AMNESTY FOR MAOIST LAWMAKER OPPOSED

100 SUFFER FOOD POISONING DURING FESTIVE SEASON

Kathmand, 4 Oct. More than 100 persons of a Dalit suffered food poisoning at Kalikot after eating adulterated meat during the festive season/
Thirty-eight sick were treated at a district hospital.
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COUPLE LIKELY MURDERED IN SINDHUPALCHOWK
Kathmandu, 4 Oct. A Tamang couple was probably murdered at Sunkhani VDC-2 in Sindhupalchowk, police said.
Bodies of Marichman Tamang ,72, and his wife were recovered nearly the village.
A blood-stained sharp object was recovered from the place where the bodies were found.
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AMNESTY FOR MAOIST LAWMAKER OPPOSED
Kathmandu, 4 Oct.: Amid talks of government planning to provide presidential clemency to Maoist lawmaker Balkrishna Dhungel, accused of killing Ujjain Kumar Shrestha in Okhaldhunga seven years ago, relatives of Shrestha have requested not to provide clemency to Dhungel, The Kathmandu Post reports.
Speaking at a programnme in the Capital, deceased Shrestha’s sister Sabitri Shrestha and son Neeraj asked the government not to go ahead with the plan.
In January last year, the SC slapped life imprisonment on Dhungel, along with the confiscation of his entire property, implicating him in the murder of Shrestha in Okhaldhunga during the Maoist-insurgency. It was reported that the government was mulling presidential clemency for Dhungel.
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FOREIGN MINISTRY BEING REVAMPED, EXPANDED
Kathmandu, 4 Oct.: A year-long tug-of-war between the ministries of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) and the General Administration (MoGA) ended on a happy note on Sunday after the latter approved MoFA’s ambitious expansion plan, The Kathmandu Post reports.
To cope with the increasing foreign policy engagements inside and outside the country, MoFA had recommended expansion of its presence by adding more personnel to the existing divisions and missions.
MoFA’s new ‘Organisation and Management Report’, which was agreed to on the ministerial level on Sunday, has paved way to add more divisions in the ministry and some additional posts in Nepal’s missions abroad.
The expansion plan, however, will land in the Cabinet after getting a final approval from the Ministry of Finance (MoF). “The only hurdle was the MoGA, which is now cleared. We are happy that it will easily get through the MoF and the Cabinet,” a senior MoFA official said. According to the expansion proposal, MoFA gets additional posts of three joint-secretaries, four under-secretaries, six section officers and seven first class non-gazetted staff.
Out of the three posts of joint-secretaries, one will be posted in Nepal’s mission in Washington and the rest will be given jobs in Africa and Saarc divisions. As of now, under secretary-level employees have been looking after these two designated affairs.
With this, West Africa will be separated from the Europe and America division and Saarc will be separated from the South Asia division. However, MoGA could not agree on a proposal for a joint secretary’s post in the Nepali mission in London.
MoFA had been seeking to upgrade missions in the US and the UK owing to increasing bilateral ties and growing number of the Nepali diaspora in these two countries.
Likewise, of the four posts of under-secretaries, two will be created in missions in Qatar and New York and the remaining inside the ministry itself.
The proposal also points out the need to open up a new Consulate General’s Office with a post of under-secretary in New York, given the pressure of trade, commerce, visa and other consular matters.
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