Constitution won’t be promulgated within deadline: Jhalanath Khanal

Kathmandu, 15 April: UML Chairman Jhalanath Khanal categorically said Thursday the constitution won’t be promulgated 28 May.
This is the first time a leader of three top political parties said this frankly.
Khanal is also a member of the three-party high-level political mechanism attempting to unlock a prolonged political deadlock.
He said this as leaders of other political parties are assuring people a constitution can be promulgated by the 28 May deadline.
The UML chief said there’s no environment for the promulgation is a constitution within the deadline.
Only 43 days remain for the basic law’s promulgation.
“We can’t promulgate the constitution within the deadline. Some people are saying it can. This is a reality; parties can’t lie to the people,” Khanal told a group that visited his house urging the launch of a constitution by 28 May.
He urged understanding for a new consensus.
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Four dead in Sunsari tractor accident

Kathmandu, 15 April: Four persons, including an Indian national, died in a tractor accident in Sunsari Thursday morning.
An Indian national was among the killed.
The tractor was transporting a marriage party.
In Indian labourer was killed and six others were injured in an explosion at a gas station in Bara Thursday.
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Top US admiral coming

Kathmandu, 15April: Admiral Robert F. Willard, Commander of the US Pacific Command, was invited Wednesday to visit Nepal.
The invitation was extended by Army Chief Gen. Chatraman Singh Gurung.
Government cleared the visit 11 April, an official army announcement said.
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Norwegian special envoy in town

By Bhola B Rana

Kathmandu, 15 April: After Great Britain, Norway, an inconsequential international player from oil-rich Scandinavia, has sent a special envoy to Nepal as the peace process falters and a deadline to draft a constitution by the 28 May deadline won’t be met.
A stream of visitors from the West has been arriving as the Himalayan state strategically located between China and Nepal heads towards a political crisis.
The constitution has to be promulgated to institutionalize a republic declared by an unelected and self-appointed parliament.
Norway, with money power, has been attempting to play a decisive role in Nepal’s politics with its close and unnatural links with Maoists.
Development Minister Eric Solheim said he maintained close contacts with Maoists whey’ they were in the jingle’ but in effect spent most of their time in the urban jungle of India during the 10-year people’s war.
Norway, a constitutional monarchy under leftists, lobbied for a republic with Nepal’s major parties to shred the 1990 constitution which pushed multi-party democracy and constitutional monarchy.
The wisdom of King Birendra’s initiative to invite Scandinavian countries into Nepal to help development efforts when they were rejected by India is now being questioned.
Solheim cancelled his Nepal visit when Girija Prasad Koirala died.
Toire Toreng instead arrived.
Toreng is a former Norwegian ambassador to Nepal.
To recall, Norwegians failed miserable to negotiate an agreement between Israel and Palestinians in West Asia and diplomats from the small Scandinavia state are unwanted in Sri Lanka where the government has quashed a separatist movement of Tamils.
Toreng held discussions with Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal Wednesday.
The government is making all-out effort to integrate and rehabilitate Maoist combatants. The work plan, modality and code of conduct have been tabled at the special committee on supervision, integration and rehabilitation of Maoist combatants,” the prime minister’s press advisor Bishnu Rijal quoted Nepal as telling the envoy, according to the Himalayan Times.
‘We won’t leave a single stone unturned in our effort to find common ground among political parties for concluding the peace process and promulgating the constitution on time.
“It’s impossible for the government alone to take the peace process to a logical end. All political parties must be equally responsible and demonstrate maximum flexibility to find common ground,” Rijal quoted the government as saying.
A top US State Department official is also scheduled to visit Nepal this month.
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MEDIA GOOGLE

“Nepali politics is being conducted without a referee; somebody should be above parties as an honour. Misunderstanding between parties has increased without monarchy.”

(Former national football captain and RPP-Nepal Chairman Kamal Thapa, Gorkhapatra, 15 April)

‘When people are dying on the streets and if blood starts freely flowing, Nepal Army, a national army which has responsibility for national security, can’t stay at home or in the barracks just watching.”

(Former Army Chief Gen Rukmangud Katawal, Gorkhapatra, 15 April)

“The constitution must be promulgated by the 28 May deadline. Otherwise, the achievements of the democratic movement will be meaningless.”

(Surya Bahadur Thapa, Annapurna Post, 15 April)
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