COUNTRY WITHOUT A GOVT.

By Bhola B Rana

Kathmandu, 9 Feb. Nepal is without a government even one week after the election of Prime Minister Jhanlanath Khanal as head of a communist dominated alliance between Maoists and UML.
Maoists have returned to Singha Durbar 21 months after the ouster of a government led by Maoist Chairman Prachanda.
Khanal assumed office without a cabinet Sunday following differences on control of the home ministry—demanded both by UML and the Maoists.
“The home ministry is our bottom-line,” sad Maoist Chief Whip Post Bahadur Bogati even as the Maoist boss downplayed differences on sharing ministerial berths.
‘We’ll go into government tin a day or two,” said the Maoist boss.
Open differences have also surfaced on a secret seven-point deal between Khanal and Prachanda before the parliamentary elections for prime minister last week.
UML standing committee called for amendments in the agreement loaded with communist jargon and an agreement between the chiefs of the two communist parties to integrate some of the 19,000 former Maoist combatants in the state security agency as a separate unit.
Nepali Congress (NC) also opposes the deal in which UML and UCPN (Maoist) agree to on a rotational government chief.
‘We won’t go into government without a clear position of the UML on the seven-point agreement,” said Maoist leader Deb Gurung.
‘The newly elected prime minister must honour the agreement,” sad Barsha Man Pun, another Maoist leader.
Meanwhile, Khanal said Cambodia will be first foreign country he’ll visit while telling BBC Nepali Service he received an invitation from IndanPrime Minister Manmohan Sngh to visit India.
‘Cambodia has just emerged from a conflict,” Khanal said.
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US OFFICIAL COMING

Kathmandu, 9 Feb.: US Under Secretary for democracy and Global Affairs Maria Otero is visiting Nepal as part of a South Asian tour that will also take her to India and Bhutan.
‘Under Secretary for Democracy and Global Affairs Maria Otero will travel to India, Bhutan and Nepal from 8 to 14 February 2011. She’ll travel to southern India and New Delhi discuss bilateral coordination on
global issues, visit Tibetan refugee settlements, explore cooperation
to strengthen election organizations in third countries and consult
on regional disaster management,” a State Department spokesman said.
She’ll be in Nepal from 12 to 14 February.
In Nepal, she’ll engage in Tibetan refugee and trafficking in persons
issues.
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PARLIAMENT MEETS WEDNESDAY
[
Kathmandu, 9 Feb. : Parliament meets for the first time later Wednesday following the election last Thursday of Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal.
Sunday.
A scheduled meeting Monday was cancelled by posting a notice on
the board.
Khanal is expected to address parliament on current issues, including
The secret seven-point agreement with Maoists that propelled
him to power.
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POLICEMAN SHOT DEAD


Kathmandu, 9 Feb.: Assistant Inspector Jitendra Yadav was shot dead at Majauliya-6 in Bara overnight.
He was shot ion the head and chest while returning home.
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MEDIA GOGLE

‘We should have led the government I our capacity as the largest party. However, such a force [regressive] stopped us from forming a
government.”

(Maoist Vice-chairman Dr. Baburam Bhattarai, Republica, 9 Feb.)
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CONCERN OVER CREDIT DEPOSIT GAP





Kathmandu, 9 Feb.: - Governor of the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) Dr. Yubaraj Khatiwada Tuesday expressed his concern over the asymmetrical relation between credit and deposit mobilisationsm The Rising Nepal reports.
"Despite the central bank’s reiterated urges for increasing lending in productive sectors, banks are found to be guided by profits and investing in unproductive areas," Dr. Khatiwada said.
Inaugurating Social Development Bank, a new national level development bank, in the capital amidst a special programme, Governor Dr. Khatiwada blamed that the banks were merely collecting deposits of the poor and marginalised and lending in the unproductive sectors for the sole benefit of wealthy elites.
He said, "As we look at the ratio of deposit and credit accounts, there is a vast gap. There are more than 2-2.5 million deposit accounts but the credit accounts are less than 400,000-500,000. It is rather disappointing that the banks are lending the money saved by the poor and marginalised community from cutting their nutrition and basic needs in the unproductive sector such as real estate, crusher industry, among others."
He further asked the banks to make their profit slim for the time being considering the financial position of the country.
"Given the country’s difficult financial condition, the banks should try to be more accommodative to attract the investors making their profit slim. Do not expect super normal profit in this condition," he suggested adding, "We will help generate normal profit if you comply with the country’s situation."
Saying that the bank’s lending portfolio in the real estate sector was around 20 per cent, he said that the lending in the real estate sector should be lessened.
Similarly, he said that the social service had been commercialised in the country. "The development banks should increase their lending in the productive sector and social service that would benefit marginalised and small entrepreneurs and farmers in the rural areas," he added.
Dr. Indra Raj Humagain, First Vice President of the Development Banker’s Association, said that there was a cut-throat completion among the financial institutions in the country.
Amir Dhwoj Pradhan, Chief Executive Officer of the Bank, claimed that the bank would try its best to provide sound and reliable banking services to its customers in a transparent way.
He informed that the bank has Rs. one billion authorised capital, Rs. 750 issued capital and Rs. 382.7 million paid-up capital. He said that the founder members would hold 51 per cent of the total share and 49 per cent shares would be distributed to the public.









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ARMED GROUPS COLLECTNG MOBILE NUMBERS






Kathmandu, 9 Feb.: The activists of several underground armed groups in the district are out to collect the mobile numbers of the entrepreneurs so that they could collect the donation by threatening them, The Rising Nepal reports from Kohalpur.
The people have been panicked due to the growing incidents of extortion and terrorist activities. Various armed underground groups are involved in such activities, said local entrepreneurs.
It is found that the activities of the underground armed groups who are scattered across the city are found to be collecting the mobile numbers of the entrepreneurs. After collecting the number, they call up the entrepreneurs to collect donation after threatening them.
When the police of Kohalpur detained Sita Saran Vrma, who was involved in collecting mobile numbers of employees, local industrialists and businessmen for his group then only the incident of collecting phone numbers came into the open.
Kohalpur police said that they had arrested Verma while he was collecting the phone numbers of the businessmen and local entrepreneurs which were written in the hoarding board that placed in front of their shops and institutions.
During the interrogation of police, Verma admitted that he went around the city through bicycle and collected the number of businessmen and entrepreneurs for the Tiger group. This was his daily activities, said Verma.
He said that after collecting the phone numbers of the shops and the institutions of the entrepreneurs, at first they would call at their institutions and ask for the mobile numbers of their operator.
After founding the number of the operator they started to ask for donation and also threaten them of taking physical action against them if they refused to fulfill the demands.
Police Inspector of District Police Office, Binod Ghimire, said that informed that the various criminal and underground armed groups had collected the mobile numbers of the small and big entrepreneurs of the district.
Police alleged that Kamalesh Sharma (Bikram Singh), the District Secretary of Tiger Group of Banke-Bardiya had already collected Rs.5, 00,000 from small and big entrepreneurs of the district.
Ghimire further stated that Sharma usually used SIM number, 9848033759 and 9728169158 for calling people.
People of the region found that other armed and criminal groups started to collect the phone numbers of the businessmen and entrepreneurs to collect the phone numbers.
Local victims said that various armed groups terrorized them time and again. So they were gradually changing their SIM numbers and switching off their mobile phones to save themselves from the call of the armed groups, they said.
They said they were terrorized when unknown persons rang them.
Though the local business people were gradually disappearing from the district with the fear of being victimized by the donation terror, police have been claiming that they had adopted the new strategy to maintain law and order at the district.
Following their action against the terrorist groups, police also made public the number of district Secretary and Chairperson of Tiger Group, Rahish Dafali ( Abhiyan Singh)
Police said that Abhiyan Singh had been using SIM number, 9728148695 and 9804564513 to terrorize people.
Police have been claiming that the police force is actively working toward eliminating the armed groups in the Terai region but they need the help and support of the locals to catch them.
If they inform police about the incident in a time then that would make it easy for the police to catch the criminals, said Inspector Ghimire.

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GOVT.WORKING ON BUDGET

Kathmandu, 9 Feb.: The new government is planning to bring another budget for the current fiscal year.

If everything goes as planned, finance ministry officials will have to prepare the budget for a third time this fiscal year. They have already prepared the budget twice—in July and November last year, The Kathmandu Post reports.

The new budget, if brought, will replace the finance ordinance that will expire on Feb. 15. Following the Maoist lawmakers’ obstruction, the Madhav Kumar Nepal-led government had brought the budget through ordinance on Nov 20.

The new ruling coalition has already formed a taskforce to prepare the new budget. Former Finance Ministers Bharat Mohan Adhikari and Surendra Pandey and Keshav Acharya, senior economic advisor at finance ministry during Pandey’s tenure, represent UML in the taskforce.

From the Maoist side, former governor Dipendra Bahadur Chhetri, economists Dilli Raj Khanal and Shri Ram Khanal are included in the taskforce. However, the parties have not informed the finance ministry formally about the formation of the taskforce.

Against this backdrop, it seems that the new government is unlikely to table the existing finance ordinance in the parliament for endorsement. For the continuation of revenue collection and budget expenditure, either the existing finance ordinance should be endorsed by the parliament or a new budget brought before the expiry of the ordinance. “Otherwise, the country will enter a budget-less phase next week,” said a ministry official.

Finance ministry officials, however, are preparing to advise the new finance minister to continue with the existing budget. “We will try to convince the government about the technical and practical complexity in bringing the budget for a second time in a year,” said a ministry source.

Ministry officials feel that the current coalition can bring policies and programme and include them in the budget for the next fiscal year in May. “Recommendations of the Public Expenditure Review Commission will also be implemented if the new budget is brought in May for the next fiscal year,” said a ministry official.

There is not enough time left for the implementation of the new budget, if brought this fiscal year. “Work on new programmes of the current fiscal year is just starting,” said Bodh Raj Niraula, chief of the ministry’s budget department. “New programmes of the new budget, if it is brought, are unlikely to be implemented.”

Experts involved in the new budget preparation say that a new budget should be brought to give a feeling of change to the people. “The new government should not continue with the current budget,” said Khanal of the taskforce. He, however, admitted that there was little room for major changes in the current budget while introducing a new one. There might be a little change in major development projects, he said.

Popular programmes like Youth Self Employment Programme, first introduced by the Maoist-led government, may get a new lease of life. “Extension of cooperative shops may be the other area where budget will be allocated,” said Khanal. The team is also examining how grants going to local governments can be made more effective, he added.

Another taskforce member Dipendra Bahadur Kshetri said the budget not spent yet and budget allocated for populist programmes could be changed in the new one. However, canning already approved programmes is impossible. This means there will be little room for change in programmes and budgetary allocation. “It seems the bid to bring a new budget is essentially due to partisan ego,” said a ministry official.
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AMERCAN MOM OF 210 KIDS GETS RESIDENTIAL VISA

Kathmandu, 9 Feb.: A 24-year-old lady from Moorestown, New Jersey, who has committed her life to educate the neediest children of Nepal was finally granted a residential visa this week after three years of frustrating attempts, Bikash Sangraula writes n Republica..

Maggie Doyne, whose Kopila Valley Children´s Home and School located in Surkhet currently educates 210 children, heard kind words and got a one-year teacher´s visa from the Department of Immigration on Monday.

“They said I am welcome in Nepal. It feels good. I feel like a Nepali now,” said Doyne who won US$ 100,000 at the DoSomething.org awards in 2009 for being an outstanding world-changer under the age of 25. “I am not here as an outsider," she told Republica in Kathmandu on Tuesday, adding that she wants to work with the people and government of Nepal to change the country for the better.

Before Monday, Doyne had heard immigration officials question her why she wanted a residential visa and why she wouldn´t go back to her own country. Some even suggested that she get married to a Nepali man to get a residential visa.

Since starting Kopila in spring 2008, Doyne had been shuttling between Nepal and the United States every four or five months to renew her five-month tourist visa. But now, she has the freedom to spend a full year in Nepal, and hopes that in the coming years, she might get visas for longer durations.

Setting standards in Surkhet

In just around three years since coming into operation, Kopila has set a standard for being the only school in Surkhet where students are not beaten.

“Teachers initially told me it was impossible to discipline students without beating them, especially because children at Kopila come from very poor backgrounds, and are dirty,” she said, recalling the days in 2008 when 300 teachers applied for teaching jobs at her school. Doyne told the applicants that if they didn´t know any other way to discipline students, then they weren´t meant for the school.

Teachers who were eventually selected tried to build a relationship with the students. Today, the students obey teachers not because they fear them, but because they love and respect them. The students have imbibed self-discipline.

Another practice that Kopila has started is engaging teachers with guardians of day-scholar students. Kopila runs classes from nursery to the sixth grade and houses 40 of the 210 students. Teachers get in touch with guardians in case a day scholar fails to show up at school.

Kopila provides lunch to all the students as that has proven to be a strong pull for children inclined to skip school. Kopila also runs a clinic as most children coming to the school do not have toilets and sanitation facilities at home. The clinic makes sure that infections do not spread, and a fresh entrant, who might be an orphan, a child laborer, or a child begging on the streets, gets enough medical attention before being fit to attend classes.

Thanks to these practices and the fact that the school has an American principal in the form of Doyne, Kopila receives a flurry of requests every day from parents who want their children enrolled there.

“I tell them their children have parents to take care of them, while my children don´t have anyone,” Doyne said. That´s the criterion Kopila has set for accepting children. It only takes takes children who don´t have a reliable guardian to ensure an education.

The lady who came to Nepal five years ago during a gap year after high school and couldn´t go back after seeing Nepali children living in miserable circumstances, said she is committed for life to ensuring a future for the children at her school. The commitment is a shock for many of her friends in New Jersey who believed she would complete her further studies and build a career back in the United States.

“I was a very happy teenager,” said Doyne, adding that what she is doing today is the least of what she and her friends and family expected her to end up doing.

Sponsor for every child

Every child studying at Kopila has a sponsor, including American, British and Nepali nationals.

“In Nepal, you can do a lot for a child with very little money,” said Doyne who believes all Nepali children are her own children and therefore all of them have to have the same opportunities.

Kopila´s monthly running expense is Rs 600,000, of which half is spent on food, as Doyne wants to ensure a very good diet to her children.

The smiling theist, who admitted to being very sensitive, said there are days when things are simply overwhelming, making her wish she had rather not started the school.

“But at the end of the day, I realize I wouldn´t do anything else. I am really happy to be at Kopila,” she said.

The school´s management committee chairman Top Bahadur Malla, whose niece Sunita brought Doyne to Nepal for the first time, hopes the government will eventually grant Doyne visa for a longer duration as Doyne is planning to build a second and a third home to accommodate more needy children. Doyne built the first home on a piece of land bought with US $ 5,000 she saved babysitting during high school.
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