BIG THREE MEET WEDNESDAY

BIG THREE MEET PLANNED

Kathmandu, 31 Aug.: A meeting of the Big Three is being held Wednesday.
The meeting coincides with a meeting of a special committee headed by the prime minister for integration and resettlement of 19,000 former Maoist fighters.
Two opposition parties NC and UML and Maoists will meet and discuss Maoist proposals to complete integration/resettlement of former rebel fighters by regrouping them in two groups
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NC CENTRAL COMMITTEE MEETS SATURDAY

Kathmandu, 31 Aug.: Main opposition NC central committee will meet Saturday.
The committee will discuss future strategy after failure to secure leadership of the government in a contest in parliament
with Maoists
Maoist Second Vice-chairman Dr. Baburam Bhattarai defeated thee-time prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and Vice-president Ram Chandra in legislative elections.
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MEDIA GOOGLE

“The deal that has been struck between the Maoists and Madesh-based parties does not bode well for the country.”

(Sujata Koirala, The Himalayan Times, 31 Aug.)
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PLANNED AUCTION OF NRC ASSETS HITS OBSTACLE

Kathmandu, 31 Aug.: The planned auction of the property belonging to Nepal Recreation Centre (NRC) has been delayed with the Finance and Labour ministries locked in stalemate over who should get the money first, The Kathmandu Post writes.

On June 25, the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoTCA) cancelled the operating license of NRC which owns four casinos in various hotels in Kathmandu for defaulting on royalty payments. The government had moved to auction off its assets to recover outstanding dues. NRC owns around 3.5 ropanis of land and a house in Kalimati.

The Department of Revenue Investigation (DRI) under the Finance Ministry, which had issued the auction notice, said that the dues NRC owes to the government should be settled first. However, the Labour Ministry has argued that the staff of Casino Nepal should be paid off first. The DRI had announced an auction of NRC’s properties but there were no takers following reports that they had been frozen by the Department of Land Revenue at the order of the Labour Ministry. “The ministry has blocked the sale of NRC’s properties in the interest of the casino’s workers as they have not received their pay,” said Purna Chandra Bhattarai, spokesperson at the Labour Ministry.

Casino Nepal, which is housed at the Hotel Soaltee Crowne Plaza, has not paid its staff for the last seven months. It owes over Rs 540 million in unpaid staff salaries and Rs 139 million in royalties to the government. NRC also owes hefty dues to hotels and its suppliers.

The parliamentary Public Accounts Committee and the Finance and Labour Relation Committee have directed the Tourism, Finance and Labour ministries to coordinate among themselves to settle the labour issue.

Following the fresh directives of the two parliamentary committees, Bhattarai said that the issue needed to be discussed with the Finance Ministry.

The DRI is planning to issue another call for offers for NRC’s property. Director general of the DRI Shanta Bahadur Shrestha said that they would seek legal counsel to resolve the issue. “We will be calling for tenders within a few days,” said Shrestha.
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GOVT. APATHY ENDANGERS PEOPLES’ LIVES
Kathmandu, 31 Aug.: Subcommittee under Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Legislature Parliament has blamed Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) for promoting irregularities in the gas business, The Himalayan Times reports.

Though NOC is the authority to check all aspects of bottling plant — including safety measures — before granting licence to the gas companies, the corporation has not been carrying out its duties sincerely, according to subcommittee coordinator Dhan Raj Gurung.

“The state oil monopoly must inspect technical details of Liquefied Petroleum Gas — popularly known as cooking gas — bottling plants before issuing Product Delivery Order (PDO),” he said, adding that the inspection team has, however, found that PDO is issued by taking commission rather than inspecting the plants thoroughly.

It has found that at least 16 gas bottling plants — of the total 42 — have failed to manage water storage level required by the existing regulation.

Even though LP gas industries have to store at least 450,000 litre water at their premises, 16 gas companies have been clearly flouting the regulation, Gurung said, adding that the government’s monitoring agencies have failed to take action against them. Submitting its report to the PAC, the subcommittee said that LP gas business is running rampantly and urged the government agencies to take action against all the gas companies flouting the regulation. It had — during the inspection — found that most of the gas bottling plants were maintaining only one tenth of the required water storage. They have been maintaining only 50,000 litres of water against the provision of 450,000 litres, he added.

The subcommittee report has also mentioned that officials from monitoring agencies have not carried out pre-licence inspection and test in appropriate manner. “The government agencies have not carried out Initial Environmental Examination (IEE), hydrostatic test and other safety standards thoroughly,” the report said, blaming government agencies for their failure in monitor gas industries.

Gas companies have also failed to follow the regulation of keeping the bottling plants five km away from residential area, according to report.

Entrepreneurs have been involved in irregularities also due to weaknesses of LP Gas Regulation, the report mentioned, adding that the regulation has failed to mention what type of action should be taken against the guilty ones. “The subcommittee directs Ministry of Commerce and Supplies to formulate new and effective LP Gas Regulation and introduce it at the earliest.”

The Public Accounts Committee also approved the report from subcommittee and decided to forward it to the concerned stakeholders for the implementation of its recommendation.

Why store water?

In order to provide fire protection facilities and to protect human lives at the time of any untoward accident, the gas bottling plants should have enough water storage capacity. The water storage capacity should not be for less than four hours aggregate working capacity, according to international norms. The LP gas bottling plants may bring disaster in case it got fire if water storage is not sufficient.
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