GOVT. PRESENTING BUDGET FRIDAY

Kathmandu, 18 Nov.: Government is preparing to present the annual budget Friday through an ordinance to be presented in parliament.
An interim constitution is being amended for the ninth time to enable the presentation without new policies and programmes.
A bill for the ninth amendment to the constitution was presented in parliament Wednesday.
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GOVT. PREPARNG TO IMPORT COWS
Kathmandu, 18 Nov.: Seeking special privilege from India, the government is preparing to import 50,000 heads of milking cows offered free of cost by renowned Yog Guru Ramdev, Prabhakar Ghimre reports in Republica.

The government has already requested India, seeking special facility to import cows as the southern neighbor, which is also reeling under shortage of fresh milk, has put ban on export of cattle.

Yog Guru Ramdev had recently proposed to offer milking cows to the government to lower rising deficit of fresh milk.

Talking to Republica Wednesday, Minister for Agriculture and Co-operatives Mrigendra Kumar Singh Yadav, said the government recently sent a request letter to the Indian government through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) to provide special privilege for importing cows from India. He said the government was preparing to distribute the cows to different dairy producer co-operatives.

“Guru Ramdev has assured us to provide 50,000 cows of Hariyana and Saibal breeds free of cost. We are busy preparing a framework comprising minimum standards for import,” said Purushottam Mainali, joint secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives (MoAC).

The Department of Livestock Services has already proposed a framework to the MoAC, which includes health condition, breed, age and yields of the cows as some of the selection standards.

“We worked out the framework to ensure that cows that we import are more productive,” Mainali said.

The government will arrange transportation cost to get the cows to Nepal once India gives its consent for export.

According to government statistics, the total population of milking cows and buffalos currently stand at 954,460 heads and 1.25 million heads respectively. Over 95 percent of milk collected in formal market is sold as pasteurized milk while the rest is used to produce different milk products. Of the total milk produced in the country, 15 percent comes to formal market, 35 percent are sold in informal market and the rest is used for household consumption.

Dairy producers said total supplies of milk hover around 400,000 liters a day against the daily demand of 800,000 liters.

State-owned Dairy Development Corporation (DDC), which commands more than 40 percent share in the domestic dairy market, has been importing around 40,000 liters of milk per day from India´s Bihar state. Similarly, big private dairies, which are running under 50 percent of their installed capacity due to shortage of fresh milk, are also sourcing weighing the possibility of sourcing fresh milk from the northern neighbor.

D N Pathak, executive director of National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), hoped that long-running shortage of fresh milk will be addressed to some if the government plan to import cows materialized.

NDDB - the dairy market regulator - has already submitted a three-year plan worth Rs 2.83 billion to focus on increasing milk production, reducing cost of production, increasing awareness toward dairy farming, transferring technology and strengthening capacity of institutions involved in dairy sector. However, the plan has been gathering dust at the National Planning Commission for the last couple of months.
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MAOIST COMBATANTS CAN’T PARTICIPATE IN PLENUM





Kathmandu, 18 Nov.: - President of Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum Upendra Yadav Wednesday said that the Maoist combatants who had been receiving allowances from the government coffer had no constitutional rights to participate in the activities of the party, The Rising Nepal reports..
Speaking at the Reporters Club, he also accused the UCPN-Maoist of engaging in the game of power capturing rather than engaging in change and constitution writing process.
He said that the expressions and documents of the Maoist leaders hinted that their final goal was to capture the sate power and added that the Maoists could not be trusted as long as they exhibited their double standards.
He said that peace could be impossible in the efforts of the three parties alone and added that those meetings of the three major parties were centered on power.
He demanded inclusion of the small parties in such meetings and said that solution could be found only when the Madhesh-based and other small parties were taken into confidence.
He also expressed his discontent over the working style of the high level taskforce and said that the disputed issues like the form of governance, federalism, and judiciary system have not got entry into panel.
"The parties which are ready to amend the constitution for power are not serious about the problems being faced by the country," he said.
He further said conspiracies were being hatched to dissolve the Constituent Assembly.
Meanwhile in Butwal, Central member of Nepali Congress Arjun Narasingh KC Wednesday said that the participation of the Maoist combatants in the forthcoming Gorkha plenum of UCPN-Maoist would pose a serious challenge to peace process.
Speaking at a press conference organised by Nepal Press Union, Rupandehi, here, central member KC said that 1200 combatants were going to participate in the plenum and the UNMIN and coordinator of Army Integration Special Committee Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal

should be serious about the issue.
He accused the Maoists of not giving up their attachment to the weapons and combatants and delaying in forging consensus on peace and constitution writing and said that NC was well aware about such behaviour of the Maoists.
He clarified that NC would be ready to withdraw its prime ministerial candidate if there were guarantees to peace and constitution.
"The documents of all three leaders of the UCPN-Maoist have proposed to capture the sate power through bullets rather than taking the ongoing peace to a logical conclusion," he said.
He said that his party had understood that the SC’s verdict intended to declare the single prime ministerial candidate as the prime minister.
He opposed the proposal to amend the constitution and said that it would be against the principle of justice to amend the constitution without consent from the contesting candidate.




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