SUSHIL KOIRALA THREATENS TO CONTEST ELECTION FOR SECOND TERM

TWO INMATES ESCAPE IN A JAILBREAK

Kathmandu, 12 July: Two inmates escaped overnight following a jailbreak at Surkhet district prison, Radio Nepal said quoting district police.
Twenty-five policemen have been suspended for investigation.
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SUSHIL KOIRALA THREATENS TO STAND FOR SECOND TERM

Kathmandu, 12 July: NC President Sushil Koirala threatened
Tuesday contest elections for a second term if he doesn’t get cooperation to implement his commitments in his first term.
‘I’m hearing I’m only a one-term president and there’s talk of obstructing my commitments.
“There’s talk of non-cooperation. If I get support of friends, all work will be completed in this term and there’s no need for contesting again..
‘If I don’t get co-operation, if obstacles are created, I’ll stand
agian for another term,” the chief of the main opposition told Kantipur Tuesday.
“I’ll stand for re-election. There’s no question. Let nobody feel Sushil Koirala is just a one-term president. I’ll fight for another term to make the party disciplined and systematic.”
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SHOWDOW IN MAOIST PARTY
Kathmandu, 12 July: The rival factions in the UCPN (Maoist) are headed for a showdown at the Central Committee (CC) meeting slated for Wednesday, with Senior Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya and Vice-chairman Dr Baburam Bhattarai consolidating their alliance to confront the party establishment led by Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Post B Basnet/ Kiram Pun write in Republica.

While Chairman Dahal is preparing to table a political document on the party´s course in the peace process, Baidya and Bhattarai plan to block any discussion on that document prior to settling the issue of power-sharing in the party.
The Dahal faction has stated that the issue of internal work division can be settled once the party unambiguously endorses an action plan for the peace process, but this has been vehemently opposed by Baidya and Bhattarai.

“The chairman is wrong to reckon on breaking the alliance by discussing the party´s work plan for the peace process. We are in a majority and we will block the discussions,” said one party leader close to Bhattarai.

Leaders close to Baidya argue that Dahal´s proposal to settle the issue of power-sharing only after finalizing the party´s course in the peace process is a ploy to break the alliance between Baidya and Bhattarai, who adhere to dissimilar party lines -- the former being for an urban insurrection to seize state power and the latter for a progressive constitution for now.

Baidya and Bhattarai feel emboldened now as party Vice-chairman Narayankaji Shrestha and General Secretary Ram Bahadur Thapa have also, according to sources, thrown their lot with the new alliance.

Terming the alliance “unnatural and unpolitical”, leaders from the Dahal faction have publicly stated that they are ready to face it at the CC meeting. “Let the CC meet; we will then know clearly who is in a majority,” Maoist leader Barshaman Pun, who is close to Dahal, stated in public recently.

But leaders from the Baidya and Bhattarai factions have called the claim a bluff.

"We are also waiting for the CC meeting to see what happens there," said Ram Karki , a Maoist leader close to Bhattarai.

Leaders from the Dahal faction argue that the “unpolitical alliance between the two leaders would ultimately break". “It is similarity of political line that should bring leaders close. So it is not natural and durable,” said Haribol Gajurel, who is close to Dahal.

With the backing of Shrestha and Thapa, the alliance, party insiders admit, will be in a clear majority.

Sources say both Thapa and Shrestha have pledged not to pull out of the alliance. “If anyone rolls back his support from the alliance first, it will be Shrestha,” a source quoted Thapa as saying in jest during a meeting of the alliance recently.

It was only after the Maoist party began to assimilate the small leftist parties, especially the CPN (Unity Center-Masal), that Dahal began to exercise hold over the CC. Most of the old guard are in the Baidya faction, while Bhattarai has a good hold over the educated classes. Almost all these leaders whole-heartedly support Dahal, but have currently defected to the Baidya-Bhattarai camp on the issue of power-sharing. “We are with the chairman on the issue of party line, but we are in favor of a judicious division of work,” said Bishwa Bhakta Dulal.

Dahal is chief of all three organs of the Maoist movement -- party organization, military front and political front. Bhattarai wants charge of the political front that includes the parliamentary party board, and Baidya wants charge of party organization.

Sources say Dahal is not in a conciliatory mode as he has lately argued how he can become an ordinary member of parliament, giving Bhattarai charge of the party´s parliamentary board. “It means that I should resign from parliament,” a leader quoted him as saying during a recent meeting.

With the rival factions joining hands against Dahal´s “monopoly” and matters aggravated by the struggle over party line, intra-party contradictions in the UCPN (Maoist) have reached a tipping point.

There is, however, a group of leaders including Sashi Shrestha who are doing their level best for reconciliation among the factions. “The ongoing factionalism is sure to lead to dissolution of the party. So we are doing what we can,” said a leader from the group requesting anonymity.
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CONCEPT OF MODEL DAOs FLOATED





Kathmandu, 12 July: The Ministry of Home Affairs has introduced the concept of declaring Model District Administration Offices (DAOs) from among the 75 districts, by Parshuottam Khatri reports in The Rising Nepal..
The concept aims at encouraging prompt, instant, transparent, peaceful, and meaningful services for the people without any hassles.
At the initial phase, the ministry has decided to declare five districts as model district administration offices of the country.
Secretary at the Ministry of Home Lila Mani Poudel said at an interaction held at the ministry between journalists and the ministry that the Ministry was currently holding discussions with the concerned district administration officers from across the country for declaring the best and suitable district administration offices as model district administration offices.
The ministry has received applications and eagerness from 10 district administration offices for nominating their concerned district administration offices as model district administration offices.
"We would declare five districts as model district administration offices by selecting them from Terai, mountains and Himalayan regions," secretary Poudel said.
"We are yet to reach the final decision to select the models," secretary Poudel said. "We are likely to reach a conclusion for declaring five district administration offices as model administration offices by July 23," he said.
The ministry, in its initial phase, has also decided to allocate Rs. 100 million to each five model district administration office for revamping the currently existing conventional administrative sections and the way of carrying out the daily works.
The main focus in model district administration offices would be in setting up required infrastructure, setting up technological systems and preparing manpower to meet the required goals of the model administration offices, secretary Poudel said.
The Ministry of Finance has already allocated budget for the move of the Home Ministry.
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GOOD HARVEST EXPECTED WITH GOOD MONSOON

Kathmandu, 12 July: With good monsoon rains so far and overall satisfactory plantation, government officials are projecting a good harvest—contributing to more than fifty percent of the national cereal grain balance, Pragati Shahireports in The Kathmandu Post/.
The findings of Economic Survey released by the Finance Ministry last week projects a 12 percent increase in overall food crop production this year.
Favourable rains since the start of the monsoon in the second week of June this year is expected to increase the output of summer crops, particularly paddy along with maize, millet and seasonal vegetables in the country.
Hari Dahal, spokesperson and joint-secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MoAC), said the overall monsoon rains recorded across the country were found satisfactory so far. According to him, last year though the monsoon was delayed by more than a week and was dormant during the initial month in June, it became active in the ensuing months including July, August and September and contributed to overall increase in monsoon crops, particularly paddy in the country. “This year’s early monsoon rain recorded so far is found comparatively better that of the previous year’s, raising hopes of a better harvest of summer crops this coming fiscal year,” he said.
Dahal said though the exact data on total area covered by paddy plantation so far are yet to come, paddy plantation is almost complete in most of the hilly and mid-mountain districts. Plantation in the Terai belt, which normally occurs later than in the hills, has just begun.
Currently, 3.4 million of hectares of land are covered by food crops in the country, an increase of 1.89 percent compared with the fiscal year 2009-2010.
“We expect a better production volume this year compared with last year. However, it is too early to say how much as we have not considered the impact of natural disasters including floods and landslides on crops,” he added.
Increase in agriculture production particularly paddy is the major factor that ensures food security in the country, said Hari Krishna Upadhyay, agriculture economist.
The monsoon plays a crucial role in the country’s agriculture output as the majority of farmers is dependent solely on monsoon rains, he said.
According to Upadhyay, to ensure food security three components are important: food availability, affordability and utilisation, he said. In recent years, the changing climatic condition resulting in drought and inadequate monsoon rains has been affecting the production of major crops like paddy and maize.
Meanwhile, farmers are changing the agriculture patterns with the replacement of food crops by commercial crops like seasonal vegetables which give more profit. Exponential increase in population is another factor contributing to higher food demand in the country.
“In Nepal, agriculture contributes to about one-third of the total GDP,” said Upadhyay. “But, more than the economy it is agriculture that contributes to the food security in the country.”
Nepal has already been producing surplus food due to an increase in food production resulting from favourable rains during monsoon last year and the year before.
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BUDGET COMING IN NEW FORMAT-
Kathmandu, 12 July: Breaking with tradition, the new budget will be presented under three major headings—income, expenditure and financing. Financing is a new heading that will be included izn the budget henceforth, The Kathmandu Post reports.
The Finance Ministry from the upcoming budget is adopting a new system so as to make the budget compatible with international practice. Although the government had decided to implement the new system last year, it could not be done due to budget delay. “The move has been taken to make Nepal’s accounting system compatible with international accounting,” said an official of the Financial Comptroller General Office (FCGO), which keeps the account of the government’s income and expenditure.
As per the new classification, any expenditure under the grants and subsidies heading will be considered as recurrent expenditure. Therefore, grants and subsidies that currently fall under capital expenditure will be moved to recurrent expenditure. With these changes, it may come as a surprise to see a rise in recurrent expenditure and decline in capital expenditure in the new budget.
According to the ministry, revenue and grant will be shown in the income part instead of revenue. Under this heading, tax, other revenues and foreign grants will be included. The principal refund that is currently shown in the revenue heading will be moved to financing part. Similarly, the principal payment will be moved from the expenditure part. “The changes are in line with the shift to accrual accounting,” said ministry official.
Accrual accounting is a method that measures the performance and position of an institution by recognising economic events regardless of when cash transactions occur. Goods are also included in the accounting system.
The new budget will have loan investments, capital investment, foreign loans and borrowing under the financing heading. It will be shown under this heading after adjusting refund of loan investment and principal payment of foreign and domestic borrowing.
With these changes, the ministry says the new budget will follow the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s government financial statistics manual (GFSM) 2001. “The existing system is impractical, as investment in corporations is categorised as expenditure although it yields return later,” said FCGO official. “Bringing such investment under the financing heading will give a clear picture of what reality is.”
Likewise, the government expenditure will have 10 main headings compared to seven earlier. The new budget will have 67 line items under the recurrent expenditure, 11 under capital expenditure and 16 under financing part. The earlier budget used to have 33 line items under recurrent and 19 under capital expenditure.
Now, there will be only a single book instead of earlier three—estimates of expenditure, Red Book and White Book.
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CIAA TO PROBE FREQUENCY ROW

Kathmandu, 12 July: The telecom frequency distribution and lincensing row will be investigated by the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority once a sub-committee under the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee submits a report, The Himalayan Times reports.

“We have received complaints to this effect, but we are waiting for the PAC sub-panel report,” said CIAA Secretary Bhagawati Prasad Kafle.

He told PAC members today that the anti-graft body won’t take the issue lightly, as it was a matter of public importance as well as revenue.

Lawmakers questioned the Nepal Telecommunications Authority’s decision of providing limited mobility to telecom service providers. “It seems that the authority has not followed the level playing field notion while granting licences,” said sub-committee coordinator Prakash Chandra Lohani.

“The authority has charged Rs 210 million from two service providers while granting licence, whereas it has taken only Rs 100,000 from others,” said Lohani doubting the motive of NTA behind such decisions. “The country has lost millions in revenue due to the inefficiency of the authority,” said another sub-committee member Rabindra Adhikari, blaming NTA for distributing frequency in a haphazard manner. He also called on PAC to bring NTA under the scanner.

However, NTA officials stood in their defence saying all the decisions were taken according to the provisions published in the gazette. NTA Chairman Bhesh Raj Kanel, nonetheless, admitted that uniformity was lacking while distributing frequency. “We need to reform frequency distribution system and bring uniformity in licence issuance,”
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