NC to select its prime ministerial candidate; other details

By Bhola B Rana

Kathmandu, 17 July: Nepali Congress central committee is choosing its candidate for prime minister to succeed caretaker Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal after claiming leadership of the government as the second largest party in parliament.
Voce-president Ram Chandra Paudel, three-time Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and General Secretary Kul Bahadur Gurung have announced their candidacy.
The party said Maoists and UML have lead two previous governments and it’s now turn of the Congress to lead government.
There’s no frontrunner for the election.
Nominations have to be filed Tuesday for Wednesday’s elections inthe601-member parliament.
A consensus government pushed by Maoists is unlikely.
Without an agreement Friday amongst office bearers, the party standing committee has started a meeting Saturday morning to determine its course of action.
Ideally, a left majority government could be formed with UML support, but a sizeable section in the communist party heading the caretaker government is opposed to a government led by Maoists.
The situation is fluid without a clear frontrunner.
nnnn

Four killed in Parsa over family feud

Kathmandu, 17 July: Four persons were killed in a feud between two families, including a three-year-old child, and one person is seriously injured in Parsa overnight, local officials said.
The fight broke at Sedwa VDC.
The wife of Nawal Kishore Shah and his son were killed in an attack by an unknown group.
nnnn

Govt. finally moves officially

Kathmandu, 17 July: The foreign ministry Friday finally asked 32 Nepali missions in writing to lobby for the candidacy of Kul Chandra Gautam for the presidency of the UN general assembly in September.
Gautam is a retired assistance secretary general of UNICEF.
Dr Ram Sharan Mahat was the first choice.
nnnn

Rashtriya Janamorcha Party splits

Kathmandu, 17 July: The Rashtriya Janamorcha Party led by Chitra Bahadur KC split Friday.
General Secretary Dilaram Acharya announced the split with supporters from 21 districts.
KC said rebels are preparing to join Maoists.
The party opposes a federal structure and has organized nation-wide protests against it.
Nnnn

Roj Rana surrenders

Kathmandu, 17 July: Actor and dance bar proprietor Rok Rana alias Saroj Thapa surrendered to police Friday; he was on a wanted list.
There was a case pending against him at Kathmandu district court.
Rana was freed on bail.
Nnnn

TRADE, COMMERCE, ECONOMY

Tea gardens closed down in Jhapa

Kathmandu, 17 July: Owners indefinitely closed down 25 tea gardens in Jhapa Friday following dispute with farmers over price of green tea and quality of leaves.
Owners complained of lack security to operate gardens and the industry.
nnnn

NC plan for Maoist integration

KATHMANDU 17 July: The Nepali Congress on Friday publicised its proposal to build political agreement among parties by projecting an action plan on the constitution drafting, peace process and formation of new government, The Himalayan Times reports.

The party’s Central Working Committee meeting on Thursday had finalised the plan and decided to put forth to the political parties and other stakeholders for discussion.

The NC has proposed to carry out the integration and rehabilitation of the Maoists’ PLA fighters currently residing in the UN-monitored cantonments within four months in two phases.

Under the first phase, it has proposed to bring the former fighters under the Army Integration Special Committee (AISC).

The NC has proposed that the fighters should be looked after, controlled and directed as the AISC's operational manual and the decision on the number of fighters to be taken up in different security agencies should be decided within a week of the first phase.

The NC plan proposes that the AISC should take given the authority to take final decision on the voluntary exit and rehabilitation of the fighters within week, and the ones opting for voluntarily exit, wishing integration or rehabilitation be moved to different camps from the cantonments where they are currently living.

The NC has pointed out the need of discontinuing the dual security to the UCPN-Maoist leaders. Currently, they are enjoying security from the security personnel provided by the state and their PLA.

Under the second phase, the fighters opting for integration should go through the tests for and the ones that are not on a par with the standards of security agencies should go for the rehabilitation.

Also, the NC’s “written concept” stresses on the return of the properties seized by the Maoists to the rightful owners and ending of the Maoist cadres' violent activities.



It also emphasises on the formation of commissions including State Restructuring Commission, commission on those disappeared during the decade-long conflict and re-constitution of the high level land reforms commission as per agreed in the Comprehensive Peace Accord.

The proposal states that new constitution should be drafted so as to institutionalise the federal democratic republic by ensuring the people’s rights, meeting the extended deadline.

According to the proposal, contentious and ambiguous issues, if any, related to the statute after its drafting should be settled down within three weeks.

On the other hand, the NC said that the Maoist action plan has raised doubts over the issue of taking the peace process to a logical conclusion as the Maoists have not implemented the past agreements.

The NC proposal further stated that the Maoist plan wrongly interpreted the CPA and the issues relate to army integration and management of the weapons.
Nnnn

Facebook banned in Nepal Army, Nepal Police

Kathmandu, 17 July: Nepal Army and Nepal Police have banned social network during office hours, Nepal Samacharpatra reports.
Some private firms banned it in Nepal during office hours; the ban in government offices is the first.
Nnnn

UN denies NA request

Kathmandu, 17 July: Nepal’s participation in the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping missions has hit a new hurdle, The Kathmandu Post reports.
The UN has rejected Nepal Army’s (NA’s) request to renew the recognition of its UN peacekeeping training center at Panchkhal in Kavre district.
The UN Department of Peacekeeping Operation took the decision on the grounds of human rights violations, including in the Panchkhal centre, an official at the UN Headquarters in New York told the Post.
Panchkhal centre is the only institution in Nepal authorized by the UN to impart pre-mission trainings to NA soldiers.
“Though it already has UN recognition, NA applied for a renewal of the centre as per new requirements outlined in the latest UN Peacekeeping Pre-Deployment Training (PDT) Standards which ask each troop-contributing country to receive a new official UN training recognition for their military and/or police PDT courses.”
However, NA Spokesman Ramindra Chhetri said” NA had written to the UN for recognition of the Pre-deployment Training, and not the training centre. We are yet to receive a response.”
Sources told the Post that the decision follows the Army’s ‘failure’ to address impunity over the murder of a teenager Mina Sunwar, who allegedly died due to torture while in detention at the Panchkhal centre.
(Note: The UN move comes at a time when relations have deteriorated between the world body, government and Nepal Army. Government ministers have openly called UN a tail of Maoists without retracting the charge as demanded by Maoists. Nepal Army has cleared Major Basnet serving in Chad with the UN; no charge was leveled against him on an earlier mission after the Panchalkhal incident. UN continued to use the services of Nepal Army even after the death of the Maoist woman at the center. The government charged OHCHR for overstepping diplomatic by directly keeping contact with government offices bypassing accepted international procedures. Nepali Congress Acting President Sushil Koirala has said the UNMIN political mandate won’t be extended when it comes up for renewal charging UN for facilitating Maoists.)
Nnnn

MEDIA GOOGLE

“Instead of completing integration fighters in six months as stated, they’re talking of extending the deadline even further.”

(Government Spokesman Shanker Pokhrel, Kantipur, 17 July)
nnnn