi Gandaki projects. According to the water resources ministry, the officials discussed on costs and benefits and sharing of those things.

WITH THE OBJECTIVE TO PROVIDE ALL ESSENTIAL administrative services including distribution of citizenship, land ownership certificate, health, forest and agricultural services to the rural people at their village and household level, the government is preparing to issue ‘mobile government directives’. According to sources, the government plans to finalize and issue the directives within two weeks. The mobile team will also be provided quasi-judicial authority to enable it to settle minor disputes on the spot. The teams will be headed by chief district officer and will include police chiefs and officials of land reforms, education, local development officer, agriculture, health, forest, female official and representative from NGOs as members. The government has come up with this idea in order to counter the challenge posed by the Maoists who have compelled the government to vacate villages and be limited within district headquarters. The new directive will make it compulsory for district level officials to visit outlying villages at least twice a month.

REBELS EXPLODED THREE BOMBS AT THE Pashupati Spinning Mill at Thimi, Bhaktapur destroying tens of millions of rupees worth assets. The bombs were exploded in Sunday evening (September 14). No one was injured in the incident. Over 40 workers used to work in the factory. At the time of the explosion, the factory was closed and thus, no one was injured, according to Sumit Agrawal, the owner. Meanwhile, the Maoists exploded bomb and set fire destroying telephone tower in Rampur of Chitawan district disrupting lines to over 400 households. Likewise, stepping up their nation-wide sabotage, destructions and killings, the rebels have destroyed Chhinnamasta distillery plant in Janakpur.

NEPAL CABLE TELEVISION ASSOCIATION HAS asked the Indian pay channels to review their decision to suddenly increase their fares by over 40 percent. At a program organized in the capital on Sunday (September 14), the association members said that Nepalese consumers will not be able to dole out such hefty amounts. Dinesh Subedi, president of the association, said that they have already written letters to foreign channels. He said that if the price is not reviewed, the cable operators will be forced to either hike the monthly tariffs or plug off the channels.

THE BILL THAT WILL GIVE NEPALESE READYMADE garments duty-free and quota-free access to the United States has been reintroduced. James T. Walsh, Congressman from New York, has introduced the bill at the wage and means committee, according to Madan Kumar Bhattarai, spokesperson at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Foreign Secretary Madhu Raman Acharya had met with Congressman Walsh and discussed with him the issues regarding the proposed bill when he visited Washington in July. Senator Dianne Feinstein withdrew the bill in June.

JOURNALISTS HELD A SILENT RALLY ON THURSDAY (September 11) to protest increasing atrocities and physical actions against the media-personnel from both the Maoists as well as the governments. The rally was primarily held to protest the recent killing of Gyanendra Khadka, a journalist, by the Maoists. Khadka was hacked to death by the Maoists in Melamchi area of Sindhupalchowk. Meanwhile, police intervened the protest rally and briefly detained the participating journalists. The Ministry of Information and Communication has expressed regrets over the incident claiming that the police had to detain the journalists as they had breached the prohibitory orders.

THE SAVE THE CHILDREN US – a non governmental organization – has decided to pull out of Nuwakot district under stiff pressure from the Maoists. The organization had been working in the sector of education and health in the eastern part of the district for the last 12 years. The organization has said that it engages in strictly apolitical and purely social and humanitarian efforts. But the rebels had been harassing the organization and its workers and warning them of action. The rebels targeted the organization for being an American one. Of late, the rebels have increasingly turned heat on the American organization.

ARMY SPECIALISTS RECOVERED FIVE KILOGRAMS of bomb together with pager devices and documents from Lokanthali in Bhaktapur on Tuesday (September 9). The devices were recovered by sniffer dogs from bushes. Army sources say that the bombs were in ready position and could have been used to explode simultaneously at three places. The sources said that the Maoist rebels must have left it in the bush and fled after finding that the army was on their trail.