MORE DETAILS OF GORKHA QUAKE WITH CORRECTION

MORE DETAILS OF GORKHA QUAKE WITH CORRECTION

Kathmandu, 13 Nov.: A earthquake 5 on the Richter scale hitnorth GOrkha at 5.31 and not 5 as earlier reported.
The epicenter 75km northeast of the capital is hilly and sparsely
populated.
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MAOIST CENTRAL COMMITTEE’S CENTRAL COMMITTEE SUNDAY UNCERTAIN

Kathmandu, 13 Nov.: A crucial meeting of the Maoist central committee scheduled to meet Sunday is uncertain
Chairman Prachanda is out of the country in London after meeting UB Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York.
The committee meeting—rescheduled several times, is scheduled to discuss differences in the party leading the government.
Differences surfaced first on the party establishment decision to
handover keys of containers with insurgency-era Maoist
weapons to a special committee headed by the prime monister for settlement and integration of 19,000 plus combatants.
Relationship between top relations have soured and differences peaked with an agreement with India during the just concluded India visit of
Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai.
A faction led by First Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya says the agreement to protect Indian foreign investment in Nepal was a sellout.
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SPECIAL COMMITTEE FOR INTEGRATIO MEETS SUNDAY

Kathmandu, 13 Nov.: A special committee for the integration for the integration, resettlement and supervision of 19,000 plus Maoist
former PLA combatants headed by Prime Minister Baburam
Bhattarai meets Sunday afternoon at five after the government
chief returned from Maldives Saturday.
The committee meet was called off after meeting Tuesday as the premier had to fly for Maldives to attend the SAARC summit.
The committee with representatives of major political parties is considering a package prepared by secretariat of the special committee with
60 plus alternatives for integration and resettlement of the former combatants.
The special committee directed the secretariat to prepare the package.
The preliminary work for integration of the fighters has to completed by 21 November be complete the peace process and constitution
drafting process by a 30 November deadline.
Most members of the special have returned home from abroad for the meet.
Seven team of 210 surveyors trained by the special committee leave for seven cantonments this week to collect data on preferences of
the fighters for integration, resettlement and assilimination
into society.
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13 INJURED IN CHITWAN VEHICULR ACCIDENT

Kathmandu, 13 Nov.: Thirteen persons were injured in a bus
accident at Darechowk, Chitwan, Sunday morning.
The vehicle laws heading for the capital from Jhapa.
The injured are being treated at a hospital in Bharatpur.
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WOMEN SUFFER WHEN LIVE-IN RELATIONSHIP RELATONSHIP GO SOUR
Kathmandu, 13 Nov.: Something new is happening these days in the legal counseling center at National Women Commission and several NGOs, Anjali Subedi writes in Republica..

Males, after it comes to surface that they have ill treated, harassed or exploited their live-in partners, straightaway challenge the legal advisors, “So what? Take action if you can!”

Deepa Acharya, senior legal counselor at Women Commission states that the legal counselors in the office have to deal with such arrogant males on a regular basis.

She dealt with similar cases even while she was working at Forum for Women, Law and Development (FWLD) as a legal advisor three years ago. “There is no legal provision to deal with the issues related to “live-in relationships”, and the cost of that is mainly borne by the female partners.”

According to Acharya, the nature of the relationship is such that the females fall prey to the situation, especially in our social context.

“Though we met both the partners in person often, it is exclusively the females who have literally wept and begged for justice in our office room,” she said.

She added that generally male decides to break free of the relationship once issues starts mounting and in most cases, woman falls weak due to her attachment with the partner, or due to pregnancy or identity problem of the new born child from such a partner.

“The male, in a majority of cases, seem to deliberately use the female as he is already aware of the lack of legal provision dealing with the issue,” said Acharya.

She further added, “I have come across women who have gone for abortion more than twice, thrice or even more times, just when the male stops cooperating, female begins to face multiple problems.”

According to her, the trend is common not only among the new generation, who finds it “cool”, but also among well educated professionals, including doctors, police personnel, army men, journalists, lawyers, teachers and so on.

Saraj Raj Thapa, legal expert at the commission for five years now, also admitted that in a majority of cases, males are exploiters and women remain exploited.

“There is no exact record of the complaints related to such cases. However, it can be said that the cases are just growing, and always, it is the woman who suffers,” he said. According to him, this year alone, around 20 women have sought help from the Women Commission.

Thapa further asserted that wider study of the subject is needed and perhaps the commission would go for it soon. “In fact, as we began to receive “different” cases of violence against women; we felt the need to study different aspects of “live in relationships” and that was done two years ago,” he said.

Former Attorney General Chet Nath Ghimire and Legal expert Kopila Rijal had gathered 26 live-in relationship cases from several NGOs and the commission and studied them in detail.

The study recommended that the case of domestic violence against women ought to be treated as per the existing law, while, for other complex issues, such as that of the birth and identification of the child, there is no clear solution.

According to former secretary at the commission Ritu Raj Bhandari, the issue of live-in-relationship is not that very easy to tackle legally. “Under marital status, husband and wife have certain rights and responsibilities, it is difficult to draw lines from the definition of marriage,” he viewed.

“On the other hand, lack of proper definition of the term, and legal provisions regarding live-in relationship, individuals continue to suffer,” he summed up.

It is apparent that the trend is fast growing in the country and is making room not only for love and romance, but in long term, multiple problems for the concerned individuals.

The unwanted consequences of a live-in-relationship, that is affecting the lives of hundreds out there, indeed call for a serious debate on the issue.
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NAC TWIN OTTER LANDING GEARS MISSING

Kathmandu, 13 Nov.: Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC), the ailing national flag carrier which has been reporting a series of thefts of aircraft spare parts, has now announced that two of its Twin Otter landing gear units have gone missing since a month ago, Samiksha Koirala reports in Republica..

The equipment, which is a must accessory for aircraft landing and take-off, was taken to London-based AEM Limited for a complete overhaul in September. Documents show that the overhauled gear was received in mid-October.

"However, we could not find the repaired landing gear when we went to collect it at the cargo complex a month ago," NAC officials said. NAC paid US $ 140,000 for the overhaul.

NAC said the equipment was delivered to Nepal via Thai Airways cargo. "The cargo was cleared through customs and hence should have been in the cargo complex. But when we went to collect it, it was not there," said the NAC source.

The cargo complex at Tribhuvan International Airport is managed by Nepal Transit Warehouse Company (NTWC). Ranjan Krishna Aryal, joint-secretary at the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoTCA), said they would cross-check documents for possible release of the landing gear from the cargo complex before confirming that the equipment was really missing.

NAC officials said they are preparing to hold a meeting with NTWC officials to clarify the disappearance of the landing gear.

Meanwhile, Yogendra Mahato, executive director of NTWC, said that their security was too intense for the consignment to go missing from the complex. "There is no chance of landing gear getting lost if they were received at the cargo complex," he told Republica.

However, this is not the first time NAC has reported disappearance of aircraft parts.

Just on Tuesday, NAC reported the disappearance of two spare tyres of one of its Boeings. The cost of the tyres was put at US$ 7,000.

Similarly, some eight months ago, it had disclosed the theft of the ´fly-away kit´ of the other Boeing. The kit costing around Rs 45 million is still missing.

A sub-committee formed then to probe the theft had concluded that the kit was ´lost´ because of carelessness by the engineering department at NAC. Based on its findings, NAC had suspended three engineers, charging them with possible
involvement.
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