DASAIN STARTS

Kathmandu, 8 Oct. This year’s Dasain started Friday morning with ghatastaphana.
Bada Dashami is on 17 Oct.
The auspicious time of ghatastaphana was at 9.41.
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NEPALGUNJ RETURNING TO NORMAL

Kathmandu, 8 Oct.: Nepalgunj slowly returned to normal Friday with the opening of shops following a Banke district shutdown for three days to protest the gruesome abduction and murder of two schoolboys for ransom.
A terai outfit abducted the boys even as the father of one child paid ransom money demanded by the outfit.
Nearly two dozen groups are active in the south bordering India.
The heinous abductions and murders are examples of the criminal nature of the insurgency in the terai in the cloak of politics.
The victims were two boys from the hills but even people of terai origin are being killed and abducted almost every day.
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TWO BURIED ALIVE IN KAILALI

Kathmandu, 8 Oct.: Two persons were buried alive while digging for mud in Sukhad in Kailali Friday morning.
Four others were injured.
They were excavating mud for Dasain.
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MADHAV DHUNGEL ELECTED CHIEF OF UML STUDENT WING

Kathmandu, 8 Oct.: Madhav Dhungel was Friday elected chairman of the student wing of the UML collecting 958 votes for a two-year term.
He was supported by a party faction of Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and KP Sharma Oli.
Dhungel defeated his only rival Soviet Dhakal who got 911 votes and supported by the party establishment.
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ARMY CHIEF MEETS FIELD ARMY CHIEF

Kathmandu, 8 Oct.: Army Chief Gen. Chatraman Singh Gurung Thursday met Commander of the British Field Army Lt. Gen. Barney White-Spunnet and discussed structure of the field army and lessons learnt by both armies while carrying out stability operations, British embassy said.
Gen. Gurung also visited Brigade of Gurkha headquarters, Gurkha Welfare Trust and Gurkha Museum in Winchester.
The army chief a five-day official visit 4 October; the visit to UK is his third foreign outing after assuming office two years ago..
He cancelled scheduled meetings with officials of the foreign office and DFID on government intervention, the embassy earlier said.
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FIVE SOLDIERS PUNSHED FOR HARASSING THREE FRENCH WOMEN TOURISTS

Kathmandu, 8 Oct.: Five soldiers of Nepal Army (NA)army men have been penalized by the summary military general military court for harassing three women trekkers in Langtang national park, the Directorate of Public Relations said.
A rifleman was dismissed, one soldier was demoted , stayed the promotion of two soldiers and stopped the salary increment of another.
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$500m FOR SANITATION

Kathmandu, 8 Oct.: Global Sanitation Fund (GSF) funded by UN-HABITAT Thursday gave a $500 million grant to launch a ‘national sanitation programme’ for sanitation and hygienic activities in five districts of three development regions for the next five years.
“The five-year plan aims to strengthen the civil society groups, schools, private sectors and maintaining integration and linkages among different local resources of the national targeted areas.
“It will be centered to the poor and unserved community in order to promote hygiene, raise awareness and create demand for sanitation,” said Oliver Jones, Programme Officer at Water and Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSSCC).
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INDIAN AMBASSADOR RAKESH SOOD RETURNS

Kathmandu, 8 Oct.: Indian Ambassador Rakesh Sood flew back Thursday to the capital from Solukhumbu where Maoists hurled shoes and stones at him and showed black protests.
Maoists accused him for conducting anti-China activities in the area at the foot of Mount Everest, the 8848 meters world’s highest peak.
Sood took up the issue with the foreign ministry immediately after returning to base.
Nepali Congress issued a statement Thursday condemning the incident.
NA is the only party that has condemned the assault in which the ambassador was not injured.
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TRADE, COMMERCE, ECONOMY

ANOTHER AIRLINE STARTS KATHMANDUL, DELHI FLIGHTS

Kathmandu, 8 Oct.: SpiceJet, a low-cost Indian carrier, Thursday began direct flights between Delhi and Kathmandu six days a week.
The airline will operate the flight by a 189-seater Boeing737-800..
The base fare begins from Rs 2.399.
Kathmandu is the first international destination of the airliner.
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NEPAL SBI BANK ANNOUNCES BONUS SHARES

Kathmandu, 8 Oct.: Nepal SBI Bank Thursday announced 12.5 bonus shares for every 100 shares along five a cash dividend of five percent for shareholders from its profit for fiscal year 2009/10.
The bank earned a net profit of Rs 570.3 million.
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SOOD THREATENS EXPLOSION OF 5 MILLION NEPALIS FROM INDIA

Kathmandu, 8 Oct.: Maoist politburo member Gopal Kirati said Indian Ambassador Rakesh Sood visiting the district talked threateningly, Kantipur reports from Solukhumbu.
He said Sood threatened the expulsion of five million Nepalis in India while talking of national sovereignty.
Sood met Kirarti for 15 minutes Wednesday while returning after Maoists obstructed his district visit.
Kirati claimed Sood posed a counter question whether five million Nepalis when he said Nepal and India should sign new treaties by abrogating old treaties, Nepal should get transit rights according to international law and a strategic plan between Nepal, India and China for Nepal’s political stability.
Former minister said this at a programme organized by Reporters’ Club Solokhumbu after shoes were thrown at the Indian ambassador.
Kirati said he met Sood following instructions from Pushpa Kamal Dahal after the shoe incident.
Kirati said he felt proud after Sood laws pounded with shoes.
The lawmaker said he was angered after talks with Sood adding,” If the party gives me permission, I’ll go to India and fight expansion from there.”
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Voter identity card Will it deprive millions of voting rights?

Kathmandu, 8 Oct.: In reality, the genuine voters with citizenship certificates and passports, whose number will be in lakhs, who are out of the country for jobs and education, will be the worst sufferers as they will be really denied of their voting right. Thus, the EC should listen to the grievances of those who are denied of their right to vote, former Election Commissioner Prof. Birendra P. Moshra writes in The HImalayanTimes.
These days, the Election Commission is enrolling voters afresh after taking their photos and fingerprints to ascertain their true identities. In other words, those who do not turn out for their registration as voters, will forfeit their right to vote, notwithstanding that they make themselves available at the polling booths at the time of voting with their citizenship certificates (CC) as their names will not figure in the voter’s list. The number of such persons will not be in lakhs but in millions.

Thus, the issue of photo-identity card (PIC) concerns not only the mass media but also all who are either voters and or are eligible for becoming voters. Significantly, it is a problem for all Nepalese who are out of the country for different purposes. But regretfully, only the Madhesi leaders have come out openly to oppose it. Since the right to vote is the primary civil right of a citizen, it is natural to oppose violently if one’s right to vote is curtailed or abrogated deliberately by the state or a constitutional body. It is rather intriguing how international donors have failed to evaluate the implications of such project affecting millions. The PIC could have been made compulsory at the time of voting instead of for registration. It seems like putting the cart before the horse.

As an election commissioner (From July 1994 to July 2000), let me brief the reader on this issue. The Election Commission made presentation of PIC compulsory for a voter for casting his/her vote. It was experimented successfully in 1996 in three parliamentary by-elections-one constituency each in Kathmandu, Sunsari and Baitadi, when a new law Voter’s Registration Act, 1996 empowered the Election Commission to enforce it.

And it was implemented in the rest of 10 constituencies in the Kathmandu valley in 1997. Being encouraged by the success in all 13 constituencies, a four-year plan for distribution of PIC to cover rest of all 192 constituencies in the country was drawn by the Election Commission, which was approved by the government. The distribution was carried on as per plan beginning with 1998. Till 2000, the government was distributing the photo identity cards costing less than ten rupees.

Perhaps, the election commissioners are too learned to understand the crudest implications of the present exercise. It has two main practical constraints. First, it should have been applied when all-eligible citizens have acquired their CCs in the country? Second, even citizens with CCs, who are out of the country due to various reasons, cannot get their names registered as voters. It ultimately denies their right to vote as even when they present themselves at the time of voting they cannot cast their votes. Against the common assertion that the Election Commission has to protect the interest of the voters, surprisingly, it has become a party to take away this precious right of the voter. Primarily, if CC is made the basis of his legibility, it has to be looked into whether acquiring the certificate has been made compulsory or not in the country and is it possible for all citizens who are poor and illiterate to obtain certificates unless it is imperative.

It implies that till one does not acquire his certificate, he forfeits his right to become a citizen. It would be ridiculous in the case of the minors, who become eligible after attaining the age of sixteen. One fails to understand the compulsion of introducing biometric PIC right now. Is there any chance of reverting back to PIC distributed by the government earlier? The task before the Election Commission could have been to allow other means to verify the identity of the voter like passport, driving license or even CC at the time of voting.

It can be easily understood that photo IDC is required to see that only a genuine voter casts his vote. Is a PIC not sufficient for his true identity requiring his fingerprints? This has to be justified. Since it is an exercise to be taken till there is democracy and people have right to vote, this nation-wide exercise is to be taken by the government and not by the Election Commission which has to depend on foreign donor agencies for an indefinite time. Since Picas was made compulsory by the Election Commission about a decade ago, why was it discontinued? Why should those thousands of voters who have those cards with them not be allowed to use them saving million of rupees? The project being costly, who is financing it and for how many years? Are we acting in their interest? If this project is based on the contention that foreign nationals are debarred from getting their photo identity card, the authority should rest assured that those who want to get their names registered as voters can easily get the citizenship certificate as well and have their photo ID card with finger prints. In reality, the genuine voters with citizenship certificates and passports, whose number will be in lakhs, who are out of the country for jobs and education, will be the worst sufferers as they will be really denied of their voting right. Thus, the Election Commission should listen to the grievances of those who are denied of their right to vote.
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Veep goes to S Korea, after all

Kathmandu, 8 Oct.: Without caring to have a Cabinet clearance and without maintaining the state’s decorum and protocol, Vice President, Paramananda Jha, along with 17 lawmakers, began his controversial trip to South Korea on Thursday, Anil Giri writes in The Kathmandu Post reports.

Jha and the lawmakers have been invited by a controversial INGO, whose invitation was recently turned down by President Dr Ram Baran Yadav.

Foreign Ministry mandarins came to know of the trip only on Thursday morning, while they say the travel breaches state protocol and decorum. Officials, who had gone to bid farewell to Jha at the airport, were shell shocked to see a caravan of lawmakers, assembled at the VIP room at the Tribhuvan International Airport.

“We do not have any information on the visit of the lawmakers. It is a direct breach of state protocol and decorum,” said a senior Foreign Ministry official.

Twenty-one persons, including VP Jha, Mr and Mrs Nilamber Acharya, Chairman of the Constitutional Committee, former foreign minister and lawmaker Prakash Chandra Lohani and Eak Nath Dhakal are among the lawmakers who will be attending a programme organised by the Universal Peace Foundation (UPF) and its patron Sun Myung Moon.

Given the controversy surrounding the UPF and its patron, President Yadav had rejected an invitation to be the chief guest of a peace rally in Kathmandu recently. The president’s office said the organisers had “wrongly” hoisted the national flag and used innocent children in the rally.

Jha will be attending a five-day religious programme in S. Korea.

After the Cabinet refused to allow him to travel and refused to bear the expenses, the Vice President’s Office made a separate request to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday, seeking a visa note through the S. Korean embassy.

“We were stunned by the sudden request. As a VVIP of the state, neither his itinerary was cleared by the Cabinet nor does a person of his stature attending such a programme holds meaning,” an official said.“A person like a vice-president of a country attending such programmes organised by INGOs is shameful; this shows how crazy our leaders are about travelling abroad,” the official said.

Jha is planning to make a friendly trip to China on the third week of Oct. The five-day international programme “International, Interfaith Assembly” is sponsored by the UPF.
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IMF proposes two-year reform programme for Nepal Bank

Kathmandu, 8 Oct.: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has proposed bringing financial sector reform measures lasting more than two years for Nepal Bank Limited (NBL) following a fresh diagnostic review of its financial status by international auditors, Prithvi Man Shrestha writes in The Kathmandu Post..

A high level IMF team on a recent visit to Nepal proposed to the government doing a fresh evaluation of NBL’s financial status as the reform measures taken so far had failed to transform NBL into a healthy bank.

The oldest bank’s core capital is still negative by Rs 4.82 billion as of mid-July this year, and a bank with negative capital is considered to be not healthy. Officials said that the IMF urged taking the reform measures on the basis of the diagnostic report.

Even after eight years of the financial reform programme that began in 2002, the two largest banks in the country, Rastriya Banijya Bank and NBL, are suffering from negative core capital. RBB’s core capital is negative by Rs. 10 billion as of mid-July.

Nepal has spent around Rs 7 billion out of the Rs 7.5 billion in loans provided by the World Bank and the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) for the financial reform programme.

The IMF team was concerned over the overall financial sector reforms, but put the focus on NBL, according to Keshav Acharya, chief economic advisor at the Finance Ministry.

However, Nepali officials have termed the IMF plan of action lengthy and costly, and stressed auditing NBL’s financial status by local auditors. “We stressed that with local auditors auditing, we can accomplish the reform within a year,” said a senior NRB official. The current financial sector reform project expires in December 2010.

NRB has been appointing the board of directors of NBL since the reform programme began. Officials at the Finance Ministry also made it clear that that the government could not take loans for the extension of the financial sector reform project. “We told them that the government was ready to extend the project only if the donors provide grants for this,” said Acharya, chief economic advisor at the Finance Ministry.

The IMF team and the government differed on the recapitalization plan for NBL put forward by the government, according to a senior NRB official. As per the government’s plan, a further initial public offering will be issued in which government will not take part despite having a 40 percent stake in the bank. If the capital is inadequate even after further share issue, the government had proposed the alternative of preference shares issue.

But, IMF stressed excluding the existing shareholders including both the government and the public from taking part in the further share issue because they failed to save the bank from heading towards ruin. The IMF instead proposed bringing a strategic partner on the basis of competitive bidding. “The inherent meaning of the IMF proposal is that NBL should be privatised,” said the NRB official.

During the meeting, Nepal had asked to provide loan under the extended credit facility (ECF) that is given to the country facing acute balance of payment deficit. Under the ECF, Nepal can get up to Rs. 9 billion from the IMF to improve the BoP situation. The IMF has already provided Nepal around US$ 42 million under rapid credit facility which is also provided instantly.

The IMF team had stressed on introducing a tighter monetary policy to discourage lending in import oriented goods and services so that the BoP situation could be improved, according to Acharya. Stopping licenses to new banks and upgradation was another suggestion of the IMF team.

The IMF team that was mainly focused on banking sector reforms had asked the NRB and finance ministry officials to stop providing license to new banks and their upgradation.

They had also suggested banning promoters completely from taking loans by putting promoter shares as collateral. The central bank has allowed putting up to 50 percent of promoters shares as collateral.

The IMF team not only concentrated on banking sector but also in other areas too. The team suggested the government to make a provision of automatic tariff revision of electricity.

The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has not revised electricity tariff since last seven years. Currently, the electricity tariff fixation commission representing the NEA, government officials and consumers groups revises the tariff.

There will be discussion on all these concerns at the annual joint meeting of the World Bank and the IMF in Washington to be held from Oct. 8-10. Finance Minster Surendra Pandey, finance secretary Rameshwor Khanal and NRB governor Yubaraj Khatiwada have already headed towards Washington to take part in the meeting.
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