PARLIAMENT CONDOLES BHATTARAI DEATH

PARLIAMENT CONDIOLES KRISHNA PRASAD BHATTARAI’S DEATH; OTHER DETAILS

By Bhola B Rana

Kathmandu, 7 March: Parliament through a resolution Monday condoled Friday’s death of two-time former Prime Minster Krishna Prasad Bhattarai.
A scheduled legislative session wasn’t held Sunday when he was cremated.
Parliament noted he was the first speaker of an elected parliament in 1959 and observed a one-minute silence.
A sea of humanity Sunday joined the funeral procession from Dashtath Ranghashala to Pashupatinath Aryaghat where he was cremated with full state honours.
Nepal Army offered a 13-gun salute.
Top NC leaders, including President Sushil Koirala draped his body twice in nine hours with the flag of the party which he quit after the oldest and at one time the biggest party adopted a republican agenda under Girija Prasad Koirala.
Kishunji was draped with flags first at party headquarters and then at Pashupatinath before the funeral pyre was lit.
The only surviving founding member of the party was sidelined by the Koirala faction for more than three years after the 87-year-old leader stubbornly rejected the Koirala agenda and supported constitutional monarchy.
The party couldn’t ignore his four decade contribution for the pro-democracy movement first by fighting Rana rule later partyless Panchayat rule when he died.
The spontaneous crowd on the street recognized his selfless, dedicated, principled and brave contribution.
Indian Foreign Minister S.M Krishna was the only recognized government leader from a world capital to remember Bhattarai.
On behalf of the government and the Indian people, Krishna said, ”I am shocked and deeply grieved to learn of the sad demise of a towerting leader of the Nepali Congress and former prime minister Shri Krishna Prasad Bhattarai. Kishunji’s role in institutionalizing of democracy will be remembered with gratitude by the people of Nepal.
“The people of India join the fraternal people of Nepal in sharing their sorrow at this loss.”
India’s main opposition BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani also praised Kishunj.
‘I deeply mourn the sad demise of Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, former prime minister of Nepal, and a great statesman championing the cause of strong and cordial India-Nepal relations,” Advani said.
Significantly, no Indian political party arrived in Kathmandu to participate n the funeral.
EU member states ad the organization ignored Bhattarai’s death, except Great Britain which remembered Kishiunji’s contribution for the democratic movement with a terse one para statement issued by the British embassy.
Strong and high-level praise for Bhattarai from major world capitals would be embarrassing at a time when institutionalizing a declared republic is encountering major hurdles.
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CONSTRUCTION OF SECOND STRATEGIC HIGHWAY LINKING NEPAL, TIBET DELAYED

Kathmandu, 7 March: The construction of the 16 km Sanfebagar- Rashuwagadi highway—the second strategic mountain road linking central Nepal an Tibet—has been delayed 20 months state-owned Radio Nepal said.
China is funding and construction the road in the central region.
Kathmandu-Kodari road is the other road linking Nepal with Tibet.
The second road will give China easier road access to hill districts bordering Tibet.
Nepal will benefit through increased and earlier trade.
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HEALTH INSTITUTIONS IN EAST HAVEN’T MET BASIS STANDARDS

Kathmandu, 7 March: Health institutions in Jhapa, Morang andl Sunsari in the eastern region haven’t met basis standards and Nepal Medical Association (NMA) threatened action.
NMA said it conducted a survey of 96 institutions.
Medical practitioners without degrees are working freely, the Association revealed jeopardizing lives of people.
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NTV CHIEF RESIGNS


Kathmandu, 7 March: Chairman of Nepal Television (NTV) resigned Monday.
He’s a UML committee.
Maoists have taken charge of communications mnistry.
NTV is fully government-owned.
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BRITISH MINISTER ARRIVES

Kathmandu, 7 March: British Minister of States for International Development, Alan Duncan said
He arrived Monday morning on a four-day visit—his second in one year.
“This time, I am here with a plan for UK development support, which I will launch on Wednesday,” he said in the statement.”

He’s scheduled to meet top leaders including President Dr Ram Baran Yadav, Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal, UCPN-Maoist Chairman Prachanda and Nepali Congress president Sushil Koirala.

Showing his interest in the present political situation in Nepal, Duncan said Nepal has a new Prime Minister with a fresh opportunity for political progress. He also showed concern towards the fast-running tenure of the Constituent Assembly and the sluggish peace process.

Duncan said he’ll encourage leaders to final a delayed government and complete the peace process and tackle other major development challenges.
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SURYA BAHADUR THAPA TO MEET SONIA GANDHI

Kathmandu, 7 March: Surya Bahadur Thapa, known for his close links with India, said Sunday he’ll hold discussions with ruling Congress(I) Chairperson Sonia Gandhi before flying for New Delhi.
Sources in RJP which he chairs, said he’s also holding talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh before returning six days later.
The former prime minister flew for India amid a fluid political situation at home where a government dominated by communists with majority in parliament is being assembled.
Thapa has called for a broad democratic front against the government led by Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal who is also chairman of UML which has allied with Maoists to form a government pledging to complete the peace process and draft a constitution by28 May.
Thapa accused the government of pushing left polarization.
UML has forged an alliance with Maoists, Nepal’s largest political party.
Thapa is attempting to build a front of ‘democrats’ with NC.
Chairman of RJP flew for the Indian capital for a ‘political pilgrimage’ under the garb of a medical check-up conducted in India once every two years.
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200 MORE WORKERS RETURNING HOME FROM LIBYA

Kathmandu, 7 March: Another group of approximately 200 Nepali workers from Libya is being airlifted home Monday, foreign ministry said.
Altogether 560 workers stranded in Sudan were brought back Sunday in two charted flights from the country neighbouring troubled Libya.
The workers were employed by a Chinese company.
Until Sunday 1,058 workers have arrived home and 116 are stranded inside Libya, a foreign ministry official said.
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DEEPAK BISTA WEDS

Kathmandu, 7 March: Dipak Bista Sunday wed taekwondo star SAG silver medalist Ayasha Sakya.
Star athlete Bista is the only Nepali to collect four SAG golds.
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MEDIA GOOGLE

“If the government fails to accomplish the major tasks of concluding the peace process and writing the constitution within the given timeframe, the new coalition will also face the fate of Nepal-led government.”

(Maoist Vice-chairman Dr Babauram Bhattarai, Repbblica, 7 March)
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BHUTANESE REFGEE FEARS SHE MAY NEVER RETUN FOM USA

Kathmandu, 7 March:: Chandramaya Khanal (83) wishes to die on the Bhutanese soil, where she was born and spent a considerable stretch of her life. But this wish, in all probability, will remain a wish for Khanal, Kumar Luitel reports from Damak in The Himalayan Times..

Tomorrow, Khanal, a Bhutanese refugee languishing in the Beldangi camp for years with a faint hope of repatriation to her home country, will fly to the US to resettle in North Dakota under the third-country resettlement programme. As a precursor to the long journey ahead, she bade farewell to the refugee camp, her home away from home.

“I was born in Bhutan, spent years in Nepal and think I will die in America,” says Khanal, who is leaving the country with her daughter and son-in-law.

Back in Bhutan, her family had a home in Tala village. Her husband, who had gone to Varanasi for studies, died when her daughter was one-month-old. During the 1990s, fresh troubles befell Khanal and other Bhutanese of Nepali origin. The Bhutanese regime chased away her family along with others and she ended up camping near the Mechi bridge with her only daughter.

After staying on the banks of the Kankai river for sometime, they found a new home in the

Beldangi camp.

Her son-in-law Kamal Kumar Pokharel said: “I hope it will be easier for us to settle in the US, as all of my relatives have settled there.”

“She is going to the US with us as we are her only relatives here. Besides, she also chose to leave,” Pokharel said, pointing at the lack of options at the woman’s disposal.
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GOVT.EXPANSION MAY BE DELAYED

Kathmandu, 7 March: Cabinet getting a full shape may take some more time as inter and intra party talks continue to flounder, a prime ministerial aide said on Sunday, The Kathmandu Post reports.

The Maoists are yet to submit seven names to PM Jhala Nath Khanal, while the PM is in no hurry to expand the Cabinet, the aide said. As discussions with other parties have yielded no results, the PM appears in a mood to go easy to buy more time for a broad coalition. Contenders within the UML appear a frustrated lot given the lack of urgency on their leader’s part to pick names. “It seems leaders in the party are not serious about selecting names. This is likely to prevent the Cabinet from taking a full shape soon,” UML leader Prithivi Subba Gurung said.

The UML has formed a task force to pick party leaders for ministerial berths, but a meeting to this effect has not been convened so far, according to a leader. UML leader and a task force member Madhav Kumar Nepal is in Japan and won’t be back before March 10. Though Khanal is under pressure from Bam Dev Gautam and KP Sharma Oli to appoint their men as ministers, he doesn’t seem too inclined to get more UML members in the Cabinet just yet.
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BODY TO DIRECT PEs IN OFFING

Kathmandu, 7 March 7: The Ministry of Finance (MoF) is mulling over forming a Public Enterprises Governing Authority (PEGA), an autonomous body to would regulate and oversee the operation of public sector entities and free them from the grip of line ministries. Republica reports..

MoF has already worked out a framework of the new institution, delineating its function and responsibility. “We will soon forward it to the cabinet for approval,” said Tanka Mani Sharma, joint secretary at MoF.

If the government approves the proposal, the new institution will takeover the authority of formulating policies related to public enterprises, recruiting board members and chief executives, monitoring their activities and checking anomalies in their operations.

So far, public enterprises are handled and monitored by concerned line ministries. As a result, there is no uniformity in the way they are managed.

Also, as concerned line ministries reserved the authority to recruit and appoint key staff like executive chiefs and board of directors, political leaders heading the ministry often misused their powers to appoint their “near ones” in the important posts.

Many ministers are known to have misused this authority by appointing party cadres as board directors and executive heads.

Several high-level commissions formed at different intervals have pin-pointed undue party politicking in appointments and interference in internal management as major problems plaguing PEs. Such practices have led to overstaffing, erosion of productivity and leakages in PEs.

“No wonder most of the PEs have turned sick and become useless institutions,” said a source.

Under the new framework, however, MoF plans to handover all supervisory, appointment, decision making and monitoring authority to the PEGA from the concerned ministries.

“Concerned ministries can ask PEs to submit their performance reports. However, they will no more be able to appoint board members and general managers, among others,” said the source.

This, MoF believes, will help check undue political interference in the PEs. As for PEGA´s structure, it plans to make the authority a small and efficient body.

Once freed from vested political interests, PEGA can then push for increasing their productivity, plugging leakages and streamlining their operations professionally, said the source.

There are currently 36 public enterprises promoted by the government. However, most of them are reeling under huge losses and have been depending on government loans and investments to carry on their operations.

Given the situation, the latest commission formed to review government budget management and expenditure system appointing the chairmen, boards of directors and chief executives on the basis of professional skill, transparency and open competition in order to run the ailing PEs under competent management and end political interference.
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