LANDSLIDE KILLS THREE IN JAJARKOT

LANDSLIDE KILLS WOMAN,TWO CHILDREN IN JAJARKOT

Kathmandu, 24 Aug.: A woman and two children aged four and six were buried alive in a landslide at a village in Jajarkot.
A child was killed Wednesday, radio reports said.
Many survived as they fled for safety as 40 houses were threatened.
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NRB ASKS BANKS, FINANCIALL INSTITUTIONS TO CLOSE INTEREST YIELDING DEPOSIT ACCOUNTS

Kathmandu, 24 Aug.: Nepal Rashtra Bank (NRB) Tuesday asked banks and financial institutions to close interest yielding deposit accounts in other banks and financial institutions.
The central bank move aims to discourage short-term borrowing for gain through long-term investment.
Such accounts should be closed by Q2 of the current fiscal year, the NRB said.
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NEA TO SUF OF POWER TO DEFALTING INDUSTRIES INSECOND PHASE CAMPAIGN

Kathmandu, 24 Aug.: A board meeting chaired by Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) Chef and Energy Secretary Balananda Paudel decided Tuesday to cut off power supply to industries that haven’t settled their electricity dues for a long time.
The campaign will start at the end of this week.
The move comes after NEA started the campaign by cutting off electricity to government offices; nearly Rs 250 million in dues were collected.
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BHUTANESE REFUGEE LEADERS OPT FOR THIRD COUNTRY PLAN


Kathmandu, 24 Aug.: Owing to growing uncertainty, campaigners of repatriation of Bhutanese refugees taking shelter in eastern Nepal have themselves starting going abroad under the third country resettlement programme,Parbat Portel reports in The Kathmandu Post from Kakadvitta.
Narad Adhikari, once an avid repatriation campaigner, is the latest of the lot to leave for the US. He was the spokesman of Bhutan National Democratic Party that still spearheads the repatriation movement.
Adhikari left for the US under the third country resettlement programme on August 3 along with his family members.
Adhikari’s is just a case in point. Dozens of other big names leading the repatriation movement—Tek Bahadur Chhetri, Suvash Acharya, RP Subba, Ganesh Subedi and Chhabilal Timsina to name a few—have left Nepal under the third resettlement programme.
Talking to the Post on Facebook, Adhikari said he was disheartened to see the bitter rivalry and schism among Bhutanese leaders and decided to leave for the US.
“The repatriation movement has lost momentum given the differences among the leaders crusading for repatriation,” he said. Adhikari is now living in New Hampshire.
A knowledgeable source said the repatriation movement is about to end, mainly due to political ideologies. Jhampa Rai, the chairman of the Bhutanese refugees repatriation committee, admitted that politics has always played a big role in the repatriation movement.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, around 51,000 Bhutanese refugees have resettled in eight countries under the resettlement programme.
Adhikari said the resettled refugees will soon launch a repatriation movement in the countries they have been staying. He, however, did not say when such a movement would begin.
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DEPOSITS UP IN Q4 OF LAST FISCAL YEAR IN COMMERCIAL BANKS
Kathmandu, 24 Aug.: Commercial banks which struggled through most of fiscal 2010-11 mobilising liquidity saw their problems ease some during the last quarter. Deposits grew in the last three months with increased government spending and transfer of deposits from B and C class financial institutions, The Kathmandu Post reports.
According to bankers, their deposit collection surged towards the end of the year amid a series of revelations of mismanagement in B and C class financial institutions sending alarmed depositors running to transfer their savings to older banks.
Government-owned and older banks like Rastriya Banijya Bank (RBB), Nabil, Standard Chartered and Everest posted significant growths in their deposits in the last quarter. “People want their hard earned money to get parked in a safe haven, so they are choosing old banks practicing prudent financing and having a robust balance sheet,” said Diwakar Poudel, head corporate affairs, Standard Chartered Bank. He termed this phenomenon “flight to quality”.
CEO of NIC Bank Sashin Joshi said that the problems seen in a few development banks and finance companies had made an impact on depositors’ psychology, prompting them to shift their deposits to older banks.
RBB, which has the highest deposit base among commercial banks, saw its deposits rise 13.44 percent in Q4 against a growth of 4.02 percent in the previous quarter. The bank collected deposits worth Rs 8.75 billion during Q4. RBB’s total deposits as of the end of fiscal 2010-11 amounted to Rs 73.92 billion.
Krishna Prasad Sharma, deputy general manager of RBB, said that the surge in deposits was due to the budgetary release made by the government to its various agencies. “The government releases its budget to its agencies during the last quarter of the fiscal year, and their accounts are credited,” he said.
Another state-owned bank Nepal Bank Limited was not far behind RBB in terms of deposit collection. NBL collected more than Rs 4.47 billion in deposits during Q4. Its total deposits at the end of fiscal 2010-11 stood at Rs 46.80 billion, up 10.56 percent from the previous quarter. Agricultural Developm-ent Bank saw its deposits going up 6.17 percent in the last quarter against a growth of 1.61 percent in previous quarter.
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