NC DRUMS UP SUPPORT FOR ITS POSITION

NC COLLECTS SUPPORT FOR ITS POSITION
Kathmandu, 23 May: Main opposition NC Monday convened a meeting of parties for its position to complete the peace process for a six-month extension of the constituent assembly (CA)after28 May.
President Sushil Koirala, parliamentary party leader Ram Chandra Paudel and other top leaders lobbied for support.
A front of three Madeshbadi parties, RPP, RJP, CPN (ML) and several small parties lent support to the NC at Monday’s meet.
The parties are attempting to stop government from collecting a required two-third majority to amend article 64 of an interim constitution to extend the CA tenure by one year after28 May,
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SPECIAL COMMITTEE MEET BEGINS UPDATE
Kathmandu, 23 May: A meeting of a special committee for integration, resettlement and supervision of 19,000 plus former Maoist fighters chaired by Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal began Monday.
The committee is meeting after one month.
The body is holding last-minute discussions on the number and modality for integration and appointment of personnel to monitor fighters housed in 28 camps and cantonments,
The committee, through its secretariat, is encountering difficulties in monitoring the fighters in the camps without adequate human resources.
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CONTINUING KHAS CHETRI STRIKE AFFECTS NORMAL LIFE IN SOME DISTRICTS OUTSIDE VALLEY

Kathmandu, 23 May: Khas Chetri strike in some districts outside the Valley, even after an agreement with government to call off the protests overnight, disrupted normal life there Monday.
The continuing strike disrupted normal in Morang, Jhapa and Sankhuwasabha.
Normalcy was restored Monday in the Valley after a crippling strike Sunday pressing six points
The strike was called after an overnight agreement with the government agreed to consider demands within one month.
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UML POLITBURO MEET CONTINUES

Kathmandu, 23 May: A meeting of the politburo of UML leading the communist majority government continued Monday with remaining members expressing their views.
Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal is in a minority in the politburo where critics led by former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and KP Sharma Oli have launched a scathing tirade against the government chief, for aligning with Maoists to run government unilaterally sidelining party directives.
The politburo is also setting an agenda for Tuesday’s meeting of the central committee
It’s also discussing an official party position of integrating only 5,000 Maoist fighters in state security agencies; the party position was prepared by the secretariat. and presented at the politburo Sunday for approval.
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TMLP CENTRAL COMMITTEE MEETS

Kathmandu, 23 May: The central committee of TMLP chaired by Manhanta Thakur meets Monday two days after a front of three Madeshbadi parties concluded their regional drive with a mass meeting in Biratnagar to drum up support for their an anti-government campaign.
The front has warned of a strike in the south if the tenure of the constituent assembly is again extended for one more year after 28 May Saturday,
The front has aligned with the main opposition Nepali Congress.
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PM MAY HAVE TO STEP DOWN:UML
Kathmandu, 23 May: A political document prepared by CPN-UML general secretary Ishwor Pokharel has suggested that Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal may need to step down, if need be, to pave the way for formation of national unity government to conclude peace and constitution-drafting processes, Arjun Bhandari writes in .The Himalayan Times.

The document moots concluding the peace process and simultaneously sorting out disputed issues of constitution — form of government, election system and federalism — within nine weeks.

The document has proposed extending the CA term only for six months, in line with the NC, and not for one year as proposed by the government.

Pokharel said after today’s politburo meeting that the document included plan of action on peace and statute-drafting processes, things to be accomplished before and after May 28, modality and number of Maoist combatants to be integrated into national security forces and standard norms to be followed for integration.

Politburo members, Surendra Pandey and Arun Nepal, said the document had proposed integration of only 5,000 Maoist combatants into national security bodies. But Unified CPN-Maoist’s latest proposal is to integrate at least 8,000 combatants. Sources, however, said the parties could compromise at 6,000 at the last moment.

Nepal said the document stressed that Maoists should detach themselves from their weapons by handing them over to the government before May 28 and they had to agree theoretically on regrouping the combatants into two groups – integration and rehabilitation – shortly after the CA term extension.

UML has proposed reaching a theoretical understanding on the form of government, election system and federalism within nine weeks, the timeframe proposed for concluding the peace process.

The UML has proposed directly-elected president and prime minister to be elected by a majority of votes of Parliament with a clear division of power between the two and three types of election systems: MMPR (mixed-member proportional representation for federal parliament; proportional election system for provincial assemblies and first-past-the-post for mayor and deputy mayor of local bodies).

Surya Thapa, press adviser to the PM, said tomorrow’s [Monday’s] three-party meeting between UCPN-Maoist, NC and UML will dwell on matters related to peace and constitution. “If they agree on peace and constitution-drafting processes, the PM will convene the Special Committee (on supervision, integration and rehabilitation of the combatants) thereafter,” Thapa said.
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SUPREME COURT REVIEWS DECISION ON CA EXTENSION
Kathmandu, 23 May: The Supreme Court today [Sunday] began hearing on review of its own verdict upholding one year extension of the Constituent Assembly tenure through the eighth amendment of the Interim Constitution of Nepal, 2007, The Himalayan Times reports.

A five-member special bench led by Chief Justice Khil Raj Regmi began reviewing the CA extension.

Responding to a writ filed by Hindu activist Bharat Jangum, the bench set out to review its verdict issued on November 4, 2010 that had upheld the extension of CA tenure.

Pleading on behalf of the petitioner, former attorney general and senior advocate Pawan Kumar Ojha today called upon the apex court to correct its mistake and said the CA tenure extension was unconstitutional.

“There is no other authority that can correct its own mistake except the apex court, so it must exercise correctional jurisdiction,” Ojha said. “The SC does not have to consider whether there will be constitutional and political crisis, but it must interpret the constitution.”

He also argued that the Legislature Parliament has the real authority to amend the constitution.

Constitutional law expert Dr Chandra Kanta Gyawali also added that the CA extension was unconstitutional as the interim constitution provisions only a two-year tenure.

“The November 4 verdict also stated that it was unconstitutional to amend the CA tenure again and again. So the apex court must guard against misuse of the constitution,” argued Gyawali.

Stating that the CA tenure was extended on May 29, after the expiry of the two-year term, senior advocate Devendra Nepali claimed that supporting the amendment was nothing but inspiring the government and politicians to misuse power.

Advocate Balkrishna Neupane urged the SC to issue clear-cut rulings to follow the spirit of the constitution. “If the apex court gives clean chit to the government to violate the law, the government will repeat the mistake,” he claimed.

Arguing that lawmakers were not elected to extend their own tenure, Neupane said the SC should not think about managing political crisis as there are legitimate options such as fresh elections to address the crisis.

According to senior advocate Ramji Bista, amending the constitution through the meeting of the CA was nothing but a fraud.

Attorney General Yuba Raj Sangroula and senior government attorneys will defend the government and CA tomorrow.
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AVIAN FLU CONTROL PROJECT BEING PHASED OUT






Kathmandu, 23 May: The Avian Influenza Control Project (AICP) under the Department of Health Services, is being phased out from coming July, four years after it was established, The Rising Nepal reports.
The project aimed to control influenza epidemics.
World Bank had provided a grant of 18 million dollars for the project. From July, the WB is going to stop its grant for the project saying that the country was now free from the risk of influenza epidemics.
Rudra Bahadur Khadka, director of the National Health Education Information and Communications Centre (NHEICC), said that the government had no plan of extending the project.
According to Khadka, avian influenza control activities would not stop despite phasing out of the project.
Communications component of the project will be handover to NHEICC, Khadka said.
The national laboratory will continue the surveillance on situation of influenza while the Epidemiology and Disease Control Division will carry out service related tasks.
The government had endorsed joint health and agriculture national avian influenza and influenza pandemic preparedness and response plan in early 2006
AICP was established in 2007 to address animal and human health issues in an integrated manner.

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PASHMINA EXPORTS NOSE-DIVE





Kathmandu, May.22 - The export of Nepalese pashmina dropped by almost 90 per cent over the decade. The export of pashmina had started witnessing a declining trend from 2000. At that time, Nepal used to export pashmina worth more than Rs. 10 billion a year, Laxman Kafle reports in The Rising Nepal.
Now the export has dropped to Rs. one billion.
According to president of the Pashmina Industry Association Pushpa Man Shrestha, the export of Nepali pashmina has massively dropped owing to lack of promotion as well as the entry of the Chinese and Indian pashminas in the international markets.
Although the export of pashmina has been witnessing a gradual fall, pashmina could still be a major export item of Nepal with adequate room for its revival, he said.
He said that due to the constant effort of the businessmen and the government, the Nepalese pashmina had succeeded to dominate the international market in the 1990s. However, the business saw a sudden decline after the two neighboring countries started exporting similar-looking pashmina in the third countries.
"However, in terms of quality, Nepalese pashminas were far better than those Indian and Chinese ones," he claimed.
During the peak period, the buyers of the Nepalese pashmina loved to use Nepalese pashmina as exclusive and valuable items but the consumers started confusing when they saw the flow of the Chinese products in the market at lower prices than the Nepalese products.
It was natural for them to buy the products available in cheaper prices, he said.
He hoped that the export of pashmina would revive if it was promoted in the international market using its trademark.
He stressed the need of promoting the trademark in the international market in order to increase the awareness among the clients about the quality of the Nepalese pashminas.
Saying that the Association had started registering the trademark in the international market, he added that the Association had initiated a campaign to register the trademark and promote it for the revival of the export trade of the pashmina.
According to him, marketing, branding and promoting the trademark was a challenging task but not impossible.
He asked the concerned bodies to join hand with the Association to help uplift the export of Nepalese pashmina.
The Association has already registered the collective trademark in 38 countries including 27 countries under the European Union.
With five years’ collective efforts of the government and the association, the trademark was registered in Norway, Switzerland, America, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia.
The association was moving to register the collective trademark in other countries including China, Thiland, Brazil, South Africa, UAE, Russia, Mexico, Malaysia, Israel, Pakistan etc., he said.
He hoped that the export of the Nepalese pashminas would increase with the introduction of the trademark tag in the days to come.
The export business is expected to increase by 20 per cent every year to reach 20 billion rupees within five years, he said.
"But we need to promote the Nepalese pashmina properly in the international markets," he added.
With the fall in the export, now only around 200 factories are in operation and only 30,000 people are getting jobs in these factories. A decade ago, more than more than 100,000 people used to work in over 1000 factories.

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LABOUR RECRUITMENT AGREEMENTS WITH MALAYSIA, LEBANON

Kathmandu, 23 May:The government is all set to sign agreements with Malaysia and Lebanon on the recruitment of Nepali workers. The Ministry of Labour and Transport Management said that a high-level team led by the minister or a secretary would visit these countries to sign the memorandum of understanding (MoU), The Kathmandu Post reports.

Even though Malaysia is the largest employer of Nepali workers, the Nepal government has not signed any labour agreement with it. The absence of a pact has been creating hurdles to outsourcing agencies and outbound workers besides making it difficult to address the rights of Nepali workers. Similarly, following increasing complaints of housemaids suffering exploitation at the workplace, the government had moved to sign a labour agreement with Lebanon about 10 months ago.

“The Ministry of Finance has made a commitment to provide the required budget and Malaysia and Lebanon have finished reviewing a draft of the agreement,” said Krishna Hari Pushkar Karna, assistant spokesperson and under secretary at the Labour Ministry. He added that work on concluding a labour pact had slowed down because of the current political situation.

“Since we have no embassy in Lebanon, the signing of the pact will help us to deal with affairs related to workers and ensure their legal rights,” said Chandra Man Shrestha, acting director general of the Department of Foreign Employment. He added that once the agreement is signed, the two countries would be legally bound to assume responsibility for the workers as agreed in the pact.

A few years ago, the Nepal government had unilaterally fixed the basic salary of workers leaving for Malaysia at 546 ringgits. However, as Malaysia has been offering a minimum salary of 481 ringgits, outsourcing agencies have been found making fake job contracts to get approval from the Department of Foreign Employment.

“Around 50 percent of Malaysian firms pay the salary set by Nepal following a labour crunch caused by the financial crisis of last year,” said Kumud Khanal, general secretary of the Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies. He added that the government should incorporate in the accord provisions for 24-hour insurance, right to change jobs if the hiring firm closes down or goes bankrupt, payment of salaries through banking channels even though the firm is located in a remote area and standardisation of the basic salary.

There are an estimated 500,000 plus Nepalis in Malaysia working in different fields, and most of them are unskilled or semi-skilled. Similarly, in Lebanon, there are an estimated 20,000 plus Nepali workers with most of them working as domestic help or housemaids. The association said that housemaids who have reached Lebanon illegally through personal contacts were facing problems with regard to their professional rights in the absence of legal protection through a labour pact.

“There are cases of abuse of housemaids who are normally on duty round the clock,” said Khanal. He added that the government must sign an agreement to fix the basic salary of housemaids at US$ 250, arrange payment of salaries through banks and ensure inspection of the situation of workers at least every three months besides them providing SIM cards and a special hotline for keeping in touch.

According to the Foreign Employment Act, the government is required to sign labour pacts with major labour destinations to ensure the welfare of Nepali workers. So far, the government has signed labour pacts with the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, South Korea for sending workers under Employment Permit System and Japan to send Nepali industrial trainees to

Japan. The government is also considering signing a labour agreement with Oman and starting direct flights.
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INTERVIEW

DIRECTORATE HOULD BE GIVEN MILITARY MANDATE: PUN

Kathmandu, 23 May: Barsha Man Pun, Chief of Maoist Army Integration Bureau Monday asked parties to support a Nepal Army plan for integration to keep ‘politics on track’.

Pun was talking with Republica´s Kiran Chapagain and Kiran Pun
Excerpts of the Interview:

Your party was for a separate mixed force until the standing committee decided to accept NA´s integration modality. Why did the party take such a decision?

It is true that our party was for creating a separate mixed force as such a force would have addressed the sensitivities of the PLA, Nepal Army, Armed Police Force and the Nepal Police. But we decided to accept the NA modality to keep the current politics on track and to find a compromising point on integration modality. We hope that the army-proposed modality will be acceptable to all.

Nepali Congress has argued that your party has not accepted the army-floated modality in totality. How far is that true?

Creating a separate directorate under the Nepal Army to accommodate personnel from the PLA, Armed Police Force, Nepal Police and Nepal Army is acceptable to us. We are open to discussions on other details of the modality.

The army has proposed that such a directorate should have 35 percent personnel each from the NA and the Maoist army, and 15 percent each from the Nepal Police and the Armed Police Force. Is this acceptable to your party?

Our party has proposed that there should be 50 percent personnel each from the existing security agencies and the Maoist army. Still this issue is open for discussion. Though we have proposed that 10,000 Maoist combatants should be integrated, the number has not been finalized yet. We are open for discussions with other parties on number, standard norms and rank harmonization.

What is the party´s position on rank harmonization?

We have proposed to other parties that the leadership of the [proposed] directorate should be given to the Maoist combatants and the second and third rank to the NA. As there are over a dozen directorates, we hope we will at least get one leadership position. We further proposed that other posts in the directorate should be distributed equally among the Maoist army and the existing security agencies.

What will be the highest rank of PLA to be integrated?

We will give individual choice to all friends. The same choice will be given to the PLA leadership who are in the party´s central committee and politburo.

The Nepal Army has proposed to give the directorate the mandate of civil protection only. Will it be acceptable to your party?

We are in formal and informal talks with the Nepal Army along with other parties in this regard. Similarly, we are also in touch with other stakeholders. We have proposed that the directorate should also be given the responsibility of border security and handling of natural calamities. The directorate should also have military mandate.

Does it mean that your party is holding talks with NA?

Party leaders are holding talks with all stakeholders, including the Nepal Army, to understand their concerns and sensitivity with regard to integration. However, the parties, government and the Special Committee will have a final say.

What are the concerns and sensitivities of the NA?

Army´s sensitivity means its sensitivity toward the nation and the government. We are trying to understand their concerns. Similarly, we want to ensure that its chain of command is not compromised during integration.

Nepal Army has proposed that Maoist combatants should either be recruited at the private or second lieutenant´s level. What is the party´s position?

Integration does not mean entry or recruitment; it is a management of conflict.

While your party has decided to accept the NA modality, you don´t accept some parts of that modality. How should we understand the party´s decision?

It would have been comfortable for us to create a separate security force for integration. We have not demanded top positions in the army. We have said that we are ready to be accommodated under a directorate of the army.

How is the progress on rehabilitation package?

Combatants who will not be integrated will be given golden hand shake. We have proposed that junior PLA combatants who will opt for voluntary retirement should be given around Rs 700,000 while seniors should be given between Rs 800,000 and one million depending on their ranks. Such an incentive should be given either in the form of cash or Treasury bill.
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