PM NEPAL, PRACHANDA MEET

Kathmandu, 13 Oct.: Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and Maoist Chairman Prachanda Wednesday discussed PLA integration and resettlement one day after a special committee of integration, resettlement and supervision asked the government chief and parties to adopt a package
for it.
The premier said the prolonged deadlock should end immediately and mistrust should be tackled.
Nepal urged national understanding and said behaviour of political party leaders should change.
He said the country was heading towards a financial crisis with the extended deadlock..
Nepal presented his views for national understanding, an aide said.
Prachanda, in reply, said he was also serious for understanding which was essential.
The two leaders also discussed the delayed peace process with the prime minister saying he was concerned his successor hadn’t been elected more than 100 days after his resignation.
There was no agreement at a sub-committee under the special committee for the package by 15 January 2011 when UNMIN withdraws from Nepal.
Nepal will hold discussions with other party leaders as well.
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PRACHANDA REJECTS INDIAN MEDIA REPORTS

Kathmandu, 13 Oct.: Maoist Chairman Prachanda Tuesday charged Indian media reports Nepal’s Maoists were training India’s Naxalites [Maoists] in Nepal were attempts to foil the peace process and constitution drafting.
He called the report ‘hundred percent false’.
Prachanda added: “The report has been published at a time when the formation of a new government has been delayed. This is an attempt to derail the peace process and constitution drafting “

PLA leader Barsha Man Pun, in a statement, charged the report ‘a deep conspiracy and design” to push Nepal into a conflict.
“People’s Liberation Army’s attention has been drawn to the report that alleged the Maoist army of training Indian Naxalites.”
“Maoist army is serious about report published at a time when there’s no progress in government formation, constitution drafting and the suspicious visit of the Indian ambassador, “the statement said charging it was a ‘conspiracy’.
“This has raised suspicious preparations are being made for even bigger intervention in the internal affairs” at a time when ‘there’s no progress in the continuing peace process and constitution drafting’, the statement said.
“We heartily appeal to the entire people to raise their voices against such conspiracies,” Pun said.

Another Maoist leader Debendra Paudel the charge was a design to stop Maoists from coming to power
There are two Maoist parties in Nepal UCPN (Maoist)-- UCPM-Maoist and CPN(Maoist) led by Matrika Prasad Yadav who rebelled and launched the rebel faction.
The report is not clear which Maoist faction was training Naxalites.
The federal government, Indian Express reported, wrote to state governments saying Nepal’s Maoists in collusion with a Pakistani outfit were training Naxalites.
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INTEGRATION, RESETTLEMENT AGAIN STALLED

Kathmandu, 13 Oct: Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and other party leaders were entrusted responsibility Tuesday by the special committee of integration, resettlement and supervision of 19,000 Maoist combatants to sort out differences on a package.
The special committee headed by the prime minister met Tuesday and will assemble again Thursday.
A sub-committee delegated to draw up a schedule on integration and resettlement of Maoist combatants in four days couldn’t recommend it even by 10 days Tuesday.
UML General-Secretary Ishwor Pokhrel was coordinator while Dr Ram Sharan Mahat of NC and Barsha Man Pun of Maoists were members of the three-member sub-committee.
Some progress in the stalled integration by 15 January 2011 has again hit a roadblock.
Maoists had agreed to bring the former combatants under the command of the special committee with a code of conduct for the fighters.
Maoists presented three proposals to the sub-committee including forming a separate border security force and industrial security force with Maoist combatants.
Even UN had expressed happiness at the recent progress and UNMIN provided government details of fighters at 28 cantonments and satellite camps after earlier refusal of government request.
They are also pushing for mass integration in Nepal Army at brigade level—concepts rejected by Nepali Congress.
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GOVT. OFFICES CLOSE FOR DASAIN THURSDAY

Kathmandu, 13 Oct.: Wednesday is the last working day
before government offices close Thursday for the festive season./
Thursday is phulpati.
Bada Dashami is on Sunday.
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KHAGENDRA THAPA MAHAR

Kathmandu, 13 Oct.: Khagendra Thapa Magar will receive a certificate from the Guinness Book of World Records in Pokhara Thursday confirming he is the world’s shortest man.
Magar celebrated his 18th birthday Thursday and is only 22 inches.
A team from the Guinness Book of World Records arrived in the resort town Tuesday to present the certificate.
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PRESIDENT RELEASES BOOK OF NEPAL-CHINA

Kathmandu, 13 Oct.: President Dr Ram Baran Yadav Tuesday released a book on Sino-Nepal ties authored by Niranjan Bhattarai, a career diplomat and a Chinese language expert, who died recently.
The book is titled: Nepal-China: A Historic Perspective.
Bhattarai was former ambassador to Pakistan.
The president released the book in the presence of Foreign Secretary Madan Bhattarai and Chinese Ambassador Qui Guohong.
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TERAI OUTFIT LEADER HELD

Kathmandu, 13 Oct.: Bishwajit Singh, Saptari, Saptari commander of Akhil Terai Mukti Morcha led by Jai Krishna Goit was arrested Monday with a pistol and three round bullets.
The group is one of the most violent of nearly two dozen groups active along the Nepal-India open border.
Regional Commander Ajit Singh charged Singh was handed over to Nepal by India.
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HEALTH MINISTER VISITS DENGUE HIT CHTWAN

Kathmandu, 13 Oct.: Health Minster Uma Kanata Chaudhary finally visited dengue-hit Chitwan district Tuesday and inspected the Bhatarpur District Hospital and Chitwan Medical College and consulted doctors there.
Twenty-one persons have died and 290 have been infectedd by the disease.
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SPEAKER VISITING CANADA

Kathmandu, 13 Oct.: Speaker Subash Nemwang is leaving for Canada for a 10-day visit as a leader of 12-member delegation to study that country’s federal structure.
The delegation includes Secretary-General Manohar Bhattarai, Joint Secretary (Legal) Tek Prasad Dhungana and others.
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LAXMAN THARU FREED

Kathmandu, 13 Oct.: Laxman Tharu, Chairman of Sanghiya Loktantrik Rashtriya Party(SLRP) was released Tuesday evening after being presented at the Kathmandu district administration office.
The district administration told the Maoist defector to be present at the office when desired.
Tharu was picked up this week from a hotel in a compromising position with a woman.
Tharu has been pushing for a separate identity for Tharus in terai.
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NEW BIRD SPECIES FOUND
KATHMANDU: Two new bird species have been found at the Shuklaa Phanta Wildlife Reserve bringing to 867 total bird species found in Nepal, Nepal Ornithological Union said.
The bird species have been identified as Grey-necked Bunting and long-billed Wren Babbler.

“The newly found bird is 15 cm long and weighs between 17 and 26 grams. It has pinkish orange beak, plain head and white ring around the eye. The male has a blue-grey head. The colour of female bird is duller than the male and has more streaks on the body,” a statement said.
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MEDIA GOOGLE

‘Let’s decide whether the constituent assembly (CA) is for a people’s constitution or a democratic one. If we can’t do it from the CA, let’s go for a referendum to take the decision. Otherwise, we will always be in confusion.”

(NC Vice-president Ram Chandra Paudel, Republica, 13 Oct.)

‘Nowhere has a caretaker government has a caretaker government ruled for so long. This will be a record in the Guinness Book of Records.”


(Chairman Prachanda, Nagarik, 13 Oct.)
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COURIER SERVICE PROVIDERS’ COOPERATION SOUGHT TO CONTROL DRUG TRAFFICKING

Kathmandu, 13 Oct.: The National Drugs Control Law Enforcement Unit (NDCLEU) on Tuesday called on courier service providers to extend more cooperation to take the fight against contraband drug smugglers to a higher level, reports he Kathmandu Post.
The appeal comes in the wake of international drub traffickers having turned to air courier service to smuggle drugs into the country and out.
The NDCLEU said the use of courier services for drug trafficking could pose a serious threat to public health as well as national security of the t rend is not checked.
“Drug smuggling via courier services is on the rise in the country, and it will assume alarming proportions if effective measures are not taken to curb it,” said Senior Superintendent of Police Devendera Subedi of the NDCLEU, adding that least develop countries such as Nepal are worst affected by smuggling of drugs.
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Refund bone in NSMBL’s craw

Kathmandu, 13 Oct.: Institutional depositors at Nepal Sri Lanka Merchant Bank (NSMBL) have sought the help of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) to recover their deposits from sick financial institution as their repeated attempts to get back the deposits have failed, Prithvi Man Shrestha reports in The Kathmandu Post..

The proposed Century Commercial Bank, Madhyamanchal Grameen Bikas Bank and Nepal Army have sought the central bank’s intervention to get back their deposits worth Rs 250 million from the finance company.

Century Bank, which is in the process of getting operating license from the NRB, is struggling to meet its capital requirement due to delay in the refund of deposits by the finance company. Century had deposited Rs 40 million with the finance company as fixed deposit. But, the bank said that it has failed to get back its money despite the maturity of the deposit on Aug. 21, 2010.

“The delay in repayment has caused delay in getting operating license from the NRB,” reads the letter sent by the Century Bank to NSMBL on Oct. 7. Century has asked the finance company to deposit the repayment amount in the upcoming bank’s account at NIC Bank.

According to the letter obtained by the Post, Century had written twice asking for repayment of its deposit. In response, the finance company gave a verbal assurance at first, and later in writing, that it would give back the deposit shortly. “But, we have got back neither our deposit nor the interest though the finace assured us of that in writing,” states the letter.

Century’s chief executive officer Ganesh Kumar Shrestha said that NSMBL assured them that the deposit would be given back after the merger between NSMBL and Nepal Bangladesh Bank (NBB).

The NSMBL officials said that the merger would take place right after Dashain as all preparations have been made. “We had an agreement with Century that we would give back the deposits after the bank opens,” said Rubi Joshi, executive chairman of NSMBL. But, according to NRB officials, there is no chance of an early merger between the two financial institutions as they are yet to apply to NRB.

Madhyamanchal Grameen Bikas Bank also has said that it has not got back its fixed deposit of Rs 60 million despite maturity last July. However, finance company’s chairman Joshi claimed that there was no question of giving back the deposit immediately as it has been renewed with a higher interest rate of 13 percent. “We have already informed the NRB about the renewal,’ said Joshi.

The rural bank’s management coordinator Revati Prasad Nepal said that NSMBL renewed the deposit unilaterally though they had been refund of their deposit. “We have already rejected the unilateral renewal,” said Nepal. The central bank’s board has also decided to direct NSMBL to give back the matured deposit of Madhyamanchal, according to NRB sources.

However, NSMBL officials said that they would not be giving back the deposit as Nepal Bangladesh Bank has Rs 134.3 million deposit that has to be got back from the rural development bank. “We have to see the security of NB bank’s deposit because we are merging with that bank,” said a top official of NSMBL. Everest Bank Limited, whose deposit of Rs 50 million at Madhyamanchal has matured, has also sought it back from NSMBL after finding that Madhyamanchal had deposits outstanding at NSMBL.

“NSMBL has not paid Everest although we asked it to give Rs 50 million back to the bank,” said Nepal.

Meanwhile, Nepal Army officials consulted NRB officials on Monday as to how to recover their Rs 149.2 million deposit put by the Army Welfare Fund. The deposit is in a special savings account of the finance company on which it has offered 10.5 percent interest. “We consulted the NRB officials about ways of recovering the deposit,” said a General of the Nepal Army. After the Army Welfare Fund failed to get back the fixed deposit, it converted the deposit into a savings account two years ago. “We have been able to recover Rs 36.7 million on initial fixed deposits of around Rs 185 million after conversion to savings account,” said Nepal Army spokesman Ramindra Chhetri.
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