THREE PARTY MEET FRIDAY
Kathmandu, 12 Aug.: Three parties—Maoists, UML and main opposition NC meet Friday afternoon to find an outlet to a political crisis caused most immediately triggered by the threatened resignation of Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal to resign Saturday.
A successor government isn’t in place as yet.
Both NC and Maoists have laid claims to lead a national government
Second Maoist Vice-President Dr. Baburam Bhattarai is the candidate of Maoists while NC hasn’t officially named its candidate.
Normally, the party’s leader of the parliamentary party – currently Vice-president Ram Chandra Paudel is the prime minister in waiting.
But senior leader and former three-time prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba pressed the party to nominate him the party candidate.
The party central committee is discussing the claim for the second day Friday.
The Deuba faction has threatened to topple Paudel as parliamentary party leader through a no-confidence vote in the central committee.
President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav Thursday pressed for national government of the Big Three and Madeshbadi parties as well after three majority governments, in the past, failed to complete the pace process and draft a constitution.
Khanal will continue as a caretaker, like his predecessor Madhav Kumar Nepal, until a new government is assembled.
Nepal continued for seven months as caretaker as foreign governments complained they couldn’t conduct urgent business with a caretaker government.
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PARLIAMENT WILL DISCUSS APPROPRIATIONS OF MINISTRIES EARMARKED IN BUDGET
Kathmandu, 12 Aug.: Parliament will discuss appropriations for ministries set aside in the annual budget of the fiscal year 2068/69
Friday.
Discussions were delayed with NC’s repeated obstructions now lifted temporarily by the main opposition.
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JAJARKOT HIT BY FOOD SHORTAGE
Kathmandu, 12 Aug : Villages in Jajarkot district have been facing major food crisis with the harvest season months away and old stock running out. Nepal Food Corporation (NFC) depots in the area have been shut for the past six months, Janak KC writes in Republica from Jajarkot.
Despite a dozen villages in Jajarkot facing food shortage at the moment, it is unlikely that the problem will be resolved soon especially when the government agencies are not doing anything.
Villages including Sakla, Ragada, Bhagawati, Nayakwada, Rokayagaun, Rami Daida, Paik, Daha, Majkot, Kortanag, Garkhakot and many others are facing food shortage.
According to NFC Jajarkot branch, 400 quintals of food grain is allotted to each depot and 5,500 quintals is allotted to the district headquarters.
NFC Jajarkot chief Ranbahadur Aire said 3,500 quintals of rice is stored in the warehouse of Jajarkot district headquarters from previous years. He further informed that a tender has already been announced to transport the food grain to the shortage areas.
"Even though the depots have not been able to distribute rice, it is being distributed as per requirement from the headquarters," said Aire, adding, "The shortage situation could remain till August but it will end when the maize season starts."
One of the main reasons for the shortage is the shutting down of a number of depots for more than six months. Another reason is the rice that was being distributed on a subsidized rate got over quickly.
Due to the shortage, the rice that normally costs Rs 50 per kg is sold at Rs 80 in the village. The grains that are produced in the village too are bought by the rich to feed their horses further adding to the shortage. The contractors who transport the grains too sell the grains as they please, complain the locals.
Landslides in various places in the Chhinchu-Jajarkot road had obstructed the roads and transportation of the grains to the Salli Bazar in Khalanga section. Transportation has been obstructed for a month now.
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PM OFFERS CA BERTH TO OLI
Kathmandu, 12 Aug.: With barely three weeks for the expiry of the twice-extended tenure of the Constituent Assembly (CA), Prime Minister and CPN-UML Chairman Jhala Nath Khanal has offered a post of lawmaker to senior leader K P Sharma Oli, The Kathmandu Post writes
Khanal's attempt to bring Oli on the CA board comes at a time when the UML chairman is losing his hold in the party. According to a senior leader, Khanal wants to counter Madhav Kumar Nepal and General Secretary Ishwor Pokharel, who have allegedly cold-shouldered the prime minister, by taking Oli into confidence.
Minister of the Prime Minister's Office Ghanashyam Bhusal and PM's Chief Political Advisor Prakash Jwala met Oli at Balkot on Wednesday morning with the offer. Oli remained “tight-lipped” when Khanal's confidantes floated the proposal.
During Nepal's premiership last year, Oli was willing to take a post of CA member. However, Nepal failed to take initiative to introduce Oli in the parliament though some lawmakers including Sheela Katila were ready to quit CA berth for the sake of party's influential leader.
The two sides have been exploring possible compromise in recent days, according to some leaders. On Wednesday, former Finance Minister Surendra Pandey, a Khanal aide, had met Oli and urged him to support Khanal. Prior to this, Pandey had met senior leader Nepal and urged him to support Khanal for resolving the growing intra-party rifts. Party insiders said Khanal's offer to Oli was just a tactic to weaken the Oli-Nepal faction and avoid possible disciplinary action that the faction has been demanding against Khanal for violating party's decisions.
On the other hand, Oli has expedited consultations with UML leaders, who are close to the PM. Early this week, he invited lawmakers Rabindra Adhikari and Yamlal Kandel, among others, for consultation at New Baneshwor, claimed a source.
“It won't be surprising if Oli enters the Constituent Assembly before the CA's current term expires. The prime minister is trying to resolve differences and bring Oli to the CA within a month,” maintained the source, privy to the development.
Oli's supporter Karna Bahadur Thapa confirmed that the party chairman had offered CA membership to Oli. “The proposal has been floated but I don't think these maneuvers will bear fruits,” said the UML Central Committee member.
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OPINION
CHINA’S NEPAL ENGAGEMENT
Kathmandu, 12 Nov.: Irrespective of contemporary externalised political divisions in Nepal, China keeps moving ahead with its "two-pillar" policy in South Asia. The two pillars in this policy are Nepal and Pakistan, Upendra Gautam writes in The Rising Nepal.
Two-pillar policy
China had been historically compelled to subscribe to a "two-pillar" policy because a trust deficit continued to prevail between it and the third pillar which lacked self-confidence. It does not mean that one of the two identified pillars, Nepal, is a self-confident one. But China appreciates the self-assessment of the knowledgeable Nepali people who can candidly and objectively explain why Nepal now is so weakened.
A historically weakened Nepal’s topmost critical need is a sense of security. As a matter of fact, an insecure Nepal renders itself most vulnerable to the forces of interference and instability that have self-righteously owned Nepal as their "Free Tibet."
Since a secure Nepal will require support from both traditional as well as non-traditional sources of security, China - to effectively and systematically execute its "two-pillar" South Asian policy - will need to extend its defensive security policy, foreign aid policy of south-south cooperation and policy of independence and liberation, stability and development to one of its "two pillars." China’s proposed new treaties on cultural and economic cooperation with Nepal are, therefore, timely and contextually relevant.
Addressing a talk programme organised by the China Study Centre, Nepal on July 15 to mark the 90th year of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Yang Houlan figuratively described China’s domestic status thus: "There’s an old saying in China, governing a big country as if you’re cooking a small fish."
He continued, "In a country like China, with a vast territory and a large population, how to achieve comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development has always been an issue that the Chinese government must face, and the Five-Year Plan for the economic and social development shall be the compass of China’s economy. The year 2011 is the first year of the 12th Five-Year Plan. These five years are a critical period for China to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects, deepen reform and open up and accelerate the transformation of the development pattern and an important starting point for the new stage of China’s economy, which still has a long way to go and will not be smooth in the future.
"However, with the reverence for history and the thinking on reality, China’s economy will take new steps and rise to a new level."
Accordingly, we were recently informed in Lanzhou that under the 12th Five-Year Plan and the 2nd phase of the West China Development Strategy, China will be more focussed on resource conservation, sustainable resource utilisation and productive regional resource linkages.
On August 1, at a programme organised by World CultureNet to commemorate the establishment of diplomatic ties between Nepal and China, Ambassador Yang reaffirmed that in 2009, state leaders of the two countries agreed to establish the China-Nepal Comprehensive Cooperative Partnership (CCP) featuring ever-lasting friendship and bring the bilateral relations to a new height.
The policy statements above seriously mention "a new level" for the Chinese national economy in the near future and the agreed CCP that will take bilateral ties to "a new height." The link between these two statements is obvious. Nepal’s liberation into a reasonably confident nation to a great extent depends upon how soon China and Nepal start wholesomely enforcing this link between China’s spectacular economic development and Nepal’s to-be-achieved security by planning their act together.
Development of hydropower, for example, in neighbouring Gansu province of China (where 9,000 MW of hydropower has already been developed), may provide a suitable joint model for both China’s National Development and Reform Commission and Nepal’s National Planning Commission on how to sustainably harness and link hydropower development with forest conservation by replacing fuelwood use, socio-economic development of rural households by making clean energy available at a competitive price, and autonomous enterprise development by ensuring energy security at the local level.
Indeed, the link or the integrating process will have to pass through the entire management cycle - planning to monitoring with corrections at mid-points. Only this way, the uncertainty in contemporary Nepal can be taken care of and successfully dealt with. Both the countries linked by mountains and rivers have to put management knowledge, science and technology of the 21st century to forge a modern and dynamic linkage.
China-Nepal bilateral cooperation does not need to be bogged down over South Asian vicissitudes, although forces of interference and instability in Nepal have so far been successful in preventing China from getting into Nepal with the basketful of cooperation.
These forces, especially in the last 10 years, have selectively induced political instability in Nepal in a way that - just for illustration - any high governmental level visit from China was deviously blocked. In fact, since the early 1960s, China has been accused of clandestine diplomatic motif for its public or state activities. Perhaps for these biases and prejudices, foreign policy nuances have become peripheral or secondary to a responsible power, forcing it to conclude that comprehensive cultural and economic cooperation is the determinant factor in the 21st century.
Disorientation
It is very unfortunate that South Asia that once was the light of Asia now suffers so much disorientation and inferiority, and Nepal, that helped ensure security in the most insecure times of the post-British rule in this region in the late 1940s, has never been so acutely vulnerable to the forces acting against its own political existence.
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