THREE INJURED IN SUNSARI BOMB BLAST

THREE INJURED IN SUNSARI BOMB BLAST

Kathmandu, 4 Aug.: Three members of
a family were injured in an overnight a bomb blast at Bagiyati, Sunsari.
The house belonged to Rajendra Mehta.
The injured are undergoing treatment at a Biratnagar hopital
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NEA LAND ROBBED BY SHARKS

Kathmandu, 4 Aug.: At least 1474 ropanis land belonging to Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA)´s land worth at least Rs 1.71 billion in 21 districts, the Authority said Wednesday.
Energy Minsiter Gokarna Bista was present when the announcement was made.
Thirty-five ropanies have been encroached in the capital.
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TIA OFFICIAL SUSPCTED OF FACILITATING AIR TRAVEL OF TIBETAN REFUGEE ARRESTED
Kathmandu, 4 Aug.: Ghanashyam Gautam, a section officer at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), was arrested Wednesday by CBI of Nepal Police.
He was arrested from his office.

Gautam is alleged to be involved in facilitating travel of two Tibetan refugees out of the country illegally on genuine Nepali passports.
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MAOISTS DISSOLVE PARALLES UNION BODIES

Kathmandu, 4 Aug,: The UCPN (Maoist) has dissolved all the parallel committees formed by separate party factions in its trade union, once again. A meeting of the party´s top office bearers on Wednesday took a decision to this effect.

“The party´s earlier decision to dissolve the committees had not been implemented. So we took the decision again,” party secretary CP Gajurel told Republica.


He said the party would take stern action if any union leader defies the decision.

The Maoist-aligned All Nepal Trade Union Federation (ANTUF) has three different committees loyal to Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Senior Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya and Vice-chairman Dr Baburam Bhattarai.

As the unionists from the rival factions began assaulting each other in public, the Maoist party had in last May dissolved all the parallel committees as well as the official one and formed a committee led by party Secretary CP Gajurel to hold a national convention. But the rival factions of the union defied the decision.

Unionist Salikram Jammakattel represents the party establishment faction, Badri Bajgain the Baidya faction and Lal Dhawaj Nembang the Bhattarai faction.

Currently, Bajgain is visiting the major towns and cities of the country to garner support of the workers.

“I don´t know if the party has really taken that decision. I have not been informed as yet. If the decision is official, I would abide by the decision,” Bajgain told Republica.
Nembang from the Bhattarai faction denied that he has been running any parallel committee. He argued that he had only formed a committee to take initiatives for unity in the union.

“Jammakattel and Bajgain have been running parallel committees, defying the party´s decision,” Nembang told Republica.

The party on Wednesday has reactivated the 92-member committee formed after it unified with the CPN (Unity center- Masal) led by Narayankaji Shrestha. But the committee would be led by Bogati, not by then chief Jammakattel.

Meanwhile, the top office bearers formulated a code of conduct for the party´s new ministers in the cabinet.

The code of conduct stipulates that the ministers should make their property public within five days and free bureaucracy of corruption, among other things. The party has also decided to hold talks with other coalition partners to form a mechanism to guide the government.
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6 CLUSTERS LISTED TO EASE INDIAN CONCERNS
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Kathmandu, 4 Aug.:The government has identified six major clusters in a bid to streamline and address outstanding bilateral issues with India, Anil Giriwrotes in The Kathmandu Post..

The six clusters, which are identified to streamline bilateral issues, are water resources, security, economic cooperation, physical infrastructure, trade and transit and the miscellaneous. In the miscellaneous, officials have categorised issues of payment, agriculture, telecommunication and others.

The decision follows a series of meetings held at Prime Minister Office (PMO) at the initiative of Chief Secretary Madhav Ghimire, including government secretaries.

The last meeting of the series is to be held on Thursday. The meetings come at a time when a section of the Indian bureaucracy including the posts of Indian Foreign Secretary, Indian Ambassador to Nepal and Joint Secretary (North) have been changed. The roster will be updated time and again to ease dealing with India on various issues, said officials. The Foreign Ministry will work as the nodal ministry to liaison with other line ministries. The line ministries will make a position on impending issues and forward a written solution to the chief secretary before having a common position on various outstanding issues, a government secretary told the Post.

Ghimire has also asked the government secretaries to submit their position as soon as possible as he is planning to brief PM Jhala Nath Khanal any time next week.
Newly appointed Indian envoy to Nepal Jayanta Prasad likely to arrive here on Aug. 13, sources said. The Indian side has conveyed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the new envoy will be hoisting the flag on Aug. 15, the 64th independence day of India. Sources claimed that outgoing Indian envoy Rakesh Sood is likely to leave Kathmandu on Aug 12.He has been appointed next Indian envoy to France.
“No dates are confirmed yet on the arrival of Jayanta Prasad and Sood’s departure as of now,” Indian Embassy Spokesperson Apoorva Srivastava said.
Officials privy to this development said the new Indian envoy who arrives on Aug. 13 will present his credentials to President Dr Ram Baran Yadav on Aug. 14.
Sources said a series of events have been planned to give a farewell to Sood by the government, Kathmandu based diplomatic corps, business fraternity and the Indian embassy itself. Kathmandu based diplomatic corps organised a farewell dinner for Sood on Friday. On behalf of the government, Foreign Secretary Madan Kumar Bhattarai is hosting a reception on Aug 8.


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INDIA ENFORCES ADDITIONAL LOCL SYSTEM FOR IMPORTS FROM THIRD COUNTRIES

Kathmandu, 4 Aug.: Indian Customs have started enforcing additional lock system at Kolkata Port from Aug 1 on Nepal bound containers ferrying third country imports despite repeated requests from Nepal not to do so. Officials at the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies (MoCS) termed India’s unilateral act against the spirit of bilateral transit treaty and railway service agreement, Mukul Humagain,Mahesh Acharya write in The Kathmandu Post reports.
MoCS officials say they are yet to receive official notice about the additional lock system. Toya Nath Gyawali, joint-secretary at MoCS, said that he only heard about it. However, Nepal’s Consul General in Kolkata Suresh Man Shrestha confirmed the additional lock system by the Indian customs.
According to a high level official at the Nepali Embassy in New Delhi, the Indian government had sent a notification a month ago regarding the new arrangement. In response, Nepali officials requested the Indian government in writing not to go ahead with additional lock system. “Nepali officials had also met Indian counterparts in connection with this,” said the Embassay official. “However, Indian officials said that they had to go ahead as it was already the government’s decision.” Indian officials had then said that they could review the additional lock system in the next Inter-Governmental Sub-Committee (IGSC) meeting if the system creates any problem.
The new system is also being applied to containers that come via Indian Railways to the dry port in Birgunj. The dry port is managed by Himalayan Terminal in which Indian Railways’ Container Corporation of India (Concor) has a majority stake. “It shows they also don’t have faith in their own entities,” said an official at MoCS.
Earlier, Nepal bound third country imports used to enter via Kolkata with a one-time lock put by the shipping agent or the carrier authorised by the shipping company. As per the Treaty of Transit signed between Nepal and India, Indian customs officers posted at the seaport shall merely check the “one-time lock” on Nepal bound containers. “If found intact, the customs officer shall allow transportation of the container without examination, unless there are valid reasons to do otherwise,” says the treaty.
India had been pushing for the additional lock system since last year stating that containers proceeding to Nepal via Kolkata port were being tampered with and that the one-time locks had been found broken many times. It had strongly pushed for the double-lock system during the IGSC meeting held in New Delhi in February. One of the participants of the meeting said that the Indian side had said it would unilaterally enforce double lock system. The Nepali side had stressed for continuation of the one-lock system saying that the new arrangement would pose new hassles and generate additional transportation cost for importers, apart from delaying delivery of goods. The Nepali side had argued that there was no need to impose additional lock system as most of the goods from Kolkata port were transported to Nepal via container train. According to MoCS officials, over 70 percent of imports are delivered to Nepal by container train which makes tampering with containers impossible.
Nepali importers say enforcement of the additional lock system will make the entire process cumbersome not only at Kolkata port but also at all Indian customs points. Indian customs has started levying IRS 100 for the additional lock. Currently, importers have to go through 32 stages to get their shipments passed at Kolkata port. “We’ve to give bribe at each stage,” said an importer.
According to Himal Thapa, Deputy Chief at the Consulate General Office in Kolkata, the port clears 40,000-42,000 Nepal bound containers annually which is 10 percent of the total traffic at the port.
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MORE FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS LEADING TO DEPRIVED SECTOR

Kathmandu, 4 Aug.: The rate of compliance of the banks and financial institutions (BFIs) on deprived sector lending has seen an improvement as they are opting for wholesale lending to microfinances, The Himalayan Times writes.

In the last fiscal year, a total of five banks and financial institutions were penalised for not fulfilling the deprived sector lending obligation. Last fiscal year they paid around Rs 9.6 million as fine for not meeting the deprived sector lending requirement, according to Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB)’s statistics.

“The rate of compliance has gone up in the recent times as they can lend the portion to class ‘D’ financial institution that lends to the target group,” said spokesperson for the central bank Bhaskar Mani Gyanwali.

In the fiscal year 2009-10, some 52 banks and financial institutions were fined for not issuing loans to the deprived sector as prescribed by the central bank. Of these, three were commercial banks that paid Rs 2.6 million penalty, while a fiscal year before that also three commercial banks had paid Rs 15.4 million as penalties.

The deprived sector lending refers to small loans that are lent to poor and rural people for small projects with minimal collateral in order to promote formal banking even among the rural and poor areas.

From the current fiscal year, the central bank has scaled up the portion for the banks and financial institutions to be disbursed of their total loan portfolio in the deprived sector as directed lending. The commercial banks have to lend 3.5 per cent of their total loans to deprived sector while development banks and finance companies’ loan portfolio should contain three per cent and 2.5 per cent, according to Monetary Policy for the current fiscal year 2011-12.

The banks and financial institutions can either provide direct lending to the sectors recognised as deprived or give bulk loan to micro finance institutions that provide micro credits up to Rs 150,000 to the underprivileged groups. The failure to meet such an obligation results in the financial penalty for the bank, computed on the basis of highest published lending rate of the bank. The banks and financial institutions that have been subjected to penalties and fines due to inability to fulfill deprived sector lending requirement within the previous fiscal year do not qualify to open new branches and even extension counters.

“Moreover, those not abiding by the central bank regulation will not be able to enjoy facilities provided by it,” Gyanwali added.

The banks and financial institutions, however, are not happy to lend the high cost fund at minimal rate of interest to the high risk sector as directed by Nepal Rastra Bank. “At present, we are getting deposits by giving out 8-14 per cent interest rate and to fulfill the central bank’s obligation, we have to lend it on minimal interest rate,” said president of Finance Company Association of Nepal Rajendra Man Shakya.
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