BIG THREE MEET MNDAY; OTHER DETAILS

Kathmandu, 27 Dec.: Leaders of the Big Three are meeting Monday one day after the cabinet decided not to convene a normal session of parliament until Maoists bring under the command and control a special committee for integration, resettlement and supervision for them under the prime minister.
The summit of the three parties will discuss when to convene a normal session—a possible date is 3 January 2011.
Government will propose bringing 19,000 former Maoist fighters under the command and control of the state before UNMIN quits 15 January 2011.
The meeting of Maoists, NC and UML will discuss Maoist demand for a normal session of the legislature and integration of former Maoist fighters.
A special session of parliament called by Maoists and five splinter parties was prorogued by the president after a two-point between six parties and the Big Three who agreed to convene a normal session within one week.
Ruling coalition parties have now set pre-conditions for convening a normal session—a move described by Maoists as an attempt to extend the life of the caretaker government that has been in office since 30 June after resigning under Maoist pressure.
Six parties had called the special session to elect a successor of Premier Madhav Kumar Nepal and amend parliamentary procedure to elect a government chief after stalled attempts to elect the incumbent’s successor.
Nepal’s successor hasn’t bee elected even after 16 rounds of voting in parliament.
Maoist steering committee Sunday demanded an immediate session of parliament.

TWO DEPUTY GOVERNORS OF NRB APPOINTED

Kathmandu, 27 Dec.: Two deputy governors of Nepal Rashtra Bank
(NRB) were appointed by the cabinet Sunday.
The positions were vacant for a longtime.
Gopal Prasad Kafle and Maha Prasad Adhikari were appointed deputy governors.
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STEERING COMMITTEE FOR ‘DEMOCRATIZATION’ OF NA

Kathmandu, 27 Dec.: A three-member steering committee was formed Sunday by the cabinet under Defence Minister Bidya Bhandari for what has been called the ‘democratization’ of Nepal Army (NA).
Other members are the army chief and defence secretary.
The committee was formed don the recommendation of a task forc headed by Bhandari.
The committee will coordinate government/army activities.
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MINISTER OF STATE SHA SACKED

Kathmandu, 27 Dec.: Minister of State for Physical Planning Sanjaya Kumar Sha was sacked Sunday by Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal.
He was sacked on the recommendation of Deputy Prime Minister Bijaya Kumar Gachedhar who is also chairman of MJFL.
Sha defected from MJFL and announced the formation of another group in the terai.
He announced the launch of Madesh Kranti Forum
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TWO TERAI ACTIVISTS SHOT DEAD

Kathmandu, 27 Dec.: Two activists of a rebel terai group were killed in an encounter with police overnight at a forest in Rautahat.
Two arms and ammunition were recovered from the clash site at Dharmpur in Rautahat.
Police was deployed in the area after reports they entered Sarlahi from Rautahat.
Surendra Bir Mukhiya and Hari Chadndra Sahayani were killed.
They were activists of Janantrik Terai Mukti Morcha.
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SUJATA KOIRALA CHINA BOUND

Kathmandu, 27 Dec.: Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sujata Koirala flew for China Sunday.
During her four-day visit, she’ll inaugurate the Institute for Himalaya Studies in Zhongzhou.
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NEPSE GAINS 7.31 POINTS

Kathmandu, 27 Dec.: Nepse gained 7.31 points and closed at 406.86 points Sunday on the first day of five-day weekly trading.
The bullish trend continued for the second consecutive week.
Nepse gained 8.87 points the previous week.
The bullish trend continued as government prepares to relax terms for marginal trading to fund trading in shares.
Nepse index fell to 390.97 points 20 December—the lowest in 50
months.
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TWO MAOIST SPLINTER GROUPS UNITE

Kathmandu, 27 Dec.: Two splinter groups of UCPN(Maoist) announced their merger in Janakpur Sunday.
CPN (Maoist) of Matrika Prasad Yadav and Janamorcha Nepal led by Bharat Dahal announced unification.
The united party will bee named CPN-Maoist.
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NOC DOLING OUT POL PRODUCS TO INFLUENTIAL PERSONS
Kathmandu, 27 Dec.: Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC), which has an accumulated loss of over Rs 8 billion, has been distributing over 1,000 liters of fuel free of cost every month to appease different influential persons, including the Minister for Commerce and Supplies Rajendra Mahato, Rupublica reports.

The state-owned petroleum monopolist had recently hiked the prices of petroleum products, making petrol, diesel and kerosene dearer by Rs 3 per liter and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) dearer by Rs 75 per cylinder (14.2 kg), to bring down its loss amid rising price of fossil fuel in international market.
A high-level source at NOC told Republica that minister Mahato, Minister of State for Commerce and Supplies Saroj Kumar Yadav, leaders of different political parties and journalists are among the regular beneficiaries of NOC´s free diesel and petrol.

“We have been compelled to distribute free coupons for over 1,000 liters of diesel and petrol on the pressure from influential persons,” the source said, adding that NOC has also been compelled to hire over 250 workers on daily wage basis for the last three years.

Speaking at a meeting of Public Accounts of Committee of parliament Sunday, NOC managing director Digambar Jha also revealed that NOC was also providing free fuel to Minister Mahato during his visits to districts. Jha said overhead cost per liter of fuel hovers around Rs 0.50, thanks to rise in salary of staffers every year. NOC had spent over Rs 480 million for overhead cost last year.

During the meeting, lawmakers strongly objected to rising administrative cost due to ´mismanagement and anomalies´ in NOC. They urged the corporation to work out measures to bring down the increasing administrative cost to reduce its loss instead of opting for price hike.

“Though we can´t control the impact of price rise in international market, we can resist price hike by lowering administrative costs,” lawmaker Prakash Chandra Lohani said, adding, “Rising administrative costs means corruption is rampant within the fuel monopolist.”

Lawmaker Dhan Raj Gurung also urged the government to come up with special act to govern the petroleum sector, which is worth billions of rupees, to end the anomalies and corruption in NOC that is still running under Company Act.

Saroj Pandey, president of Petroleum Dealers´ Association, stressed on the need for a thorough investigation into NOC´s overhead costs which has been growing out of proportion for the last few years.

Purushottam Ojha, secretary at the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies (MoCS), informed lawmakers that the ministry was reintroducing the Petroleum Act, which was returned back by the parliament three years back. “We are soon forwarding the act to parliament as it envisages opening the sector for private sector and allowing import from multiple suppliers,” Ojha added.

PAC had summoned officials of MoCS and NOC and representatives of consumer right groups and dealers of petroleum products to discuss on the recent hike in fuel prices by NOC.
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NEPAL TO START VIRAL ISOLATIOON TEST

Kathmandu, Dec 27: The government has established National Influenza Centre (NIC), a national network of laboratories where samples of suspected influenza cases can be tested to detect influenza virus in the country, Arjun Poudel writes in Republica.
The Ministry of Health has also established a sophisticated laboratory that can supervise the activity of the influenza virus. The laboratory is expected to start providing services from January.

Previously the NPHL had to send the samples for confirmation to Bangkok or the United Kingdom and wait for more than two weeks to get the test results. But with the establishment of the laboratory, NPHL can give the report within 48 hours.

"This is the first time we are going to start the virus isolation test, with which we can identify the types of virus," Dr Geeta Shakya, executive director of the National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL) said.

"We can confirm the types of influenza virus such as H1, H3, and H5 or of other types," Dr Jeetendra Shrestha, deputy coordinator of Avian Influenza Control Project (AICP) said. According to Dr Shrestha, the World Health Organization (WHO) and AICP will assist the government to run the sophisticated laboratory. "The WHO has given training to lab technicians and AICP will provide the equipment," he said.

The bidding process for the equipment has already started. This is the first time such sophisticated equipment is being brought to the country. The NPHL has also established influenza´s sample collection centers across the country.

"We have established 10 centers across the country," Dr Shakya said. In the central region, NPHL has established its sample collection centre at Teku Hospital, Kanti Children Hospital and Bharatpur Hospital. Centers have also been set up in Pokhara, Butwal and Palpa in the Western Region, apart from Mechi Zonal Hospital and B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences in the Eastern Region. Similarly, centers have been set up in Nepalgunj of the Mid Western and Seti Zonal Hospital in Far western region.

"We will collect the samples of suspicious influenza cases on a regular basis from those centers and if there is an outbreak, we will collect more samples," she said. She added that an expert from India has come to train local technicians of the NPHL. The Indian technician will stay here till two to three weeks after the opening up of the laboratory.
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MRP DISTRIBUTION STARTS





Kathmandu, 27 Dec.: - The Ministry of Foreign Affairs Sunday formally began distributing the Machine Readable Passports (MRP) of both diplomatic and general public categories,The Rising Nepal reports.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Sujata Koirala began the distribution by handing over the MRPs of both categories at a function organized at the Prime Minister’s Baluwatar residence.
On the occasion, she handed over red, green, blue, and black MRPs to Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal.
The red MRP is for the people of the diplomatic sector while blue is for government officials. Likewise, green is for the general public and the black represents the travel document.
Among the diplomatic passports from number one to five, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal received the third MRP, Chief Justice Ram Prasad Shrestha received the fourth and Speaker of Legislature Parliament Subas Nembang received the fifth.
Likewise, the first MRP of the green colour was presented to Chief of Maiti Nepal Anuradha Koirala who was recently honoured with the CNN Hero award 2010.
Prime Minister Nepal handed over the MRPs to Chief Justice Shrestha, Speaker Nembang and Koirala while he received them from Deputy Prime Minister Koirala.

The distribution of MRP began just five days before the second deadline set by the International Civil Aviation Organisation was to expire.
According to the Ministry, distribution of MRPs will also begin from the district administration offices from next week.
It takes six weeks to receive an MRP. However, in case of urgent need, one can get it within a week by paying double fees.
Speaking on the occasion, Deputy Prime Minister Koirala said efforts were being made to ease the distribution of MRPs to the general citizens.
Foreign Secretary Madan Kumar Bhattarai said though distribution of MRP was a challenging task, efforts were underway to ensure an easy and efficient distribution.
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