MAOIST CENTRAL COMMITTEE MEETS TUESDAY

MAOIST CENTRAL COMMITTEE MEETS TUESDAY

Kathmandu, 18 July: Maoist central committee meets Tuesday to discuss a political report presented Sunday by Chairman Prachanda.
Spokesman Dinabath Sharma said the central committee meets at two in the afternoon.
Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya asked the meet be adjourned until Tuesday after meeting briefly Monday for additional homework/
Baidya and another Vice-chairman Dr. Baburam Bhattarai have jointly challenged Prachanda’s authority in the ruling party which is also communist
The central committee is discussing intra-party differences, power sharing, selection of a new government team, future party strategy ,constitution drafting and completing the peace process.
Nnnn

SSP KHADKA FREED ON BAIL

Kathmandu, 19 July: SSP Shyam Bahadur Khadka was freed Monday on a Rs. 7 million bail fixed by a special court bench .
He was sent to jail on CIAA charge in the purchase of Rs 280 armored personnel carriers (APCs) and logistics support foe Nepal Police peacekeepers with UN mission in the African state.
Former IGP Hem Bahadur Gurung is still in jail for failing to settle a Rs 30 million bail fixed by the court on the same charge.
Thirty-four police officers, including three former IGPs, have been charged.
Nnnn

SHARE PRICES FALL

Kathmandu, 19 July: Share prices fell Sunday 8.26 points Monday to 370.15 points after a sustained surge
Share prices increased 19,18 points Sunday on the first day of five-day weekly trading and one day after the national was presented on time in parliament for the first time in three years by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bharat Mohan Adhikari.
Delayed budget presentation had adversely impacted the national economy.
Share prices began to recover after falling below300 points to its lowest level in three years.
Share prices of commercial banks, development banks, financial institutions and Nepal Telecom fell Monday.
Altogether 108,776 shares worth Rs.40.351 million were traded in of 948 transactions.
Nnnn

GOLD PRICE RS. 44,950 PER TOLA

Kathmandu, 19 July:Gold recorded its highest price this year trading at Rs 44,950 per tola Monday.
The surge continued with increase in the price of the yellow metal in the international market.
nnnn


NO-CONFIDENCE MITION IF PAUDEL DOESN’T MAKE WAY FOR DEUBA
Kathmandu, 19 July: Sher Bahadur Deuba-led faction in Nepali Congress (NC) has made up its mind to forward a no-confidence motion against incumbent Parliamentary Party (PP) leader Ram Chandra Paudel if he refuses to step down in consensusm wrutes KoshRajKoirala in Republica.
The Deuba faction made the decision after a meeting at the residence of party leader Gobinda Raj Joshi Sunday evening held to garner the support of K B Gurung and his aides in the NC PP. Party insiders say Gurung commands at least 12 PP members - whose support would be enough to ensure majority votes for Deuba.
NC has a total 114 PP members. Leaders close to Deuba believe with the support of K B Gurung and his aides and a few disgruntled leaders of the establishment faction, including Arjun Nara Singh KC, they can easily garner 58 votes, a majority sufficient to change the PP leader.

Paudel was elected as PP leader through a voting held in June, 2009, in which he secured 61 votes, with Deuba trailing behind by 13 votes. Leaders close to Deuba believe that Nepali Congress President Sushil Koirala, who had supported Paudel in the last PP election, will choose to stay neutral if they decide to go for voting this time.

“There had been an informal agreement to make Deuba the party´s parliamentary leader in exchange for our support to Koirala´s picks of Ram Chandra Paudel as vice-president and Krishna Prasad Sitaula as general secretary. We will follow the due process to remove Paudel if there is no consensus,” said a leader close to Deuba.

The meeting held at Joshi´s residence was participated by Deuba, K B Gurung, Arjun Nara Singh KC, NC Chief Whip Laxman Ghimire and the party leader Binaya Dhwoj Chanda KC, who belonged to the establishment faction but has remained close to Deuba faction after President Koirala chose Sitaula for the post of party´s general secretary.

Leaders close to Deuba said they will first hold serious dialogue with President Koirala on changing the PP leader as ´agreed´ before -- something Koirala has denied outright. “We will have no option left but to field no-confidence motion if President Koirala does not cooperate in changing the PP leader,” said another leader close to Deuba.

Though Deuba met with Koirala Monday afternoon, he could not hold meaningful dialogue on changing PP leader due to the latter´s ailing health condition, said sources privy to the leaders.

Earlier, when Koirala was traveling to US, European countries and India, Deuba faction also expedited signature campaign to show majority votes in its fold to change the PP leader. The leaders claimed that they already have secured signatures of over 50 PP members so far.
Nnnnn



________________________________________


1,587 PEOPLE KILLED IN ROAD ACCIDENTS LAST YEAR
KATHMANDU, 19 July 19: At least 1,587 people lost their lives in road accidents across the country in the last one year till mid-June 2011 while as many as 4,297 people were seriously hurt and 7,822 received minor injuries during the same period as 5,519 accidents occurred across the country, Repulica reports.

Police said in road accidents, 1,734 people were killed the previous year (until mid-June 2010) whereas 1,356 lost their lives in the same period the year before (until mid-June 2009).


"On account of road accidents, it is estimated that around Rs 3.47 billion was spent on medical treatment and other expenses last fiscal year," Deputy Inspector General Bigyan Raj Sharma, who heads the Metropolitan Traffic Police Division, said at a meeting of parliament´s State Affairs Committee (SAC) on Monday.

Sharma said over-speeding vehicles were a major culprit for such accidents. "We can bring down the number of accidents by four to five percent on an average if we can lower the vehicles´ speed by one kilometer per hour," he said at the parliamentary committee meeting.

Sharma said drunken driving, violation of traffic rules both by drivers and pedestrians, overloaded vehicles, poor condition of roads and vehicles, encroachment on roads and streets are other major reasons behind road accidents, leading to death and injury. He said bus bays, underground subway, parking spaces, and multi-storey parking facilities can help avoid such accidents.

Speaking at the same meeting, Inspector General of Police Ravindra Pratap Saha requested the parliamentary committee to ask the government for an additional 2,000 personnel for traffic police in view of the increasing number of vehicles in the country. "We can resolve lots of problems faced at present if the traffic police is given quasi-judicial authority." said Saha.

"But other government bodies are ready neither to hand over the power to the police nor to exercise the authority effectively," he said. Traffic police badly needs at least 100 sets of breathalyzer to control drunken driving in urban areas, he said.

Given the gravity of the issue, most lawmakers at the meeting said, SAC should direct the government to form a high-level committee to conduct a comprehensive study and recommend solutions to the government. They said lack of coordination among government agencies, among other things, urgently needed to be addressed to bring about an improvement in traffic-management and to reduce the number of accidents.

Some lawmakers and officials said the revenue collected from the sector should be spent on improving roads and traffic-management and equipping the police personnel deployed in the field with necessary equipment. Officials said annually at least Rs 5 billion is collected in revenue and fines from the sector. Altogether, 2,213 traffic personnel have been deployed across the country.

Top officials from the ministry of home affairs, labor and transport management, local development, information and communications, and energy were summoned to the meeting to clarify the reasons behind the poor road conditions, poor management of electricity poles, wires and cables that hamper normal traffic.

After listening to the officials´ explanation, SAC issued a directive to the ministries concerned to come up with proposals suggesting how the number of road accidents can be decreased and traffic-management can be improved in a month. The government agencies are told to submit their proposals within 10 days.
nnnn



________________________________________