CASINO OPERATOR RAKESH WADHA WITHDRAWS CASE AGAINST GOVT.

HOME MINISTER MAHARA GRILLED BY PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE

Kathmandu, 24 June: Home Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara was grilled by parliament’s state affairs committee on the security situation, committee members said.
He was also questioned on the delayed arrest of a youth leader of the UML leading the communist majority government for the murderous assault on reporter Khilnath Dhakal two weeks in the town.
Central president of the Youth Force Mahesh Basnet has implicitly admitted he’s shielding the district youth leader.
Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal Thursday assured journalists in the capital the district youth leader of hi party will be arrested after a police search amid charges party is also sheltering the accused.
nnnn.

RAKESH WADHA WITHDRAWS CASE AGAINST GOVT.

Kathmandu, 24 June: Rakesh Wadha, proprietor of Nepal Recreation Center (NRC) that operates four casinos Thursday withdraw a case filed at the supreme court challenging a tourism ministry decision to scrap its operating license.
Narendra Shrestha filed the case on behalf of Wadha, an Indian national.
The ministry cancelled the license for non-payment of royalty dues to government.
Trade union representatives said NRC hasn’t paid workers’ salary for seven months and asked Wadha’s lawyers to withdraw the case at the apex court.
nnnn


FORMER CEO OF SAMJHANA FINANCE ARRESTED

Kathmandu, 24 June: Him Bahadur Gurung, former CEO of Samjhana Finance that’s being liquidated, was arrested from the capital Thursday.
Its former Executive Chairman Shyam Bahadur Shrestha was arrested 5 June in an effort to punish company officials for fraudulent and criminal financial crimes.
Gurung has been charged for misappropriating Rs.41.5 million.
Nnnn


DPM YADAV FAULTS LAXMANPUR DAM TREATY WITH INDIA





Kathmandu, 24 June 23 - Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Upendra Yadav Thursday said that the treaty signed with the Indian government to construct the Laxmanpur dam had loopholes, The Rising Nepaal reports.
DPM and Foreign Minister Yadav made such remarks after receiving a memorandum submitted by the struggle committee of the Laxamanpur dam victims.
He said that the dam resulted to be a bane for the Nepalese people due to the blunders committed by the previous governments while signing the treaty.
He informed that talks would be held with the Indian government immediately through a diplomatic channel regarding the dam.
The construction work of the dam was completed in 1985 and several Village Development Committees bordering India were inundated due to the dam.
Holiaya, Bankatti, Phattepur, Ganagapur and Mataia VDCs of Banke were directly affected after the construction of the dam.
According to Jagadish Bahadur Singh, chairman of the committee, more villages were inundated when the dam was repaired in 2001.
DPM Yadav said that the problems invited by the construction of Laxmanpur dam should be resolved as it had displaced thousands of the people of the area. He also pointed out the need to review the treaty signed with India during the construction of the dam.
The dam has damaged some 2400 bighas of land of six VDCs and over 25,000 people were displaced.
The problem further deepened when India constructed Kalkalwa embankment without consulting with Nepal.

Nnnn


FORMER IGP REFUSES TO ACCEPT SUMMON





Kathmandu, 24 June 23:- Former Inspector General of the Nepal Police Om Bikram Rana Thursday, who was implicated in Sudan scam, refused to accept the summon of the Special Court (SC), The Rising Nepal reports.
Special Court employee Uddhav Thapa, who reached Rana’s residence at Kusunti with the letter, could not hand over it to former IGP Rana.
Rana said that he would accept the letter only after holding consultations with his layers.
Nine former and suspended police officers including SSP, SP and DSP and police inspectors along with Thapa reached Rana’s house this afternoon.
They urged Rana to accept the letter of SC and help settle the case at the earliest possible, said one of the suspended police officers in the condition of anonymity.

Earlier, SC official Uddhav Thapa was made hostage by junior police officers, who are under scanner for their alleged involvement in Sudan scam, for two hours. Thapa was taken under control at Mahalaxmi chowk in Lalitpur from 11:00 to 1:00 pm.
The junior police officials allegedly took Thapa in control after he failed to deliver Special Court summon to former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Rana.
It is reported that Thapa was directed not to do so by another senior official. The senior official’s name was not revealed by Thapa.
While Thapa was on his way to Rana’s residence, the senior official questioned Thapa about his authority to carry the letter of summons.
The senior official was reported to have threatened Thapa of firing him from the job if he delivered the summon.
Accordingly, Thapa stepped down from the bus at Mahalaxmi after he was threatened to lose his job. However, he was picked up by junior police officials at Mahalaxmi, who were pressurizing him to handover the letter to former IGP Rana.

Nnnn
MINISTERS TURN MINISTRY INTO FOREST OF AIDES

Kathmandu, 24 June: Bhanubhakta Joshi must be a busy man with a hatful of work to do, for he is a government minister. At least one can assume so by looking at a batch of assistants he has at his disposal, Ramesh Prasad Bhusal writes in The .Himalayan Times.

Joshi, who heads the Ministry for Forest and Soil Conservation, has as many as nine aides to assist him, let alone two drivers and his personal security guards.

“We don’t have any idea how much work he has done in the last two months, but he definitely is adept at recruiting assistants,” Ministry officials laugh in their sleeves. The number of his aides became nine after he hired a personal assistant only last week. “He is the minister of PAs not forest,” one of the officials at the ministry gave a gleek.

The two cabins, meant for Minister Joshi’s assistants, are adjacent to his chamber, where they virtually do nothing, according to the official.

“They are busy chatting the whole day, and sometimes whenever there are some visitors, they talk their ear off,” added the official.

Most of the assistants hired by Joshi are from far-western districts and are on deputation from other ministries. Some have been recruited though. Minister Joshi from Bajhang, a district in far west, represents the CPN-UML in the government.

Interestingly, Joshi’s state minister, Bhagawati Chaudhary has taken a leaf from Joshi’s book as far as hiring assistants is concerned.

Chaudhary has got seven assistants. Of them, two are government officials and rest were recruited by the state minister.

So, the forest ministry has no shortage of assistants and their offices are always crowded enough to irk other ministry officials, who said the ministers’ aides even misbehave with them at times.

“This has really become a problem,” said an official seeking anonymity. “They talk big, even warn people and rake in commissions for any work they get done through the ministers.”

It seems, the forest and soil conservation ministry is quite fertile to breed aides and suite. Former minister Deepak Bohara too enjoyed an entourage of six aides. But Joshi has simply outdone him.

“This place looks like a recruitment centre,” the ministry officials mocked.
nnnn