MJF central committee meeting amid possibility of split

By Bhola B Rana

Kathmandu, 19 May: Kingmaker MJF’s central committee is meeting Tuesday afternoon amid possibility of a split in the fourth largest party over joining a government led by former CPN-UML General Secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal.
Leader of the parliamentary party Bijaya Kumar Gachedhar, who defected to the biggest terai party from Nepali Congress, with 32 of 53 lawmakers opted to join the new government ‘to protect the nation from authoritarianism and communist democracy’, according to Gachedhar.
Gachedhar has also threatened to oust party chairman Upendra Yadav if the central committee Tuesday overturns the parliamentary party decision.
Yadav launched the MJF defecting from Maoists.
The central committee Sunday reluctantly decided to support the new Nepal-led government; the central committee also has to decide whether to join the successor government of Maoist Prime Minister Prachanda ousted after nearly nine months in office.
Yadav has a majority in the central committee.
‘The party should not be led by dictatorial and communist school of thought. The policy taken by the chairman is wrong,” Gachedhar charged.
But party deputy Jayaprakash Prasad Gupta who defected to MJF from Nepali Congress is supporting Yadav.
Parties have started informal discussions to from a new government as Maoists obstruct its formation by obstruction parliamentary proceedings; parliament is scheduled to meet Tuesday as well.
Nepali Congress rejected the demand saying the discussions can’t be held on a presidential action being considered by the supreme court.
But Maoists said they will disturb proceedings until a demand to discuss a resolution on the ‘unconstitutional’ presidential decision to retain Army Chief Gen Rukmangud Katawal is met.
Maoist Finance Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai alleged legislators are being bought for two to three million rupees.
“I have proof,” Bhattarai claimed.
A political stalemate continues for two weeks.
Premier Prachanda, who sought the sacking of Gen Katawal who continues in office, resigned instead.
Maoists have charged an army and presidential and army coup was staged.
Nepal has the majority support of 350 of 601 lawmakers ion parliament.
Meanwhile, NEPSE index gained 18.74 percent Monday with the news the Maoist-led government is being replaced; the index surged by double digit for the fist time after March 22, 2009.
The sensitive indeed shot up 5.07 percent while the float index increased 1.46 percent.
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86,011 persons visit Narayanhiti museum


Kathmandu, 19 May: Altogether 86,011 persons visited Narayanhiti museum since it was opened to public 13 months ago.
Rs six million has been collected in revenue.
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TRADE, COMMERCE, ECONOMY


Record revenue collection

Kathmandu, 19 May: Outgoing Maoist-led government collected a record Rs 110.51 billion rupees in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year ending mid-March, the finance ministry said.
Collection exceeded 40 percent of target.
Only Rs 79 billion was collected by the government led by Girija Prasad Koirala during the same period the previous year.
Finance Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai set a target to collect Rs 147.72 billion in revenue.
But the government hasn’t met a target to spend the allocated development budget.
Only Rs 4.7 billion of the Rs 25.3 billion set aside for local development ministry has been spend so far.
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Rupee gains

Kathmandu, 19 May: The Nepali ruppe gained Rs 2.25 in the money market Tuesday.
Nepal Rashtra Bank fixed the selling rate Tuesday at Rs 76.45 to one dollar.
Tuesday.
It was selling at Rs 78.70 Monday.
The Nepali rupee gained after the Indian currency gained against the dollar in the international money market after the Congress-I victory in parliamentary elections.
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Another J-41 joins Agni Air fleet

Kathmandu, 19 May; The second J-41 pressurized 29 seat aircraft has joined the Agni Air fleet to enable the company to expand service Bhairahawa, Nepalgunj and Bhadrapur.
The company launched in 2006 also has three Droniers.
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MEDIA GOOGLE

“I had urged the PM not to take decision against the army chief in haste. Later, he confessed to me that he committed a blunder.”

(Bijaya Kumar Gachedhar, The Himalayan Times, 19 May)

“We started the people’s war to capture power. We still want to capture power. We won’t lie to the people saying we won’t do it.”

(Maoist leader CP Gajurel, Naya Patrika, 19 May)
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