TASK FORCE DISCUSSES PROPERTY RIGHTS

Kathmandu, 14 Nov.: A high-level seven-member Prachanda-led task force Sunday morning began discussions of property rights to be mentioned in a constitution to institutionalize a declared republic.
The body coordinated by the Maoist chief and leader of the biggest party in parliament met for the first time after an extended dasain and tihar holiday.
The body, with representatives of major parties, is discussing 230 contentious issues.
The parties have different perceptions of eight of 11subjects.
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SPEAKER CONVENES MEET OF SEVEN PARTIES

Kathmandu, 14 Nov.: Speaker Subang Nemwang has convened a meeting of seven parties in parliament Sunday afternoon to discuss the inconclusive vote in parliament to elect a successor of Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal who resigned more than four months ago.
The country is governed by a caretaker government after Nepal
resigned under Moist pressure.
Twenty-three parties are represented in parliament.
Nemwang has convened a meet after Wednesday’s intervention
by the supreme court asking the speaker to find alternatives to
elect Nepal’s successor.
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FATHER STEPMOTHER KILL TWO DAUGHTERS

Kathmandu, 14 Nov.: A father and stepmother axed twp daughters to death at a village in Bara Sunday morning..
Khusi Chandhary has been arrested while his wife Bindu Chaudhary
Has gone into hiding.
Khusi married Bihdu after his first wife died.
The girls were eight and 11 years.
A son from the first wife is alive.
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18 PARTIES ASK GOVT. TO ANNOUNCE COMPLETE
BUDGET

Kathmandu, 14 Nov.: Eight parties supporting the government Saturday asked the caretaker government of Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal to present a complete budget without policies and programmes.
The parties urged the government to announce the budget 19
November despite Maoist opposition.
Maoists argue a caretaker government can’t announce a complete budget which can only be brought by a successor government of the current administration.
A complete budget hasn’t been announced even four months after the
beginning of the fiscal year 2010/11.
Maoists are trying to paralyze the administration in an effort to pull it down.
Government says it has no money even to run the day-to-day
business.
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SAUDI PRINCE IN TOWN

Kathmandu, 14 Nov.: Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal arrived in the
Capital Saturday.
The nephew of King Abdullaj arrived with a l34-member team.
Foreign Secretary Madan Bhattarai received the Saudi prince
at the airport.
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MAOIST MURDERED

Kathmandu, 14 Nov.: Maoist Mukesh Dutta, 25, wass hot dead by an unidentified group in Janakpur Saturday.
Dutta was shot and killed as chatt was being eclevrated,
He died while being rushed to hospital.
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INTERNAL FEUD IN UCPN(MAOIST)

Kathmandu, 14 Nov.: With the extended plenum of the UCPN (Maoist) round the corner, hostility among three factions within the party has resurfaced at both the grassroots and the centre. Allegations of corruption and high-handedness against the party leadership are also making the rounds, The
Kathmandu Post reports..

A Politburo member close to Vice Chairman Babu Ram Bhattarai said the establishment faction (led by Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal) is threatening cadres and creating terror to force them support its political line.

“The Dahal faction is organising indoor meetings and pressing activists to join their camp,” he said.

Politburo member Hari Bhakta Kandel, who is close to Dahal, admitted hearing incidents where people claiming to be close to the chairman have tried arm-twisting, but he was quick to denounce such acts.

He said some people might have engaged in such incidents claming

to be close to party headquarters. As the campaign to woo cadres is getting feverish, all the three factions are fighting tooth and nail to ensure the passage of their political line.

Despite the Standing Committee ban on imparting different political lines during training sessions, secret meetings have been organised by all three factions, said a party source.

The three separate political documents have vertically polarised the party. Three factions led by Dahal, Bhattarai and Mohan Baidya are busy in close-door meetings across the country to garner cadres’ support for their political line. Sources close to all three factions have ruled out the possibility of merging all three documents into one, a practice seen in the past. “The time for reconciling differences has long passed,” said a source close to Baidya.

Other leaders are concerned that a straight vote on three documents will likely split the party. To avoid a split, Dahal may propose sending the three documents to the General Convention for a final decision, said a source close to Dahal. Despite the differences, some leaders say that conditions are not ripe for a split.

“If Baidya gets the support of five to seven thousand combatants, he will split the party,” he said. For Bhattarai to split the party, he needs the support of 40 per.
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NEPALI MEDICAL TESTS FAIL WORKERS

Kathmandu, 14 Nov.: More than 500 Nepali workers, a majority of whom mortgaged their ancestral properties or took loans from local moneylenders at a very high interest rates to manage money to go abroad for foreign employment, have been forced to return home in the last two years alone, thanks to anomalies in the medical check-up of aspiring workers, Om Astha Rai reports in Republica.

According to Nepal Health Professional Federation (NHPF), an umbrella organization of health institutions licensed to check up and issue certificates to medically-fit foreign job seekers, 538 Nepali workers have been sent home by various countries between 21 November of 2008 and October 26 of 2010.

All of them, who were certified medically-fit in Nepal weeks before flying overseas, were sent home since they failed medical tests conducted by the health agencies of respective countries. Malaysia, where one third of Nepali migrant workers are employed, topped the list of such countries.

Multiple sufferings

Not only do the Nepali workers, who return after failing medical tests in foreign countries, lose their hard-earned money and valuable time but also undergo mental trauma. Normally, an overseas job seeker spends Rs 100,000 to land in a gulf country apart from other expenses required for traveling from his village to Kathmandu and staying in hotels in the lingering process of obtaining visas.

"About two dozen Nepali workers are being sent back home every month," Khadga Bahadur Shrestha, president of NHPF, said. "The number of returnees compared to those landing jobs there is not very high. But their sufferings are countless. Today, many returnees are on the verge of losing their ancestral properties for not being able to pay back loans."

NHPF has been providing compensation to those returnees who fail medical examinations abroad despite obtaining certificates from its member health institutions. However, the compensation is so meager that it hardly makes up for the loss.

Fit, unfit and fit again

Interestingly, a majority of Nepali employees, who returned home after failing medical tests overseas, passed a subsequent re-examination. According to NHPF, only 39 out of 538 employees were found medically-unfit in such tests held shortly after their arrivals.

"Malaysia returned 10 employees for testing positive for HIV-positive in the last two years," Shrestha said. "However, when we tested them again, they tested negative. This has really puzzled us."

It is believed Nepali employees are being sent back home after failing medical examinations there due to Nepal´s unregulated and sub-standard health check-up system.

According to Raghu Nath Giri, secretary at NHPF, most of the health institutions qualified by the government for issuing health certificates lack avant-garde X-rays.

"We use mostly manual X-rays. At times, we fail to trace some diseases through such X-rays," Giri said, adding, "But in foreign countries, health institutions mostly use digital X-rays that easily detect diseases." This is, according to Giri, one of the many reasons why an employee medically-fit in Nepal gets turned down abroad.

NHPF president Shrestha admitted to weaknesses on their part. However, he blames unscrupulous manpower agencies for this. "In spite of several measures put in place, agents of manpower agencies easily forge certificates that we only provide to medically-fit job seekers. Many job seekers, unaware of the possibility of being caught overseas, rely on manpower agencies only to be sent back home."

A Nepali delegation is all set to go to Malaysia to take up this issue. "The team will talk to Malaysian authorities to sort out this exasperating problem," he said.
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SUU KYI’S RELASE WELCOMED
Kathmandu, 14 Nov.: Nepal’s political parties have joined the international community in welcoming democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi’s release from house arrest, The Himalayan times reports..

Nepali Congress President Sushil Koirala termed the Nobel peace laureate’s release a victory of democracy over tyranny in Myanmar. “It brings a

very positive message to Asian politics in favour of democracy. I appeal to

the Burmese military authority not to impose restriction of any sort on

her rights to soak in peaceful and non-violent politics in the days ahead,” he told THT.

NC leader Arjun Narsingh KC said it was a step forward for democracy in one of the most oppressive states in the world. “Though the military junta has let Suu Kyi taste freedom. Though it’s not enough for the Burmese, I believe it will help democracy.”

UCPN-M Vice Chairman Narayankaji Shrestha called it a breakthrough for democracy. “Her release, I think, will mark the transition from military rule to democracy in Myanmar,” he commented.

UML Secretary Bishnu Poudel called it a moral victory for the Burmese people’s long struggle against tyranny. “It is also an outcome of international pressure on the junta to let Suu Kyi walk free from preventive detention. But, Burma has still miles to go for full democracy. The international community will be watching closely,” he said.

Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum-Nepal Co-Chairman JP Gupta said her release was one of the biggest achievements of international human rights movement. “Myanmar should take her release as a chance to rule the country in a democratic way,” said Gupta.
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DIFFERENT PERCEPTIONS ON SC VERDICT





Kathmandu, 14 Nov.: Chief whips of major political parties expressed divided opinions over the Supreme Court verdict regarding the ongoing election to the prime ministerial post in the Legislature Parliament the day after some lawyers responded to it in the same line, The Rising Nepal reports.
Chief whip of UCPN-Maoist Posta Bahadur Bogati argued that the interpretation of the SC verdict to declare NC candidate Ram Chandra Poudel prime minister unopposed was just a political stunt, without constitutional validity.
"The SC verdict is just like a sea. Everyone can make their own comment, but we take the decision positively as the verdict has directed the parliament to quit the candidacy in the futile elections in the parliament and follow a fresh process to pick up a new prime minister," he said speaking at The Reporters’ Club.
He said that there was no ground for Poudel to be elected unopposed.
Poudel should withdraw the candidacy to open the door for a fresh process for a new PM, he added.
Bogati stressed on a package deal for peace, constitution and power sharing.
The NC should not take the nation hostage by misinterpreting the court verdict, he said.
In another context, Bogati said that the nation might be pushed into a crisis if the government introduced budget without taking consent from the main opposition UCPN-Maoist.
NC chief whip Laxman Prasad Ghimire said that Poudel should be declared elected to the prime ministerial post as a single candidate in the race or filing a single candidacy were the same matter.
He said that the NC would make it a national agenda as the party had already talked with the Speaker on the issue.
He argued that Poudel should be declared PM unopposed on Monday’s sitting of the House as the SC clearly hinted so.
The Maoists were trying to collapse the national economy by opposing the government’s effort to introduce full-fledged budget.
CPN-UML chief whip Bhim Prasad Acharya asked the NC not to press on the Speaker to declare Poudel as PM unopposed by misinterpreting the court verdict.
"It is a ridiculous argument that creating a pressure to elect the candidate unopposed who defeated the elections for 16 times," he said.
The Speaker should cancel the voting process in the Parliament and go for a new process by amending the parliamentary regulation as there was no chance for Poudel to show majority in the House.
He said that the CPN-UML stayed neutral as per the provision of the parliamentary regulation.
He urged the Maoists to support the government to introduce and pass the budget as it was a compulsory necessity of the nation.
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