KMC WARNS CLOSURE OF WORLDTRADE CENTER IN THREE DAYS FOR NOT CLEARING TAXES

KMC WARNS IT WILL CLOSE DOWN WORLD TRADE CENTER IN THREE DAYS
Kathmandu, 18 Sept.: Kathmandu Municipal Corporation (KMC) issued a notice in Gorkhapaatra Sundaysayingit will padlock the World Trade Center complex at Tripureshwor.
There are hundreds of shops at the Center.
KMC asked concerned to make alternative arrangements within three days.
The corporation said the Center ignored repeated written requests to settle house and land taxes.
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POLICE WANT ACTION AGAINST SWEETMEAT SHOPS
Kathmandu, 18 Sept.: Police are preparing to recommend to the Government Attorney’s Office legal action against the owners of Gundpak stores and a ghee industry involved in the production and sale of substandard gundpak and ghee with documentary evidence, The Himalayan Times reports.

Metropolitan Police Range, Hanumandhoka, has charged the owners of New Road-based Corner Taja Gundpak Bhandar, Shree Krishna Gundpak Bhandar, Kanhaiya Ghee and Anmol Sweets under Black-marketing and Some other Social Offences Act, 1975 after arresting them for ‘producing and selling sub-standard and adulterated food.

The accused are in police custody since September 8.

“Their offences attract Section-6 of the Act, which has it that the offenders, if convicted, face an imprisonment of up to two years or a fine or both. They are likely to be convicted,” said DSP Arun Kumar BC.

The section has prohibited the distribution and sale of adulterated and spurious goods without mentioning the exact amount of fine to be imposed on the guilty.

“The fine depends on the degree of crime the defendants have committed,” BC said. He said they will submit the dossiers on the defendants to the attorney’s office by September 29, two days before Dashain vacation.

District Administration Office is the authority to issue a final verdict in such cases.

The Department of Food Technology and Quality Control had found toxic elements in samples of gundpak sold from Corner Taja and Sri Krishna Gundpak outlets. According to DFTQC, its tests found the presence of fungus and 9,000 harmful bacteria in one gramme of gundpak.

Lab tests had found Kanhaiya ghee, used in Anmol Sweets products, to be sub-standard. According to DFTQC, the Reichert value was 1.16 per cent in Kanhaiya ghee against the requirement of 28 per cent in animal ghee.
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DEB GURUNG COUNTERS OWN PARTY CHIEF PRACHANDA
Kathmandu, 18 Sept.: Maoist parliamentary party chief whip Dev Prasad Gurung came out strongly against his party Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s statement the day before that UCPN-M would conclude the peace process “unilaterally” if Congress and CPN-UML continued obstructing it. Gurung said it would be “illegitimate” to do so, The Himalayan Times reports.

At a function at Reporters’ Club, Gurung, who belongs to the hardline Mohan Baidhya faction, said issues of the peace process — modality, number of combatants to be integrated, standard norms, rank determination and financial package for rehabilitation — should be settled through understanding with major political stakeholders.

At a function organised by the Proletariat Trust yesterday, Dahal had warned that his party would take a unilateral decision for concluding the peace process if major parties did not cooperate with UCPN-Maoist on the issues involved.

Gurung said unilateral conclusion of the peace process would lack political and constitutional legitimacy and therefore create further political complications. He also said the parties must find a package deal on all issues of the peace process.

It should be recalled that NC and UML have also called for a package deal. But Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, while addressing the House on Friday, called on the parties to reach understanding at least on modality, the number of combatants to be integrated and rehabilitation package, if understanding was not possible on all issues.

Gurung said, “It is constitutionally mandatory that the peace process be concluded on consensual basis. Short-cut approaches are unacceptable.”

Gurung’s counter statement clearly indicates widening rift within the Maoist party on understanding ways of concluding the peace process.

Gurung also called for amendment to some of the clauses in the four-point deal between UCPN-M and the United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF) on August 28, when Bhattarai was elected PM.

He said agreement on bulk entry for up to 10,000 people of the Madhesi community in Nepali Army; ending the semi-judicial power enjoyed by chief district officers and simplifying procedures of issuing citizenship certificate were “objectionable and detrimental to national interest”.

Meanwhile, addressing a function in Lalitpur, Dahal said his party was still considering more sacrifices to conclude the peace process in two and half months.

He, however, reiterated that the Maoists alone would conclude the peace process if other parties remained adamant.

Dahal, however, called on the parties to stop bickering until November-end and concentrate on concluding the peace and constitution writing processes.
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