Politics of understanding, cooperation demanded at CPN-UML general convention

By Bhola B Rana

Kathmandu, 16 Feb: CPN-UML General Secretary Jhalanath Khanal launched the party’s 8th general convention in Butwal where main opposition leader Girija Prasad Koirala called for understanding and consensus.
In the presence of Prime Minister Prachanda, Koirala said politics of understanding and consensus has started from Butwal.
“The prime minister is encountering difficulties for breaking consensus,” Koirala said.
PM Prachanda attended even as Maoists have been labeled CPN –UML ‘opportunists and status quoists’.
A top Congress leader asked CPN-UML asked the party to behave like a democratic and not a communist party for cooperation.
Delegates from 14 countries and all major political parties are attending the
convention.
Nearly 300,000 persons have been bussed in from Nawalparasi and neighbouring districts.
Madhav Kumar Nepal, incumbent General Jhalanath Khanal and KP Sharma Oli are contesting the power chairmanship of the party; an effort for consensus is being efforted as well.
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Nepal won’t permit anti-China activities: PM Prachanda

Kathmandu, 15 Feb: Nepal won’t permit anti-China activities from its soil.
This assurance was given by Premier Prachanda to a visiting Chinese delegation led by Liu Hongcai currently in the country to attend a general convention of CPN-UML.
The delegation led by the deputy head of the International Department of Chinese Communist Party also invited Prachanda to visit China in 2009.
A 19-member Chinese military delegation also held discussions with the prime minister Sunday before concluding a week-long Nepal visit.
The delegation discussed security along the sensitive Nepal-Tibet border during the visit.
China has become sensitive to activities by Tibetan refugees in Nepal after prolonged protests by exiled Tibetans ahead of last years Beijing Olympics.
Tibetans from across the border in India participated in the protests; they crossed the open 1,700 km border to come to Nepal to participate in anti-China protests.
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Defence Army claims responsibility for a failed assassination on Sakthi Basnet, personal secretary of Prime Minister Prachanda.

PM Prachanda visiting China again in 2009


A three-member Nepali delegation is preparing a visit of Prime Minister Prachanda to China later in 2009—his second to the northern neighbour.
The delegation is also discussing a proposed visit by Foreign Minister Upendra Yadav.
Nepal is asking China to increase a one million yuan annual assistance while asking Beijing to build a hydro power plant to meet an acute power shortage.
Assistance will be sought for the construction of the Trishuli-3 north of the capital in neighbouring Nuwakot district.
Foreign Secretary Gyan Chand Acharya is leading a three-member delegation to the annual Nepal-China consultative meeting in Beijing beginning Tuesday.
The 2009 meeting was held in Kathmandu.
The delegation flew for the Chinese capital Sunday.
The team will discuss a ban of visas for Nepalis going to China after hundreds of people from the Himalayan state entered the island illegally to seek refugee status.
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Maoist combatants demand interim military rule

By Bhola B Rana

Kathmandu, 15 Feb: Maoist PLA combatants have demanded an interim military rule soonest, Rajdhani reports.
This was demanded by a meeting of seven division commanders and assistant commanders at Shaktikhor military camp in Nawalparasi during an annual function addressed by Prime Minister Prachanda Saturday,
Deputy Commander Chandra Prakash Khanal said Nepal Army and PLA should be placed in the same status in the rule.
Prachanda assured the commanders the new rule will be enacted soon by a special committee on army integration which the government and party chief heads
Commander Nanda Kishore Pun Pasang the new national army will be under the special integration of the special committee which has members of the main opposition and three ruling parties.
PLA has been given the status of a national army, Pasang quoted Prachanda as saying.
“We consider this historic and important responsibility,” Pasang told Rajdhani.
The meeting discussing sending circulars to seven divisions on the important developments.
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TRADE, COMMERCE, ECONOMY

Kathmandu, 15 Feb: Tourist arrivals fell a whopping 16 percent in January 2009 compared to the same month the previous year, Tourism Board said.
Only 21,944 tourists visited Nepal in January.
Indian arrivals fell 10.6 percent—the main reason for the slump.
Arrivals fell from USA and Europe as well.
Tourism is the mainstay of Nepal’s economy.
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Govt. meets revenue collection target

Kathmandu, 15 Feb: Government collected Rs 72.26 billion in revenue in the first seven months of the current fiscal year exceeding the target.
The Maoist-led government had planned to collect Rs 69.25 million.
The finance ministry under Dr Baburam Bhattarai has launched an aggressive tax collection drive
The collection drive increased 32.5 percent compared to the same period the previous year.
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MEDIA GOOGLE

“The country is in a semi-colinial state from the neighbouring country [India] due to the unequal treaties and agreements signed with that country in the past.”

(Jhalanath Khanal, The Rising Nepal, 15 Feb.)

‘There’s a storm in government; it will fall for its own reasons.”

(Sher Bahadur Deuba, Annapurna Post, 15 Feb.)