NC YOUTH LEADER ARRESTED FOR ALLEGED MURDER OF RIVAL PARTY LEADER

NC YOUTH LEADER ARESTED FOR ALLEGEDLY MURDERING RIVAL PARTY LEADER

Kathmandu, 10 Sept. Chairman of NC-affiliated Tarun Dal Chitwan Shiva Pradad Bahun was arrested Thursday for allegedly murdering Sanjaya Lama, chairman of rival UML Youth Association (Nepal)
Bahun was arrested with two other colleagues.
Eleven others suspects are absconding.
Lama was shot dead 27August.
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LICHEN EXPORT UNAUTHORIZED

Kathmandu, 10 Sept.: CIAA ruled Friday then Forest Minister Bhanu Bhakta Joshi irregularly permitted export of 170,000kh lichen flouting an export ban.
The anti-grant body ruled Joshi took the decision for personal gain.
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17,828 PERSONS KILLED IN MAOIST PEOPLE’S WAR

Kathmandu, 10 Sept.: Altogether 17,828 persons were killed on both sides of the conflict in the 10-year Maoist People’s War updated figure released by ministry of peace and reconstruction said.
The relief and rehabilitation unit in the ministry has been updating data for five years.
Altogether 1,452 disappeared and 89,171 were displaced.
Another 5,912 were displaced and 14,438 suffered property losses.
The update could be the last, Secretary Dhruba Prasad Sharma said.
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MEDIA GOOGLE
“Maoist army is a guerrilla and not a professional force. At one time, I was also supreme commander of the army in the party and Bamdeb Gautam was political commissar.”

(Former PM Madhav Kumar Nepal, Kantipur, 10 Sept.)
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RECORD 95,000 TREKKERS VISITED ANNAPURNA
Kathmandu, 10 Sept.: Nearly 100,000 tourists visited Annapurna Conservation Area (ACA) -- one of the most attractive tourist destinations of the country -- in the last fiscal year. The area is famous for its biodiversity, scenic beauty and trekking routes, Manoj Adhikari reports in Republica from Pokhara.

Statistics show that a record 95,314 tourists visited ACA in the last fiscal year. More than 85,000 tourists had visited the area in fiscal year 2009/10.

However, arrivals from South Asia to ACA have dropped in fiscal year 2010/11. Devendra Thapa, information officer of Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP), said a total of 12,943 South Asian tourists visited the area in the last fiscal year. “Total arrivals from South Asian region has declined by 25 percent and overall growth of other region stands at 9.4 percent,” he added.

ACAP charges Rs 200 per person from South Asian Tourists visiting Annapurna area and Rs 2,000 from other nationalities.

Number of tourists to ACA had dropped by 40 percent in 2005. With the improvement in peace process, number of trekkers in this region has gone up. When the impact of Maoist insurgency was minimal, the number of trekkers had reached up to 76,407 in 2000. The number had dropped to 36,224 in 2005.

ACAP covers an area of 7,629 square km. Popular for rich biodiversity, the region also includes world´s deepest river gorge in the Kali Gandaki river and Tilicho Lake.
ACAP collected Rs 170 million from the permit fee in the last fiscal year. The project had collected Rs 140 million in the previous fiscal year.

Although tourism entrepreneurs have said that the number of trekkers has gone down with the construction of motor ways, ACAP has denied it.

Trekkers are particularly interested in Annapurna Base Camp, Annapurna-Circuit, Ghorepani Punhill, Ghorepani-Ghandruk, Ghandruk-Circuit and Muktinath-Jomsom trails, Thapa added.
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SOSIAL SECURITY PROMISE NOT POSSIBLE IN ONE MONTH

Kathmandu, 10 Sept.: Although Prime Minister Dr Babu Ram Bhattarai instructed all government agencies to implement programs incorporated in the relief package announced on Friday within a month, officials of the Ministry of Labor and Transport Management (MoLTM) said they would not be able to execute social security schemes within the stipulated timeframe, Ashok Thapa writes in Republica.

“How can we execute the program when we are facing lack of manpower, infrastructure and budget?” wondered a senior official at MoLTM.
Under the package, the government has directed the ministry to implement three social security schemes -- workplace accident, reproduction health and health insurance -- within the current fiscal year.

Social Security Fund Management Committee (SSFMC) - the implements the social security schemes - on August 24 had asked the Ministry of Finance (MoF) to allocate it a sum of Rs 29.4 million to begin preparation for the implementation of the program. “But the MoF is yet to respond to our request,” Krishna Dhakal, director of the SSFMC said and questioned, “How can we implement the program if we don´t have sufficient fund?

He further informed that the SSFMF had approached the MoF for additional budget to develop a database system and arrange necessary infrastructures. Dhakal said the scheme cannot be implemented without having a pool of technical manpower as implementation of social security schemes is a technical issue.

A member of SSFMC also confirmed that the implementation of the scheme within a month is impossible as the committee is without an executive director since a month. “We don´t know when we will get the new executive director. Other two directors are also out of the station,” the member added.

Meanwhile, the MoLTM, as per the direction of the Prime Minister, has announced to form a labor coordination committee (LCC) with a view to permanently resolve labor unrest in the country. The committee will have representations from government agency, employers and workers.

"We will form the committee soon to resolve labor unrest in the country permanently,” said Krishna Hari Puskar, joint secretary of MoLTM.

Responding to the direction of the PM, the MoLTM also said it would introduce an employment generation program. Under the program, Amal Kiran Dhakal, joint-secretary of the MoLTM, said the ministry will bear 60 percent of the total interest for loan up to Rs 200,000 that the ministry will provide to foreign employment returnees to start their own business.

“We will include 1,000 such returnees in the first phase,” added Dhakal.
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