NC CWC SUPPORS PARTY POSITION

Kathmandu, 9 Nov.: An informal meeting of the NC central working committee (CWC) supported the party position on government formation, power sharing, army integration and other issues.
The committee reviewed the outcome of the meet of the Big Three at Hattiban Resort, Friday/ Saturday and concluded the party should stick it its four-point demand for a package resolution to the prolonged political impasse.
The meeting concluded a government under Maoists can’t be formed until the guarantee of peace process and implementation of past agreements with the main opposition.
“The bottom line of the Congress is not to support a government under Maoists until the guarantee of the peace process. It’ll not be difficult for the Congress to accept a government under its leadership if this happens,” NC Vice-president Ram Chandra Paudel said.
“Congress can withdraw its candidacy for prime minister if Maoists agree to guarantee the peace process. The candidacy can’t be withdrawn in a void,” party Spokesman Arjun Narsingh KC said.
He said Maoists are insisting on formation of government under their leadership without integration of combatants and the handover of
weapons.
The CWC also discussed party strategy.
To meeting concluded the party should continue to push its current policy saying the party position was correct
Nineteen CWC presented their views Monday at the meet chaired by President Sushil Koirala.
The CWC met ahead of the Big Three meet Wednesday.
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ONE INDIAN JEWELER INJURED IN SHOOTOUT

Kathmandu, 9 Nov.: Indian jeweler Shivan Kumar Rauniyar of Raxaul was injured Monday in a shooting incident when police raided a showroom at Soaltee Mod in Rabi Bhawan.
Police resorted to firing when the group attempted snatch weapons and communication set of the police.
Rauniyar was injured in the ear and is undergoing treatment at Bir Hospital.
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GOVT. OFFICES REOPEN

Kathmandu, 9 Nov.: Government offices reopened Tuesday with the
end of Tihar.
The long festive season to celebrate Dasain and Tihar this year ended Tuesday.
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THREE INJURED IN BIRGUNJ EXPLOSIONS

Kathmandu, 9 Nov.: Amid continuing violence and lawlessness in the terai, three persons were injured, one seriously, in two separate explosions in Birgunj Monday.
A ten-year-old boy was injured.
Rijwan Bhagwan was injured Monday when a socket bomb exploded accidentally in his rented room in Nepalgunj.
Police recovered materials to make bombs and donation receipts of the Janatantrik Terai Madesh Mukti Party from the room.
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BODIES OF PILOT, FLIGHT ENGINEER

Kathmandu, 9 Nov.: Bodies of Captain Sabin Basnet and Flight Engineer Purna Awale killed Sunday in a chopper crash on the 6812 meters high Amadblam while attempting to rescue s sick a Japanese climber were recovered from the mountain and flown to the capital Monday.
A helicopter of Fishtail Air overturned and crashed on the peak in gusy wnid conditions.
The bodies have been handed over to the TU Teaching Hospital.
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FAO TO CONTINUE FOOD, FERTILIZER SUPPLY

Kathmandu, 9 Nov.: UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Monday it will continue to supply seeds and fertilizers to vulnerable groups in Doti, Daitadi and Darchula where crops failed.
A fact finding mission with representatives of the government and FAO, which studied the causes of the crop failure, found half the farms or five percent paddy fields produced poor or no harvests.
The mission interviewed farmers, field staff, implementing partners and local officials.
‘The affected farmers can be rest assured that we will continue to provide them with seeds and fertilizers throughout winter and next monsoon season.
“FAO recently dispatched a fact finding mission comprising
representatives from the Department of Agriculture and FAO to the
affected areas to take stock of the situation.
“It is unfortunate that seeds in some areas have not produced a
harvest. FAO remains committed to supporting these vulnerable
families with agricultural inputs,” Bui Thi Lan, Country
Representative of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) n Nepal said in statement.
Seed distribution was delayed 19 days because of a strike in May,
FAO said.
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PM TO HOST RECEPTION

Kathmandu, 9 Nov. Prime Minister Mdhav Kumar Nepal is holding a reception at Baluwatar Tuesday to celebrate Chhat and the just concluded festive season.
The reception will end at five in the afternoon.
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AMBASSADOR ACHARYA CALLS ON UN SECRETARY-GENERAL

Kathmandu, 9 Nov.: Gyan Chandra Acharya, Permanent Representative of Nepal to the United Nations met with Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations at latter's office today Monday], RSS reports.

Ambassador Acharya apprised the Secretary-General of the ongoing preparatory process of the Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to be held in Turkey next year, stated the press release issued by Permanent Mission of Nepal to the United Nations in New York.

Ambassador also made a request for his strong leadership and support in favour of LDCs in the G-20 meeting next week as well as for the success of the UN Conference on LDCs in 2011.

The Secretary-General reaffirmed his continuing political support to LDCs and gave him the assurances of necessary technical and logistical support by the UN Office responsible for the Conference, reads the release.

Permanent Representative of Turkey to the UN as well as Permanent Representatives of LDC Coordination Bureau also took part in the meeting.
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INDIA SUSPICIOUS OF UNMIN
By Bhola B Rana
Kathmandu, 9 Nov.: India has doubted he reliability of UNMIN, Nagarik reports.
Indian Ambassador Rakesh Sood met Foreign Secretary Madam Bhattarai two weeks ago and expressed such feeling claiming Indian Maoists were imparted ideological and military training by fighters of UCPN (Maoist)
at their camps, affording to a foreign ministry source..
Sood, at the meeting, handed over a non-paper in plain paper without a signature. Sood verbally questioned the reliability of UNMIN.
‘Sood raised the question verbally how Indian Maoists received
training in camps under UNMIN watch,” the source said. “ India has questioned the reliability of UNMIN.”
The letter does not mention the camp where the training was imparted although the district is named.
The letter is an official communication of the Indian government although it’s not a protest letter. Relations between the two countries could be affected.
The letter demanded action against the Maoist leader and combatants.
The letter has been forwarded not to the peace but the home ministry.
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EC DRAGGED INTO CONTROVERSY

Kathmandu, 9 Nov.: The Election Commission (EC) continues to draw condemnations from several quarters for revoking its earlier decision of making citizenship the only basis for issuing voter ID in Tarai, The Kathmandu Post reports..

Fringe parties and some other groups have upped the ante as the major parties—UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress and CPN-UML— have kept mum.

In a statement on Monday, Rastriya Jagaran Parishad termed the EC decision highly condemnable and said it failed to understand the implication in national security as the chances of the misuse of voter ID is high in the present poor security situation and open Nepal-India border. “There are no other documents that can replace or work like that the citizenship certificate,” read a press release issued by Parishad. “Election Commission’s earlier provision to issue voter

ID based on citizenship was the right decision and it should be revived.”

On Thursday, Rastriya Jana Morcha Party, a fringe party, had also condemned the EC decision, saying that there was no need to consider the government documents other than citizenship while issuing voter ID as any Nepali can get citizenship certificate within 24 hours. Jana Morcha has warned that if EC decision was implemented, Nepal would be turned into “Fiji”.

Following the pressure from the Madhes-based parties, EC on Nov. 3 had decided to make recommendation from local bodies, besides citizenship, the basis to acquire voter ID.

Madhes-based parties had obstructed voter ID programme in some Tarai districts since the project was launched on Sept. 15 demanding that the citizenship not be made compulsory to issue voter ID.

Parisad also stated that given the fragile security situation in Tarai, it was almost impossible for the local bodies to issue documents only to the real Nepalis. The party is preparing to challenge the EC decision at the Supreme Court (SC).

EC has, however, maintained that its decision would not give any room to non-Nepalis to receive voter ID.
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NHRC FOCUSES ECONOMIC, SOCIAL RIGHTS

Kathmandu, 9 Nov.: National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) is gearing up to protect the citizens economic and social rights, better known as second generation rights, The Himalayan Times reports.

Conceding that economic and social rights had remained on the back-burner even after the establishment of the rights watchdog, Gauri Pradhan, NHRC commissioner and spokesman, told this daily today his organisation is planning to come up with the indicators to measure and safeguard such rights.

In coordination with the UN Office of the High Commissioner-Nepal and some NGOs, NHRC has prepared a draft of the policy indicator.

NHRC plans to adopt the policy or call on the government to enact rules and regulations in this regard.

The rights body wants to coordinate with the Department of Standard and Metrology, Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Cooperatives for monitoring the rights situation.

Due to the absence of effective monitoring, people have been deprived of economic and social rights.

A case in point is a food crisis that occurs in 19 remote districts every year.

Across the country, people have no access to quality food, thanks to adulteration and contamination.

Due to the decade-long armed conflict, we concentrated only on hearing cases related to murder, arrest, abduction, forced donation and enforced disappearance and could not concentrate on economic and social rights, Pradhan added. “Now, we want economic and social rights treated on a par with political rights. We will now start hearing cases related to consumers issues and health issues as they are related to human rights.”
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MRP DEADLINE MISSED

Kathmandu, 9 Nov.: When the machine readable passport (MRP) tender landed at the Public Accounts Committee some three months ago, lawmakers had questioned the ability of Oberthur Technologies to deliver as the company had failed to deliver bank notes on time in 2009, causing the shortage of bank notes during Dashain that year, Republica.

The lawmakers have now been proved right as the French company has failed to hand over the first lot of MRPs by Friday, when the 70-day deadline ended for the security printer to make the delivery as per an agreement signed with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) on August 27.
A senior official at MoFA said the French security printer has not delivered the passports as of Monday. "We have not heard about the arrival of the passport consignment," the official said on condition of anonymity.

But Deputy Spokesperson at MoFA Harish Chandra Ghimire said, “As the ministry has remained closed [since Friday for Tihar], we will know the status of the delivery only on Tuesday when offices open.”

Repeated attempts to get the comments of Oberthur´s local representatives, Siddhartha Pandey, failed. He neither received repeated phone calls nor responded to short text messages.

The security printer had won the multi-million dollar tender that has landed in deep controversy.

The company, under the agreement, was required to supply within the deadline 400,000 passports, including 350,000 ordinary status ones, in a first lot, besides completing installation of a passport personalization system. The installation work is currently underway, according to Ghimire.

The security printer´s delay in delivery of the passports is subject to penalty. As per the agreement, Oberthur Technologies will have to pay 0.05 percent of the contract price per day in penalty for the delay in delivery. The contract price of the passports that the French company is to supply Nepal in the next five years is US $ 3.59 per booklet. Nepal will purchase a minimum of 3.4 million MRPs and a maximum of 4.6 million by November 24, 2015.
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MAOIST LEADERS WOO CADRES

Kathmandu, 9 Nov.: With the fifth party plenum fast approaching, UCPN (Maoist) leaders have intensified their foreys into districts outside Kathmandu to woo party cadres toward their respective factions. Post Bahadur Basnet reports in Republica.

The second and third rung of leaders loyal to each of the three Maoist factions have become busy holding functions and meeting cadres in districts to win their support during the jumbo party plenum that will begin November 21 in Gorkha district.

The Maoist party is vertically divided into three factions led by Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Senior Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya and Vice-chairman Dr Baburam Bhattarai, respectively.

The top three leaders, who represent different ideological lines, will present separate political documents at the jumbo party meet that will see participation of over 5,500 members of Maoist state committees.

The leaders, whether in Kathmandu or outside, are employing all the means available to bolster their respective factions.

“Yes, I am in constant touch with the cadres and taking to them for their support,” said a Maoist central leader who is canvassing support for Dahal.

According to sources, Haribol Gajurel in the eastern region, Agni Sapkota and Barsaman Pun and Shakti Basnet in the central region and Lekhraj Bhatta in the western region are working hard to win the cadres´ support for party chairman Dahal.

Similarly, CP Gajurel in the eastern region, Kul Prasad KC in the in the central region and Netra Bikram Chand in the western region are actively seeking support for Mohan Baidya. Likewise, Ganga Shrestha, Devendra Poudel and Khagaraj Bhatta are canvassing support for Bhattarai in the eastern, central and western regions, respectively.

And there have been attempts by one faction to disrupt the campaigns of others, and attack others´ strongholds.

The current tussle for cadres´ support spilled over in the media after Gajurel of the east, who is also the in-charge of the Maoist Kochila State, tried to prevent the local cadres from meeting Dr Bhattarai in Biratnagar.

“Bhattarai made a sudden attack on Dahal´s stronghold in Kochila state, and achieved a remarkable success,” says a leader close to Bhattarai.

Party insiders say Bhattarai faction has become more aggressive in its campaign than the other two. “As Dahal and Bhattarai were in the same faction after the Chungwang meeting, the latter did not care much about organizational strength. So he has become active to expand his strength,” says a central leader.

According to leaders, Dahal looks strong in Maoist Tamuwan, Tamsaling and Newa states, Baidya in Magarat, Tharuwan and Bheri-Karnali, and Bhattarai in Limbuwan Madhes and Seti-Mahakali.

“But we cannot definitely say who is strong where. The results might come out as complete surprise. What is clearly seen now is that the intra-party tussle has become three-cornered,” says a leader.

Leaders say the Gorkha plenum will mark an important point in the history of the Maoist party as it will chart out the party´s new strategy.

The three top leaders are at loggerheads over the immediate working policy of the party. If a “people´s revolt” to seize state power is an immediate priority for Baidya to achieve the communist ideological goals, it is only the last resort for Bhattarai. But Dahal is ambiguous in his stance on the issue, though he looks close to Bhattarai who wants to first institutionalize the political achievements made so far. Similarly, Dahal and Baidya are for declaring India the principal enemy, while Bhattarai is for declaring “domestic feudalism” the principal enemy.

The participants will be divided into various groups, each of which will form its opinion and present them at the meeting. At the end, Dahal will prepare another document by accommodating all the views. But if Baidya and Bhattarai don´t become satisfied, they can hold on to their political documents. Then the conflict will be resolved in the general convention.
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POLICE CIRCULAR NOT TO TAKE FINAL DECISION OF POLICE FOOD RATION

Kathmandu, 9 Nov.: Police headquarters has issued a circular not to take a final decision on tenders for police ration, Kantipur reports.
Complaints received at district administration offices, police headquarters and CIAA said the tenders opened 26 October were irregular.
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