PM ELECTION THURSDAY

Kathmandu, 3 Feb.: Voting in the 599-member parliament to elect a successor of Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal who has been a caretaker since 30 June 2010 will be held Thursday at one in the afternoon.
The vote will be inconclusive with four candidates contesting.
Maoist Chairman Prachanda, NC parliamentary party leader Ram Chandra Paudel, UML Chairman Jhalanath Khanal and MJFL Chairman Bijaya Kumar Gachedhar filed their nominations Wednesday.
Gachedhar is the new entrant in the race; he claims the support of 17small parties.
NC central committee again nominated Paudel who was defeated in 16 rounds of elections after Nepal resigned on Maoist pressure.
Paudel said the central committee nominated his unanimously amid challenge from three-time Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba—a claim denied by the Deuba camp.
Party President Sushil Koirala intervened in favour of Paudel against and Deuba who challenged the parliamentary party leader arguing he had failed to get elected in 16 rounds of voting.
Second round voting will be held Friday if no candidate secures a majority.
The third and final round of voting will take place Sunday between two candidates who receive the most votes.
Election should be conclusive as no lawmaker can say neutral or abstain during voting.
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PRESIDENT HOLDS DISCUSSIONS WITH MANMOHAN SINGH

Kathmandu, 3 Feb. President Dr, Manmohan Singh Wednesday held separate high-level political discussions with Prime Minister Mamohan Singh and President of the ruling Indian National Congress Sonia Gandhi in
the Indian capital.
The Indian leaders discussed a wide rage of issues with the visiting ceremonial president, including the extended political deadlock.
Dr.Yadav held talks with Foreign Minister SM Krishna.
Main opposition leader Sushma Shawaraj also held discussions with
Dr. Yadav at Hydrabad House.
“Dr. Singh raised concern over the integration of the combatants after the departure of UNMIN. A bilateral review of the relation between the two countries took place in the meeting,” Foreign Secretary Madan Bhattarai, who is accompanying the president, told Republica.
The president continues discussions with Indian leaders in New Delhi Thursday.
The president visits Chandigadh Friday before returning home Saturday after concluding a 10-day visit.
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BANKERS’ ELECTION THURSDAY

Kathmandu, 3 Feb.: Election is being held Thursday to elect the president of Nepal Bankers’ Association for a two-year term.
Incumbent Chairman Sashin Joshi CEO of NIC Bank, Ashok Rana, Vice-president of Himalayan Bank and Kamal Geywali, CEO of KIST Bank, have filed their nominations.
Chief executives of 30 banks and three development banks are members of the association.
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ANOTHER NAC OFFICIAL RELEASED

Kathmandu, 3 Feb.: Acting Deputy Director Keshab Raj Sharma of Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) was released Wednesday on a surety of Rs 500,000.
Sharma was charged by CIAA for irregularities in the purchase of two Airbuses
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BOMBING IN RAUTAHAT

Kathmandu, 3 Feb.: A socket bomb planted at the private clinic of Dr. Ramshanker Thakur caused minor damage Wednesday in Gaur, Rautahat.
Bomb disposal team of Nepal Army is searching for more hidden bombs.
Violence continues unabated in the terai.
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MEDIA GOOGLE

‘UNMIN out and out worked for Maoists, allowed it to inflate its combatants number to 34,000, but was least bothered about human rights violation abuse committed by the Maoists.”

(Retired Army Chief Gen. Rukmangud Katawal, thereporter, 3 Feb.)

“The disclosure of the video clips of Shaktikhor in which
Prachanda made it clear that the UCPN-M, despite being in
government and the peace process, had not given up violence and
killing, actually saved me [from assassination] since all other
parties realized by that time what Maoists were up to.”

(Retired Gen. Rukmangud Katawal, thereporter, 3 Feb.)
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INDIAN CALL TO CONSTRUCT ROAD ALONG INDO-NEPAL BORDER

Kathmandu, 3 Feb.: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has to the federal proposed the construction of a 726 km highway along the open border, Nagarik reports.
He proposal was made in New Delhi Tuesday at a meeting of chief ministers on internal security; the meeting was inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Nitish demanded the construction of the highway to curb cross-border infiltration, control of illegal trade in drugs, smuggling and other crimes.
The road will enable the fight against Naxals.
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PADT STARTS REPAIRS AT PASHUPATI





Kathmandu, 3 Feb.: The Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT) finally started repairing of the weakened structure of the Pashupatinath temple, its damaged walls and steps, The Rising Nepal reports.
Around four months ago Prime Minster Madhav Kumar Nepal had visited the temple and directed PADT to repair all the damaged structures immediately.
The rodents and leaking roofs have weakened the foundation of the temple and the temple walls and steps of the eastern face too are damaged owing to a lack of timely maintenance.
According to Narottam Baidya, Treasure of PADT, the repair process was started after engineers looked into the matter.
"We have just begun the repair process so we do not how the depth of damage at the foundation, walls and level of erosion of soil that has posed danger to the main temple," he said.
The soil erosion underneath the temple was caused by the rodents leading to the weakening of the foundation. For the past 50, the temple authority simply carried out the normal repair of the temple and did not look into the foundation, added.
The PADT formed a taskforce for an early renovation of the temple and provided Rs. 3 million fund for the purpose. But the repair works would need more funds that that was separated for the renovation as the temple authority has no idea about the depth of the damage, he said.
The Ministry of Federal Affairs, Constituent Assembly, Parliament Affairs and Culture, Department of Archeology and PADT formed a nine-member taskforce under PADT treasure of Narottam Baidya to carry out the repair and maintenance works, he infromed.
PADT alone could not maintain the temple which compelled the Ministry to form the nine-member taskforce to complete maintenance works, he added
The actual date of the completion of the repair work has not yet been known but the committee has guessed that that the repair works will complete before Shivaratri, he said.




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TEACHERS APPOINTMENT IN DOLDRUMS
APPOINTMENT OF TEACHERS IN DOLDRUMS
Kathmandu, 3 Feb.: The Ministry of Education (MoE) and the Ministry of Finance (MoF) are locking horns over the method of appointing 4,000 additional teachers in this fiscal year, Om Astha Rai reports in Republica..

Though MoE urged the MoF to make necessary financial arrangements for creating additional posts of teachers in selected public and community higher secondary schools so that at least one school in all 240 constituencies would have a science faculty, as pledged by Finance Minister Surendra Pandey in his budget speech, the MoF has not made any decision owing to the differences between the two ministries.

According to sources, the MoE has proposed creation of permanent posts of teachers for which the MoF will have to increase the annual budget for the salaries of teachers. Instead of increasing its annual budget by creating permanent posts, the MoF is ready to provide only an amount grant to schools.

"This is about properly utilizing the state´s hard-earned resources," said Ishwari Prasad Aryal, under secretary at the MoF. "Creating permanent posts for additional teachers is not really a good idea. Instead, if we provide a grant, the selected schools will be free to hire teachers for any subject in the science faculty based on their requirement."

The MoE fears appointing new teachers on the basis of a grant support could spell trouble in future. "Grant is meant only for a year, " an MoE official told Republica, requesting not to be named.

“What if we hire teachers this year, and the MoF does not provide grant in the coming years. This is why we are pushing for permanent posts." In his budget speech, Minister Pandey had allocated Rs 1 billion for hiring additional teachers. However, the disagreement over the appointment cropped up as the speech was silent on the method of hiring the teachers.

The MoE´s initiative to assist one higher secondary school in each constituency to set up science faculty comes in the wake of Tribhuvan University (TU) phasing out Proficiency Certificate Level (PCL) last year. The country´s oldest university had actually decided to scrap PCL way back in 1992.

However, the university failed to implement its decision for almost two decades due to student unions´ protests. Agitating unions relented last year only after the MoE promised to help at least one public +2 school in every constituency in setting up science faculties.
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MISSING STUDENTS TRACED IN GORKHA
Kathmandu, 3 Feb.: The missing students of Gorkha district-based Mahendra Jyoti Higher Secondary School were found in safe condition after nearly 18 hours on Wednesday afternoon.
Fourteen students had gone missing after Tuesday’s attack in the school by the UCPN (Maoist) activists. Police found a group of missing students in a forest in Nareshwor VDC while others were found in other locations, Krishna Acharya reports in The Kathmandu Post from Gorkha..
“We are preparing to submit the children to their guardians,” said Police Inspector Til Bahadur Kunwar.
Earlier, the parents of the missing students had staged demonstration at the district headquarters Gorkha Bazaar demanding that the authorities concerned investigate the whereabouts of their children. They had also submitted memoranda to the District Administration Office and District Education Office pressing their demand.
The students had fled homes fearing that the Maoist cadres could hound and attack them.
“We spent the entire night in the forest worried if the YCL men were coming after us or they attacked our family members,” said Rajkumar Kunwar, one of the missing students.
On Tuesday, 50-odd Maoist activists had stormed the school premises and launched an indiscriminate attack on the students and teachers protesting the decision of the school management committee to take action against Maths teacher Bhaikaji Shrestha for absenteeism. At least 12 people, mostly students, were hurt in the attack allegedly called by Dhruv Joshi, chairman of the committee and a Maoist supporter.
Maoists deny involvement
Meanwhile, UCPN (Maoist) has denied the party’s involvement in the Tuesday’s attack at the Mahendra Jyoti Higher Secondary School. Chudamani Khadka, Maoist district secretary, accused that some individuals associated with the Nepali Congress and CPN-UML engineered the incident to defame the Maoists. “To say that the students are hiding in jungle 24 hours after the incident is their conspiracy,” Khadka said over telephone conversation. “Our party has no involvement in this incident. It is a move to vilify the Maoist image.”
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