Maoist secretariat meets after army walkout

By Bhola B Rana

Kathmandu, 8 April: Maoist secretariat started a meeting Wednesday after Nepal Army withdrew from six events after Prime Minister Prachanda ordered the National Sports Council (NSC) to include the PLA at the last moment in the 5th National Games currently underway in the capital.
Nepal Army Tuesday withdrew from events in which PLA is participating.
The prime minister is the patron of the NSC.
The secretariat is discussing the widening rift between the Maoist-led government and the army and other political issues, including the CPN-UML boycott of the cabinet, extended disruption of parliament and the murder of a CPN-UML activist allegedly by a Maoist in Butwal.
Prachanda ordered the PLA inclusion only after the inauguration of the games at the beginning of the week.
“Prime minister is the patron of the council; on top of that, we’ve got to obey after a written letter from him.” Member Secretary Jiban Ram Shrestha said.
The walkout comes after delay in integration of 19,000 plus Maoist combatants in UNMIN camps, army refusal to stop recruitment of 9,000 soldiers to fill in vacancies and defence ministry refusal to extend the tenure of eight brigadier generals on army request .
The supreme court, after an appeal, asked the government to extend the tenure.
“Like Nepal Army, PLA has equal right to participate in the games. The decision of the army is against the comprehensive peace agreement. There’s no need to politicize the games being conducted for goodwill and peace.
“Alternatives are being thought out. Repeated refusal to obey government orders by Nepal Army has created seriousness,” Communication Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara told Kantipur.
“Nepal Army has taken a decision excitedly against the peace agreement. The state has accepted two armies and recognized PLA,” Finance Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai said.
Major parties have accused Maoists for politicizing sports.
“The schedule of the games had been published and had started as well when pressure was exerted to include PLA. Rules of the game have been discarded. This is naked intervention; nowhere does something like this happen,” Congress leader Dr Ram Sharan Mahat told parliament Tuesday.
“Maoist combatants can participate in the games as individuals. But their participation institutionally under pressure and order of the prime minister is objectionable.
‘It’s against the spirit of the peace agreement for the protector of the professional army to attempt to allow combatants in camps to participate in the competition,” charged CPN-UML General Secretary Ishwor Pokhrel.
“Inclusion of a team after inauguration is against the spirit of the games and we will not stand it,: Army Spokesman Brig. Gen Ramindra Chhetri said.
A 150-member contingent of the PLA is participating.
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Maoist charged for killing CPN-UML activist expelled from party

Kathmandu, 8 April: Sujit BK, charged by CPN-UML for killing its youth activist in Butwal, has been expelled from the party member and stripped of all responsibilities.
Unified CPN (Maoist) secretariat that met Wednesday took the decision as cabinet and parliament have been repeatedly disrupted.
But Maoist Spokesman Dinanath Sharma said BK fled overnight while he was being handed over to the National Human Rights Commission.
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3 armed police forced killed dead 15 injured

Kathmandu, 8 April: Three armed police force personnel
died overnight in Kailali where a truck rammed into a stationary police vehicle.
Fifteen persons, including the diver, were seriously injured.
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Maoist students to oppose fee hike at TU

Kathmandu, 8 April: Maoist students announced they will indefinitely padlock the offices of the controller of examinations and registrar of Tribhuvan University (TU) indefinitely Wednesday to protest a hike in examination fees that had not been increased for nearly two decades.
Students will hold nation-wide corner meetings protesting the hike Thursday and will disrupt movement of vehicles in front of campuses the next day.
Maoists threatened to come on protests from 15 April is the decision isn’t reversed.
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Padam Bahadur Gurung re-elected

Kathmandu, 8 April: Padam Bahadur Gurung Tuesday was unanimously re-elected chairman of Gurkha Ex-servicemen Organization for a five-year term by the second general convention of the organization.
Mahendra Lal Rai has been elected general secretary.
The organization has been waging an extended campaign for equal pay for Gurkhas in the British army; there is a gap in pay of British and Gurkhas in the British army.
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Five die of starvation in Kalikot

Kathmandu, 8 April: Five starving people at Khim VDC in Kalikot died after eating kandamul [roots], Rajdhani reports.
Five districts in Karnali are facing extreme food shortage after a long dry spell.
Lawmaker from Kalikot Dhiranda Upadhaya said 300,000 residents of the anchal are facing acute food shortage; he returned from the district after collecting public opinion for a constitution.
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China announcs increased aid level

Kathmandu, 8 April: Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping informed Chinese government will increase annual assistance from 100 million yuan to 150 million yuan, RSS reports.
He said China is willing to help Nepal also in the fields of agriculture, science and technology, infrastructure and youth exchange programme.
He expressed his thanks to the government of Nepal for her stand on Tibet issues.
Foreign Minister Upendra Yadav held a meeting with Xi at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Tuesday.
Yadav requested to the Chinese side for enhanced level of Chinese cooperation in the infrastructure development, hydropower, tourism, agriculture development and science and technology.
Furthermore, he requested for her duty free access and other trade facilitating measures to Nepalese products in to Chinese market as well as for the extension of railway line up to the Nepalese border.
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MEDIA GOOGLE

“”.. the much included civil society needs to free itself from the morally hazardous embrace of the donors. The people need it as their watchdog that can think and bark for them, not a donors’ pet that is too clever by half.”

(Devendra Raj Pandey, The Kathmandu Post, 8 April)

“The combatants are receiving state facilities, but they are mobilized for a party’s activities. So their activities should be monitored.”

(Congress leader Ram Chandra Paudel, The Rising Nepal, 8 April)

“How can you expect parties to accept a new constitution being drafted when the parties, except Maoists, sidelined a constitution they not only drafted but also accepted.”

(Dr Kesharjung Rayamajhi, Kantipur, 8 April)
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