LAWMAKER ARRESTED FOR SUSPICION IN DIPLOMATIC PASSPORT MISUSE
Kathmandu, 20 Sept.: Lawmaker Shivapujan Raya Yadav of MJFNF was arrested overnight by Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police from the capital.
Yadav is suspected of involvement in the misuse of diplomatic passports.
He was picked up in a raid at a house in Chauni.
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DEATH FASTS IN JANAKUR
Kathmandu, 20 Sept.: Three persons Sunday resumed their fasts on to death at Lachanyni Higher Secondary School Monday in Janakpur nine days after they first began theirfasts.
Ramdulari Mandal, Sharada Bhusal and Santa Kumar Das are demanding investigation into irregularities at a village in Mohottari.
Police intervened and broke their fasts and admitted them to Janakpur District Hospital when they first began their fasts.
The trio continued their fasts at the hospital.
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BEEF RECOVERED
Kathmandu, 20 Sept.: Twenty kg beef was seized by a market monitoring team Monday from Country Farm House at Banasthalu, Balaju.
Two persons have been arrested.
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TWO NAC BOARD MEMBERS
Kathmandu, 20 Sept.: Two board members of Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) Shiva Charan Neupane and Binod Kumar Chongbang have been removed by a cabinet decision.
Ministry of tourism formally notified them Monday.
They represented the private sector in the board.
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NC FACTIONS SET TO CLASH OVER SISTER ORGANIZATION DISSOLUTIONS
Kathmandu, 20 Sept.: The central committee meeting of the Nepali Congress party, when it resumes on Tuesday after a 10-day break, is going to see a showdown between the rival factions -- establishment faction and the one led by Sher Bahadur Deuba -- over a proposal seeking dissolution of four sister organizations of the party, including the youth and women wings, as compromise efforts failed on Monday,
Kiran Chapagain reports in
Republica.
Despite efforts till late Monday by some NC leaders -- Arjun Narsingh KC, Narahari Acharya and Purna Bahadur Khaka -- to seek a middle way to resolve the deepening conflict in the party over dissolution of the sister organizations, both factions have refused to budge from their positions.
"As of Monday, they have continued to stick to their positions but we will try to find a consensual solution to the problem," Central Committee member Narahari Acharya, one of the leaders trying to resolve matters, told Republica late Monday evening.
The party establishment and the Deuba faction have been engaged in a deepening feud after party General Secretary Prakash Man Singh on September 8 tabled a proposal in the ongoing Central Working Committee to dissolve the youth and women wings and two other sister organizations.
Registering the proposal, Singh had argued that there was a need to hold general conventions of the sister organizations immediately as the terms of the incumbent working committees had expired and they had become almost defunct. In addition, Singh had proposed to form ad hoc committees to hold the general conventions at the earliest.
But the Deuba faction took exception to the proposal to dissolve the sister organisations, thereby deepening the feud in the party. The sister organisations are headed by Deuba loyalists.
According to a central committee member close to party party President Sushil Koirala, the latter is adamant not to bow to the Deuba faction and is even ready to get the proposal endorsed through a vote if consensus is not possible.
"Koirala has now realized that the Deuba faction is hindering him time and again in the running of the party. So this time, he is hell bent not to compromise with Deuba and wants to decide the proposal through voting if the Deuba faction does not come around," the central committee member said.
Party General Secretary Singh had told journalists last week that Koirala wanted to decide the fate of the proposal through voting. But the meeting did not go to that extend as it was already late in the night that day.
But the Deuba faction has made up its mind to boycott the voting if the proposal is put to a vote.
"We will express our views at the central committee and then boycott the vote," said Bal Krishna Khand, who is close to Deuba, about the Deuba faction´s strategy if it comes to a vote. "Then we will lunch a nationwide campaign to disseminate our views," he added.
NC leader KC said they would continue to work for consensus on the issue. "We are trying to avoid a possible split in the party over the issue," he said.
In addition to the efforts of KC, Acharya and Khadka, youth leaders such as Gagan Thapa and Chandra Bhandari also tried to explore a middle way and suggested to the top leaders to discard their positions and seek alternatives.
Meanwhile, leaders close to the Tarun Dal and Nepal Women´s Association have started a fast-onto-death for and against the proposal, at party headquarters, Sanepa from Monday.
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PROPOSAL TO FORM SAC SUB-COMMITTEES STALLED
Kathmandu, 20 Sept.: The scheduled plan to form subcommittees under the State Affairs Committee (SAC) was stalled on Monday as most lawmakers who aired their views at a SAC meeting objected to formation of the subcommittees,
Thira L Bhusal writes in Republica.
The SAC meeting held at Singha Durbar was supposed to form four subcommittees to study and prepare thematic reports on weapons of archeological importance, traffic management, criteria for providing state facilities and on women, dalits and domestic violence.
A proposal prepared by the committee secretariat as per recommendations made by some key leaders of the committee was tabled at the meeting. Under the proposal, a seven-member subcommittee headed by CPN-UML leader Pradeep Gyawali was to study and prepare a report on weapons of archeological importance.
A five-member body headed by Nepali Congress (NC) lawmaker Arjun Joshi was proposed for studying the problems of traffic management and recommend solutions, while another five-member panel, under the leadership of UCPN (Maoist) Spokesman Dinanath Sharma, was to recommend criteria on VIPs to be given state facilities.
Likewise, a fourth subcommittee, headed by Pratibha Rana of Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), was meant to study women, dalits and domestic violence.
Some lawmakers accused some of the committee members of trying to impose their decisions on other members. Hariraj Limbu, Santosh Budhamagar and Parshuram Ramtel of the Maoists and Ramsaroj Yadav, Krishna Kumari Pariyar and Kalyani Rijal of NC strongly objected to the proposed subcommittees.
"The way heads and members of the subcommittees are proposed and imposed on us clearly shows the feudal mindset of some of the leaders," Limbu said at the meeting. "It can´t be mandatory for us to accept all the decisions imposed on us in that manner." He also threatened to boycott the meetings or write a note of dissent if such practices are given continuity in the coming meetings.
According to some members, they were irked by the proposal as the same leaders who were heads or members of other committees in the past were frequently given the opportunities while some others never got a chance to be in a subcommittee. "I have never been given a chance to be even a member of any subcommittee so far.
What is the meaning of being a SAC member if my role is only to attend the meetings and okay the proposals tabled here," said Pariyar.
Raj Bahadur Budha Chhettri said the lawmakers stood up against the tendency of certain leaders to occupy posts everywhere. "Central leaders not only desire to be ministers, committee heads, chief whips or whips, they want to be members of subcommittees as well. That is not suitable given their position," he told Republica.
Spill over of intra-party feud
While some lawmakers described the protests as directed against "the monopoly of some influential leaders" in the committee, others described it as a spillover affect from intra-party feuding into the parliamentary committees.
"We should resolve this issue within this committee itself and not from outside. We shouldn´t go for division of seats in the subcommittees based on the factions of various political parties," Maoist lawmaker Dinanath Sharma said at the meeting.
Ramjanam Chaudhary of Madhesi People´s Rights Forum suggested to the leaders to split one of the subcommittees and form one more subcommittee so as to accommodate all the members. "The solution is simple. Let´s split a subcommittee and accommodate all the members," he said.
However NC leader Dr Prakash Sharan Mahat objected to the idea of increasing the number of subcommittees. He suggested not to have any lawmaker, who has already served as head or member of any subcommittee in the past, in the proposed subcommittees. Eventually a decision was deferred till Tuesday
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