TWO-MONTH NIGHT SLAPPED IN MOHOTTARI

FINANCE MNISTER BRIEFS PRACHANDA ON BUDGET

Kathmandu, 7 April: Deputy Prime Minister and Finance
Minister Bharat Mohan Adhikari Thursday morning briefed Maoist Chairman Prachanda on a complete budget to be presented 3 May.
During the hour-long briefing one day after the cabinet decided to present a full budget, Adhikari told Prachanda agriculture will
be prioritized in the document.
He said the budget will be investor friendly.
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PRACHANDA ADDRESSING BASANTAPUR RALLY
Kathmandu, 7 April: Maoist Chairman Prachanda will address a rally at Basantapur in the capital and Vice-chairman Dr. Baburam Bhattarai will deliver a speech at Surkhet Thursday to mark the launch of Jananandolan II against royal rule five years ago.
It was launched bys even parliamentary parties and
Maoists.
But the prolonged transition from royal rule to a republic has been long and difficult for the nation and general people amid uncertainty.
The economy is sagging and the terai is threatened by a
revolt.
A declared republic hasn’t been institutionalized by
promulgating a constitution; a second 28 May deadline to declare the basic law won’t be met.
Nepali Congress is also observing the anniversary.
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US OFFICIAL DOESN’T FORESEE RETURN TO VIOLENCE

Kathmandu, 7 April: Robert O. Blake, US Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of South and Central Asia, said he doesn’t foresee a return to armed violence despite halting progress of the peace process.
“Despite its halting pace, the peace process nonetheless remains intact, and we see no imminent threat of a return to armed violence,” he said while testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Subcommittee on Middle East and
South Asia. Asia.

“While political parties remain divided on the form of government and state structure, the number of outstanding issues narrowed significantly over the past few months, especially on crucial matters like the independence of the judiciary,” he said.
“As an indication of their resolve to move ahead, the Maoists transferred command of their combatants to the multi-party Special Committee this January that is overseeing the monitoring mechanism previously maintained by the UN,”
Blake said this week.


“In order to help move the political process forward, we have helped build the capacity of key democratic institutions like the Election Commission, the Nepalese Parliament, and political parties to become more democratic, inclusive, and effective through training and workshops,” he added.
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INDIAN EMBASSY TO HANDOVER VEHICLES FOR MONITORING OF FORMER MAOIST FIGHTERS
Kathmandu, 7 April: Indian embassy Thursday will
handover vehicles for monitoring 19,000 former Maoists at 28 cantonments and camps to government.
UNMIN returned the vehicles to Indian embassy
after it withdraw from Nepal 15 January after a failed four-year mission.
Without the vehicles, Nepali monitoring teams
attached to a secretariat under a special committee
replacing
UNMIN staff, were encountering difficulties monitoring and
supervising the former combatants.
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HEALTH SECRETARY CANDIDATE FOR UN JOB

Kathmandu, 7 April: Health Secretary Sudha Sharma is a candidate for the steering committee of Sanitation And Water For All under the UN.
Government Wednesday endorsed her candidacy.
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NIGHT CURFEW SLAPPED IN MOHOTTARI

Kathmandu, 7 April: Seven-hour night curfew was slapped Wednesday at 13 places, including district headquarter Jaleshwor, in the district for two months from nine at night to four in the morning.
The district imposed the restriction following rising crime, an announcement said.
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RADIATION TESTS OF JAPANESE FOOD IMPORTS

Kathmandu, 7 April: Government will begin testing Japanese food imports for radiation.
Ganesh Dhakal, Spokesman of the ministry of commerce and supply,
made the announcement Wednesday.
“We are not banning Japanese foods because of the import volume is
negligible. It can be managed from quarantine,” Dhakal said according to published reports.
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SILVER FETCHES RECORD PRICE

Kathmandu, 7 April: Silver fetched a record Rs. 1,085 per tola
Wednesday.
The previous day’s selling price was Rs1,065 per tola.
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BLF, HBBL MERGER ENDORSED

Kathmandu, 7 April: Separate special general meetings Wednesday of Birgunj Finance Ltd.(BFL) and Himchuli Bikash Bank Ltd. (HBBL) approved the merger of the two financial institutions.
The name of the merged development bank is: Federal Development Bank.
Nepal Rashtra Bank has been pushing mergers as a policy.
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NEPAL TAKING INDIAN LOAN FOR INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT

Kathmandu, 7 April: Nepal is staking a Rs.17.75 billion loan from Exim Bank of India for the constructing infrastructure projects.
The loan at 1.75 percent is repayable in 20 years.
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NEPAL PLAYS AFGHANISTAN

Kathmandu, 7 April: Nepal plays Afghanistan Thursday in the AFC
Challenge Cup Group D qualifying match.
North Korea meets Sri Lanka.
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MEDIA GOOGLE

“His statements are akin to that of a president with executive powers. He
is not authorized to make such statements.”

(Maoist lawmaker Lokendra Bista Magar, The Himalayan Times. 7April)
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• MONEY MADESH PARTIES THREATEN STIR OVER VOTER REGISTATION
• ET CETERA

Kathmandu, 7 April: The opposition Madhesi parties on Wednesday asked the Election Commission to suspend the ongoing voter’s list collection in Terai districts and warned of a stir if only citizenship is made the criteria of electoral roll collection, The Kathmandu Post reports .

Speaking in the Parliament session Wednesday, Tarai Madhes Loktantrik Party lawmaker Hridayesh Tripathi and Nepal Sadbhawana Party lawmaker Laxman Lal Karna argued that many Madhesis would be left out if the list is prepared on the basis of citizenship. They also demanded revision of criteria. The Election Commission had resumed the voter registration programme with photographs and biometric information in all 75 districts of the country last week.

The commission’s second phase campaign in 58 municipalities and 43 village development committees last year faced resistance from Madhesi parties in the Tarai and armed outfits in eastern hill districts.

The decision to resume the voter registration follows the Supreme Court’s decision of February wherein the apex court directed the government to conduct the campaign based on

citizenship.

The warning of a stir by Madhes based parties could hinder the Election Commission’s plans to complete the process by June.

“The Election Commission can’t forcibly impose the criteria of citizenship and delist those who were in the old voter list,” said Karna.

“We notify the government that we will resume agitation if it doesn’t revise its stand,” he added.

Karna argued that 60 percent of eligible voters would not be part of the new registration if citizenship is made the only criteria. Lawmaker Tripathi said the ongoing voter list registration was unacceptable to the Madhesi people.

In the first two phases, the Election Commission had planned to register 2.7 million voters but was able to register only 1.3 million names due to obstruction by Madhesi parties and outfits operating in hill districts. By June this year, the commission plans to collect the list of 110 to 120 million voters from all 75 districts.

Meanwhile, in Sindhupalchowk, voter list collection was halted due to wrangling among political parties over the selection of voter list collectors. The parties want that the collectors be chosen from teachers’ unions affiliated to different parties.

According to regulations, voter list collectors will be chosen from among teachers of community schools by the District Education Office (DEO) at the request of the District Election Office.





Voter listing hits snag



Meanwhile, The Limbuwan State Council under Sanghiya Loktantrik Rastriya Mancha (SLRM) has obstructed voter registration and pre-registration programs in Taplejung, Panchthar, Dhankuta and Bhojpur, demanding that these districts be declared an autonomous state.

Voter registration work was halted several times earlier after some ethnic groups and Madhesh based parties obstructed the Election Commission project posing several demands, including that citizenship should not be made a compulsory document to issue voter ID. EC Spokesperson Rajendra Sharma said EC is holding an informal meeting with the party to resolve the dispute and make the program a success.
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Govt. FACILITIES FOR BIGGIES BEINGREVISED

Kathmandu, 7 April 7: The home ministry has started revising its guidelines for providing vehicles and personal security officers (PSOs) to former ministers and other high ranking government officials, to help check the drain on state coffers, Republica reports.

The move comes after the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) last week directed the ministry to immediately retrieve vehicles and PSOs being provided to former ministers and government officials after preparing ´transparent, coherent and economically viable´ guidelines on such facilities.

Talking to Republica, home ministry spokesperson Jaya Mukunda Khanal said they will start retrieving such vehicles and PSOs after finalizing the new guidelines. “We received the directives from the parliamentary committee on April 1. The home secretary has just arrived back home. It will take a little more time for us to start retrieving the vehicles and PSOs,” he said over the phone.

Amid reports that state facilities such as vehicles and PSOs were being grossly misused by former ministers and high ranking officials on the basis of their political clout, a PAC meeting held March 30 had directed the home ministry to retrieve within a week vehicles and PSOs that were being provided illegally.

Senior home ministry officials said they plan to curb the practice of providing vehicles and PSOs to one-time ministers or government officials on a life-long basis. “We are mulling vehicle facilities for persons entitle to honor from the state for a limited period of time,” he said, adding: “We will make arrangements for PSOs depending on the security threat one faces.”

Currently, the home ministry provides a former prime minister with two vehicles (one for security personnel), a driver, two personal security officers (PSO) from Nepal Police and 13 Armed Police Force (APF) personnel, as well as 200 liters of petrol a month. Likewise, former deputy prime ministers and home ministers are provided two PSOs from Nepal Police, seven APF personnel, one driver, two vehicles and 200 liters of petrol a month.

In addition, a large number of political leaders, businessmen and former bureaucrats, among others, have been receiving such facilities from the state largely on the basis of their political clout. The PAC meeting has directed the home ministry to ensure that all ministers return the vehicles in their use after they retire from their posts and also to refer the names of persons who have misused government facilities to the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA).
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