GOVT. OBJECTS LANDGREN STATEMENT

Kathmandu, 7 Jan. Government, through the Permanent Mission to the UN in New York, immediately refuted a report of (UNMIN) Chief Karin Landgren to the security council saying presidential rule or a military takeover was a possibility.
The government called the Landgren report presented in New York this week ahead of the 15 January pullout after a failed three-year mission an ‘analysis’ which was baseless and malicious.
"There is no basis for such an analysis. The Government of Nepal, therefore, completely refutes such analysis and comments," a statement issued by the Permanent mission of Nepal said.
"They do not represent an iota of possibility in Nepal. All these institutions are committed to the Interim Constitution of Nepal," the statement added referring to the possibility of presidential or military rule.
The government asked UN not to make such presentations in the future.
There’s also no provision for such rule in the interim constitution, Acharya said.
Nepal is committed to completing the peace process, government reiterated.
Permanent Representative Gyan Chandra Acharya Wednesday told the council the delayed integration and resettlement of 19,000 plus former Maoists and drafting of a constitution will be completed.
“We are working hard on both these fronts,” Acharya said admitting processes ‘were taking time’ to complete.
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UNIQUE COMMIRTMENT OF BIG THREE

Kathmandu, 7 Jan.: For the first time in the presence of religious teacher, leaders of four political parties Thursday signed a commitment tow work for the people and promulgate a constitution by 28 May.
Maoists, NC, UMP and MJFL led by Upendra Yadav signed the document.
Chairman Prachanda, Sushil Koirala and Jhalanath Khanal signed the document for their parties.
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UML MOVE TO DISCIPLINE MEMBERS

Kathmandu, 7 Jan.: UML disciplinary commission has decided to draft a code of conduct for leaders and members.
The commission came to a decision after a three-day session/
The move comes amid open public dissension.
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TMLP THREATENS TO QUIT GOVT.

Kathmandu, 7 Jan.: A meeting of TMLP has threatened its ministers will walk out of government if Industry Minister Mahendra Yadav and State Minster Dan Bahadur Chaudhary aren’t immediately sacked as demanded by the party.
The threat was issued after a joint meeting of the party central committee and fraternal organizations.
Hridesh Tripathi conveyed the telephonic threat to the prime minister after the meeting.
The ministers were among nine lawmakers defected from the party and formed TMLP (Nepal).
TMLP is represented in government by three ministers, two state ministers and one assistant minister.
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TRADE, COMMERCE, ECONOMY

Kathmandu, 7 Jan.: Buddha Air is launching direct thrice weekly flights between Kathmandu and Lucknow using 47-seater ATR42-320.
One way hour-long flights costs IRs. 3.500.
Flights will be operated Sunday, Wednesday and Friday.
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DeLISI INAUGURATES BOTTLING PLANT

Kathmandu, 7 Jan.: US Ambassador Scott DeLisi Thursday inaugurated the state of the art new bottling plant of Bottlers Nepal Ltd, in Balaju.
The plant can wash 600 bottlers per minute.
Bottlers Nepal Ltd. is franchised bottler of Coca-Cola and a member of
Sabco group of companies.
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KATAWAL, BARSHA MAN PUN CLASH IN NEW DELHI

Kathmandu, 7 Jan.: Former Army Chef Gen, Rukmangud Katawal and Maoist Military In-charge Barsha Man Pun clashed in New Delhi while presenting their views on army integration, Bimarsha reports.
Katawal charged Maoists raised arms against an elected government and democracy.
In a strong stance, he said Maoist combatants should be asked openly what they desired.
“If they are asked for their desire, most of them will say their desire is education. But Maoists have brainwashed them,” Katawal said.
Katawal said he opposes integration and said a wrong precedent was being established.
Reacting immediately, Pun said there were conspiracies against integration.
He proposed a separate force, equal integration or integration of units.
He also suggested creation of independent battalions.
After arriving in New Delhi Wednesday, Maoist Vice-chairman DR. Baburam Bhattarai held consultations with Fnance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Home Minister P. Chidambaram, Foreign Minister S.M.Krishna and Shib Shanker Menon, national security advisor of the prime minister, according to Rishi Dhamala from New Delhi.
It’s learnt India has raised possibilities of Bhatarai becoming
prime minister.
Bhattarai held consultations with man opposition leader Sushma
Swaraj.
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SON OF VICE-PRESIDENT GETS INDIAN
EMBASSY SCHOLARSHIP

Kathmandu, 7 Jan.: Subash, son of Vice-president Paramananda Jha, has
received a scholarship from the Indian embassy to study medicine, Bomarsha reports.
The Indian embassy will finance his studies.
Minakshi, daughter of TMLP chairman Mahanta Thakur, is also a beneficiary.
Sources said Thakur repeatedly telephoned the embassy for the
scholarship.
The embassy provides scholarships for ordinary but bright students.
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BHATTARAI FR FUSION BETWEEN LIBERALS, RADICALS

Kathmandu, 7 Jan.: UCPN (Maoist) Vice-chairman Dr Baburam Bhattarai has said that the road ahead in Nepali politics will be guided by a ´fusion´ between the liberal democrats and radicals. He said that this is the only possible option ahead and for which all parties must unite and move ahead with cooperation, Republica reports from New Delhi.

He was speaking at the two-day seminar in New Delhi organized by the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) on Recent Developments in Nepal - The Way Forward. The seminar kicked off in New Delhi on Thursday morning.

According to a participant of the seminar, Bhattarai said that the new constitution must be drafted by the Constituent Assembly at any cost and that the integration of PLA combatants must be achieved in the near future.

Officials attending the seminar said that senior CPN-UML and Nepali Congress leaders highlighted the need for the Maoists to fulfill their earlier commitments on the peace deals. Senior NC leader Dr Ram Sharan Mahat and CPN-UML leader Pradeep Gyawali laid emphasis on the need for the Maoist to complete the integration process first so that the constitution writing could move ahead.

In her inaugural speech, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sujata Koirala stressed reconciliation in Nepali politics and said, "If the political parties do not rise above partisan interests we might miss the new deadline for constitution writing.

Earlier, Koirala met with Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and held talks on the progress made in advancing the peace process and constitution drafting, Koirala told Republica.

Also speaking on the occasion, VIF Director Ajit Doval, a retired IPS officer of Kerala Cadre, said that the seminar has been organized with the objective of understanding the problems facing the current political developments in Nepal. He said, “Nepal is very important as it is undergoing a period of change,” adding, “The main concern among the Indian civil society and intelligentsia is that the deadlines in the peace process have not been met.”

Doval is a former Director of Intelligence Bureau and VIF is an independent, non-partisan institution that promotes quality research and in-depth studies and is a platform for dialogue and conflict resolution.

On the first day of the seminar, Maoist Vice-chairman Dr Bhattarai, central committee member of Nepali Congress Pradeep Giri and Hari Sharma, the advisor to the President Dr Ram Baran Yadav, spoke on political reconciliation. Similarly, advocates Agni Kharel and Bhimarjun Acharya, CPN-UML leader Pradeep Gyawali and senior political leader of NC Dr Ram Saran Mahat spoke on constitution-writing.

On the session of rehabilitation and integration of PLA combatants, former chief of Nepal Army Rookmangud Katawal and Maoist central committee member Barshaman Pun were the speakers.

Krishna, Oli remain absent

Although initially settled, Indian Foreign Minister S M Krishna did not attend the inaugural session of the seminar. Similarly, senior leader of CPN-UML K P Sharma Oli too did not make it to the event citing ´health reasons.´

Media kept away

VIF, the organizers of the two-day seminar, did not allow mediapersons to attend the sessions of the seminar. Although a good number of Nepali journalists reached the venue, they were allowed to sit only for the inaugural program.

The organizers cited “for the comfort of the speakers” as the reason behind not allowing journalists in the sessions. “It is for the comfort of the speakers and also as we want the discussions to be open,” an organizer said.
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PARTIES DIFFER ON UNMIN REPLACEMENT

Kathmandu, 7 Jan.: A meeting of the UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress and CPN-UML held on Thursday to discuss a post-UNMIN mechanism to monitor Maoist cantonments ended inconclusively as the parties differed on the modality of such a mechanism, Kosh Raj Koirala reports in Republica.

During the meeting held at Singha Durbar, the three major parties debated whether to replace UNMIN with the already-formed Special Committee or with an alternative mechanism, after the main opposition Maoists argued that the monitoring of Maoist combatants cannot be done on an ´ad hoc´ basis.

The Maoists maintained that the new mechanism must also monitor the Nepal Army - something the NC rejected outright, arguing that the context for monitoring the NA was already over with the concusion of the Constituent Assembly election.

According to NC leader Bimalendra Nidhi, the Maoists proposed two different models for an alternative mechanism to UNMIN -- forming a joint team of the government and the Maoists or a six-member team comprising one political leader and one Special Committee member from each of the three parties. However, the NC and UML rooted for the Special Committee for the purpose.

Talking to media after the meeting, Maoist Vice-chairman Narayan Kaji Shrestha said the three parties agreed to sit for another round of talks after holding discussions in their respective parties on an alternative mechanism to replace UNMIN. “We have clearly said that leaving the Nepal Army outside the monitoring would be a violation of the Comprehensive Peace Accord,” he said.

Shrestha said the meeting was put off after the NC leaders said they needed to hold discussions in their own party on forming such a joint team. “The date for the next meeting will be settled through mutual understanding,” he said.

The three-party meeting began with Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal floating two agendas -- bringing Maoist combatants under the practical control of the Special Committee through a formal ceremony and implementing directives prepared by the Special Committee to monitor the cantoned Maoist combatants after UNMIN´s departure.

Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal expressed concern that the absence of UNMIN could place the ongoing peace process in serious jeopardy. He argued that UNMIN´s presence in one form or other must be ensured to take the peace process to a logical end. “There are some forces bent on leading the peace process towards disaster. We will all sink for we are all in the same boat,” a leader quoted Dahal as saying.
• Maoists propose joint team of govt and Maoists or six-member team of political leaders and Special Committee members from three parties
• NC, UML root for Special Committee to replace UNMIN
• Maoists say Nepal Army must be kept under monitoring, supervision
Referring to a news report, Chairman Dahal expressed fear that the country could head towards presidential rule backed by the Nepal Army, and this would lead to yet another series of violence.

The prime minister then clarified that the government did not write to the UN Security Council for yet another extension as it would be ridiculous to seek a ´last´ term extension. He added that there would be no problem as such as the UN has said it would keep closely monitoring the peace process even after the departure of UNMIN.

Taking the floor, NC President Sushil Koirala suggested discussing an alternative mechanism to replace UNMIN instead of talking about extending UNMIN´s term. “We need first to bridge the trust deficit that exists among us,” the leader quoted Koirala as saying. “The Maoists must be ready to settle the issue of arms and armies for bridging the trust deficit.”

UML Chairman Jhalanath Khanal also seconded Koirala´s proposal to discuss an alternative mechanism to UNMIN after January 15. He then asked the prime minister to present an alternative arrangement if the government had one.

When the prime minister presented the directives of the Special Committee agreed earlier by representatives of all three parties, Maoist leader Dev Gurung reacted strongly to the government´s decision not to extend UNMIN´s term. “The government´s decision not to extend UNMIN´s term is against the Interim Constitution. The government must withdraw its letter to the UNSC,” he said, adding: “We must review the CPA and reach a new agreement to conclude the peace process.”

Finally persuaded that there was no possibility of extending UNMIN´s term, Maoist Chairman Dahal proposed that the NC and UML must agree to keep the Nepal Army also under monitoring, and not just Maoist combatants, if they are to form a new mechanism to replace UNMIN. “There is no point holding any further talks if you do not agree to keep the Nepal Army under monitoring and supervision by the new mechanism,” a leader quoted Dahal as saying. “We won´t accept that at any cost.”

“If this is your stance [not keeping the Nepal Army under supervision] you can consider the ongoing peace process broken down,” Dahal warned NC and the UML.
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INNOVATIVE CONCEPT DEFIES CIAA, PAC

Kathmandu, 7 Jan.: Innovative Concept Nepal Pvt Ltd (ICNPL) has denounced the directive of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of parliament to stop construction of overhead bridges and cancel the agreement. It has also challenged the order of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) on the same issue, The Himalayan Times reports.

“We are not obliged to accept the PAC decision until the Supreme Court gives a verdict on the case. PAC should not have decided anything while the case was with the SC,” said Manoj Kumar Bhetwal, managing director of ICNPL. “We registered a writ in the SC on January 2 and we have been given a date for hearing on January 12,” said Bhetwal.

PAC had directed Kathmandu Metropolitan City and Ministry of Physical Planning and Works yesterday to immediately stop the construction of overhead bridges and cancel the agreement. Citing graft and misuse of public land for business purpose, CIAA had directed KMC to stop the construction.

PAC had called MoPPW and Ministry of Local Development secretaries as well as the KMC Chief to inquire about overhead bridges being constructed by ICNPL under public-private partnership concept.

According to the agreement, KMC had agreed to provide land and the company to invest in the construction. A secretary level meeting at MoPPW had approved the project despite its inappropriateness.

ICNPL signed an agreement with KMC in October 2000 to erect a dozen overhead bridges in the busy intersections of Kathmandu, according to KMC. However, it constructed only two bridges at Ratna Park and Bhadrakali. KMC renewed the same agreement with ICNPL on March 2010 under pressure from the all-party mechanism at KMC. Another deal was signed with ICNPL in October 2010 to construct four overhead bridges at Naya Baneshwor, Kalanki, Gongabu and Machha Pokhari. The agreement extended the tenure for 18 years and sealed annual royalty of Rs 2.2 million for the four bridges.

Citing incorrect and outdated design that violated the concept of Public Transaction Act and also the fact that the concept and design had not been approved, PAC ordered the construction stopped.
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RING ROAD GREEN AGAIN


Kathmandu, 7 Jan.: At a time when the environment is tainted by growing urbanisation and pollution, the Department of Roads (DoR) has launched a plan revive the green-belt on either side of Kathmandu Valley’s 27-km Ring Road, Ankit Adhikari writes in The Kathmandu Post.

Besides revamping the outer belt of the road, the proposal approved by the government, aims at improving old main road networks going to nearly all major destinations in the Valley.

As a part of its bid to improve overall road network and revive the valley’s greenery—the programme mainly aims at establishing a seven-meter green belt around the Ring Road. Establishment of the green belt will revive the greenery of valley thereby contributing to conserve the environment, say DoR officials and experts.

The government’s strategy has dreamt of a 62-meter road including footpaths, green belt, cycle track and others, at the either sides of road. According to Bal Ram Mishra, Chief of the DoR, Kathmandu section, ring road, under the proposed plan, will have a four meters garden island at the middle, parting road into two halves, 14 meters each.

Likewise, while one meter on the either sides of the ring road will be separated for drainage system running underground, three meter wide footpaths and construction of cycle lanes also comes under the same plan.

However, the already-approved dream of DoR has not yet been practically initiated as, according to Mishra, the programme requires a huge sum of money.

“The cost that our study-team estimated for the project after was around Rs six to seven billion,” he said. “No process has been started by our committee to seek budget.”

While the plan seems somewhat uncertain at government’s hands, Mishra said that the Chinese companies have also shown some interest in the project. “We have known that Chinese government has been holding some talks at its internal level to invest in the project, but nothing concrete has come so far,” he said. “For now, we are waiting for a Chinese decision. After documentation of the plans from government’s side, we have not done anything.”

The committee formed under DoR to study the matter incorporates representatives from DoR (Kathmandu and Lalitpur sections) as well as the Federation of Contract Association, Nepal. According to Mishra, government wishes to run the project under public-private partnership.
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STRAIGHT TO THE HEART
Kathmandu, 7 Jan.: Stung by Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal’s uncharacteristically blistering harangue on the telephone the other day, Unified Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal accused the CPN-UML and the Nepali Congress of plotting with ‘outside’ forces to subvert the peace process, Maila Baje writes in Nepali Netbook.
But Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal (RPP-N) chairman Kamal Thapa apparently was not impressed by the rationale for Dahal’s invective. The following day, he clubbed the Maoists with the other two big parties as part of a foreign-funded conspiracy against something even priceless, the nation.
Though Maila Baje was tempted to ruminate on the latest twirl in the love-hate relationship between Thapa and the Maoists, the somberness of the moment was too stark. India’s entrance into the United Nations Security Council with the advent of the new year has left Dahal with little else than moving our Supreme Court in a last-ditch bid to stop UNMIN’s withdrawal.
The Maoists’ hopes of regaining Indian patronage, on the other hand, have improved with Dr. Baburam Bhattarai’s very public defiance of Dahal. Yet Chinese benefaction could easily have been on Kamal Thapa’s mind. An increasing number of Nepalis who had welcomed Beijing’s post-April Uprising assertiveness today have grown wary of how that might ultimately imperil the nation. The regionalization of Nepal’s conflict-resolution initiatives may or may not prove to be a greater incentive. It would certainly limit our room for maneuver, so to speak.
The ‘constrictionists’ have benefited from the upsurge of the issue of Nepali money. The longer the organizers of the upcoming Bryan Adams concert take to figure out how many thousands they want to charge for each ticket, the more it is going to roil public opinion. As the son of a Canadian diplomat, Adams has an internationalist perspective rooted in childhood, something rare for rock stars. But it is hard to imagine that he somehow sees Nepal as revenue enhancer.
Given his involvement in Georgia, another country seeking to gain its footing against the shadow of a powerful and meddlesome neighbor, Adams’ eagerness to sing at Dasarath Stadium perhaps acquires additional significance. Conversely, with the departure of the United Nations mission having become such a pressing imperative for many, this new internationalist had to be properly discolored at the outset, irrespective of his motives.
The bright side here is the growing appreciation among Nepalis of the character and contours of foreign influence. Granted, there still are powerful voices within who want to portray concerns of international skullduggery as hubris, history and geography confirm that such apathy plays into the hands of the meddlers. No matter how distasteful Nepali politicos may sound in depicting the foreign hands that sway their rivals, collectively they go – apologies to Bryan Adams – straight to the heart.
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THESE PAST FIVE YEARS

Kathmandu, 7 Jan.: It is long over due that the Nepali people made a critical review of what the major political parties and their leaders promised five years ago and where they have landed the country today, Trikal Vastavik writes in People’s Review.

Let us begin with the third largest party, CPN (UML) whose senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal remains a lame duck prime minister since seven months and is visibly enjoying the interim period. Normally, lame duck premiers wish to get out of the chair when they wait for someone new to take over. The UML leader has, however, made use of the chaotic period to travel all over the world and attack the main opposition, CPN (Maoist), every day.

MKN is known for his greed and promoting family members and relatives. To what extent he craved the premier's chair was indicated when he applied to the palace for the job during the time when parliament was dissolved at the recommendation of Sher Bahadur Deuba. Today, his academically average daughter is a medical doctor, thanks to the graces of the Government of India. His sibling is in Hong Kong posted to a job he is not fit but fills his pockets at the expenses of the taxpayers of this poverty-stricken country. His wife Gayatri made noises about traveling in public transport even as the spouse of a premier. We are yet to see her in the incarnation she so loudly and publicly pledged.

In the last six months, MKN has never got tired of taunting the Maoists for not being able to form within hours after his resignation. The statement tells in clear terms the level of brains that the man who led the UML for a decade and a half carries. Should he have believed the opposition pledge? He paid the price for his foolishness. People have not forgotten how his own party President Jhala Nath Khanal publicly described his government as "already a failure". It is no secret that MKN resigned under pressure from his party rather than Maoist pressure.

But then MKN is different, so different that he ordered his security agencies to prevent the former King Gyanendra from paying homage to Kumarighar last autumn for what he saw as the latter trying to make a political capital out of the visit. In heart and practice, MKN and his tribe are not pluralists, believing as they do in a one-party rule in line with Marx's "dictatorship of the proletariat" and Lenin's preaching of controlling and taming the "exploiting classes".

Former King Gyanendra was prevented from attending even an innocuous religious function as a private citizen. This was good in a way that the MKN-led lame duck government exposed itself for its actual worth.

The Maoists must be given their due for initiating the agenda for a secular federal republic. The rest of the political tribe endorsed it but only after 15,000 Nepalis lost their lives and trillions of rupees worth of losses in destruction, capital flight and stalled development. The largest group in parliament, the Maoists must also own up the excesses, tears and terror of their interpretation and practice of revolutionary zeal.

Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda is no more the Maoist supremo, though he continues to lead his party. He no longer can get away with whatever he wishes. His party members are getting assertive. The squabble is not for any public service but for power struggle within the organization that continues to function like a group in rebellion. Contrary to most predictions, the Maoists emerged as the largest party in parliament. Prachanda sat in the prime minister's chair supported by an impressive coalition of constituents. Within months, he stepped down when he failed to have Rookmangud Katawal removed as the chief of the army staff following an intervention of President Ram Baran Yadhav. Then he began to regret having resigned.

Nepali Congress President Sushil Koirala spoke up of one-person-one post but failed to stick to the stand when he sought to nominate Ram Chandra Poudel as party vice-president. Krishna Prasad Sitaula, who does not have any mass base, was named for general secretary. Family ties and coterie members are being given priority as had been the infamous legacy handed over by Girija Prasad Koirala.

There are literally hundreds of members in the Nepali Congress who have sacrificed much more and worked far longer than Sujata, and yet she heads the Nepali Congress team in the MKN-led coalition. NC did lead the political movements in 1950-51, 1979, 1990 and 2005-6. But what has it to offer? A Sujata Koirala, the 21st century Marie Antoinette (Louis XVIth Queen), whose notoriety was one of the main causes of the 1789 French Revolution.

Sujata's sole claim to power is that she is the daughter of a six-time prime minister who left his party reduced to the second largest party after the Maoists in a parliament that has no single party claiming clear-cut majority on its own.

Sujata tried to become a consensus candidate for party general secretaryship. When she found no buyers, she left the race in the name of "national unity"! The real reason was that Terai party leader Bijaya Gachchhedar (formerly a senior member of NC) and Sher Bahadur Deuba exchanged promises and notes for mobilizing especially votes among Terai members in NC to ensure Sujata's defeat. Sujata, therefore, quickly pulled out of the race. What a tongue! At a girl!!

Arzoo Deuba, with her Ph.D. in psychology wasted on treating NGOism as a money-minting machine, must be sadly reading the bank statement of her depleted resources collected through NGO activism in 15 years after she got married to the then Home Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba who went on to become prime minister thrice and head NC once. Sher Bahadur Deuba's deep trouble began with his wife's political ambitions. The late Girija Prasad Koirala played truant with many people and many things. In handling Deuba during the fag end of his life, he came on top when it came to machinations within NC, promising Arzoo a seat on the NC central committee in exchange for his support of Sujata as the NC leader in the coalition cabinet. Deuba fell for it but his long-time friends turned away.

With such leaders to lead us, what can we expect? Unless, of course, someone genuinely keen in involving people's pressing problems emerges, for a change in Nepali politics.
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