PM. PRACHANDA CONTINUE DISCUSSIONS ON REPLACING MAOIST GOVT. TEAM.

PM. CHAIRMAN PRACHANDA HOLD ANOTHER ROUND OF DISCUSSIONS UPDATE
Kathmandu, 28 July: Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal and Maoist Chairman Prachanda began another round of discussions Thursday and discussed the delayed replacement of a Maoist team in government.
They are also discussing completing and delayed peace process and constitution drafting, the premier’s press aide Surya Thapa said.
Major parties are agreed a basic law won’t be promulgated by a three-month extended deadline after 28 May.
Meanwhile, main opposition central committee Thursday began another round of discussions to discuss party regulations and the current political situation, member Narihari Acharya said.
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FIVE JOINT SECRETARIES PROMOTED SECRETARIES

Kathmandu, 28 July: Five joint secretaries were promoted to secretaries by the cabinet Wednesday.
Lalmani Joshi, Madhav Regmi,Tulshi Shitaula, Bishwa Prakash and Suresh Man Shrestha were chosen from 15 recommended candidates.
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A HANDCUFFED PRISONER ESCAPES FROM TOILET OF BIR HOSPITAL
Kathmandu, 28 July: A prisoner service a jail sentence at Central Jail in the capital escaped as he was still handcuffed from Bir Hospital.
Deni Lama, 25, was sentence for robbery and attempted murder.
Two policemen accompanied his to hospital.
Such escapes are frequent because of police negligence.
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BANGLADESH LIKELY TO CALL BACK ENVOY
Kathmandu, 28 July: Bangladesh is considering recalling its ambassador to Nepal, Neem Chandra Bhowmik, amid allegations by a section of Bangladeshi media that he was involved in activities that violate diplomatic decorums, Lekhnath Pandey writes in The HImalayan Times.
According to three different sources, Bhowmik is under consideration for a recall by November, one year before his three-year term expires.

On July 15, Bangladesh’s foreign ministry sent a senior official, Joint-Secretary Mullah Farhadul Islam, to its Nepal mission with the assignment of Deputy Chief of Mission. Islam is said to have been told to take the charge until a new envoy is fixed after Bhowmik's departure. “You will soon see a new face at our embassy,” a senior official of Nepal's foreign ministry told The Himalayan Times quoting Islam as telling him during a recent meeting with him.

Bhowmik, a professor of the Department of Applied Physics, Electronics and Communications Engineering of Dhaka University, was appointed ambassador to Nepal in November 2009.

Bangladeshi media have of late portrayed him as a 'corrupt and inefficient person'. Allegations against him include taking huge sum of money for providing MBBS scholarships to Nepali students, having affairs with Nepali women and taking along non-diplomatic staff while meeting senior Nepali officials.

Ambassador Bhowmik, however, has denied the charges, saying the allegations were part of a conspiracy by those who wanted to belittle his ambassadorial achievements. “Some anti-government and anti-liberal sections are trying to tarnish my image by pressing false charge against me,” the envoy told THT. “I have done much more than any other (envoy) to strengthen relationship between Bangladesh and Nepal.”

Regarding the charges that he was involved in raking in money from students aspiring to do MBBS in Bangladesh, the envoy said the scholarships are decided through an independent committee and that there was no question of wrongdoing. Sources said Bhowmik termed the allegations part of a deliberate plan of the foreign ministry to recall him because 'he is a Hindu and a political appointee'. Bangladesh, in the last 40 years, has mostly sent career diplomats as its envoys to Nepal. Bhowmik, a Hindu, is one of three political appointees since diplomatic relations between the two countries were established in April 1972.

Last week, Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Dipu Moni formed a probe panel to investigate the envoy’s alleged misdemeanours. The panel has been authorised even to recall him if he is found guilty. The panel had called Bhowmik to Dhaka last week to furnish clarifications. The ambassador returned from Dhaka yesterday. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, however, maintained that it was unaware about Bhowmik’s alleged activities in Nepal. “There is no official correspondence from Bangladeshi authority to this effect,” said Foreign Secretary Madan Kumar Bhattarai
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DELHI CONCERNED WITH PROTRACTED STALEMATE
Kathmandu, 28 July: Indian officials here voice deep concern over Nepal’s protracted political transition, which they say continues to pose security challenges for India, as Nepali leaders get caught up in peace and constitutional issues and ongoing instability, Akhilesh Upadhya writes in The Kathmandu Post from New Delhi.
In his crisp 20-minute Q-and-A at North Block with more than a dozen visiting Nepali editors on Wednesday, Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram said Nepal should ensure that it doesn’t become a transit route for Pakistani militants and fake Indian currency rackets.
The Indian minister, however, didn’t fault the Nepali side on its willingness to deal with the thorny security issues. It is more a question of capacity, he said, adding that India had buttressed its security apparatus while Nepal was hamstrung by continued political instability.
“If there was an elected stable government in Nepal that would help build capacity too very quickly,” said the Indian minister. “Unfortunately, Nepal has had virtually a caretaker government for many, many months, which means the attention of the government is largely directed towards solving constitutional issues.”
Security implications of the porous Indo-Nepal border have been the most strongly—and widely—voiced concern in New Delhi in the editor-official meetings over the last few days.
Still, Minister Chidambaram, known for his hardline approach to security, categorically ruled out sealing the 1,800-km border. “I don’t envisage the sealing of the border,” he said, pointing at the difficulty of doing so given its magnitude. His emphasis was on building better checkpoints. “Then, we can concentrate on plugging the loopholes.”
The Indian Home Minister, however, was careful not to load the dice squarely against Nepal, stressing that border management was “a joint responsibility of Nepal and India.” He said the security at the Kathmandu airport had been considerably strengthened in the last two years. Officials here say there has been greater cooperation between security agencies of the two sides during that period.
“Nepal is a preferred route for supplying fake Indian currency,” said the Indian Home Minister, adding there have been a number of fake Indian currency hauls in Kathmandu, including several in recent weeks.
Asked to comment on whether Nepali and Indian Maoists had “a working relationship,” he said, “We are not commenting on the Nepali Maoist part. Anyone helping the CPN-Maoist in India is helping a banned organization.” He said there were individual contacts between the two parties but said there was no “conclusive evidence” to either establish or rule out ties between the two Maoist parties.
“You are going through a political flux and you need to sort it out. We want a close relationship with Nepal. There’s no better friend for Nepal than India,” he said.
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