THREE PARTIES AND A FRONT AGREE TO FORM A STATE REORGANIZING COMMISSION

AGREEMENT TO FORM STATE REORGANIZING COMMISSION

Kathmandu, 19 Nov.: Parties agreed Saturday morning to form a
state reorganization commission in three days to suggest a federal state structure to replace a unitary state established by Prithivi Narayan Shah the Great.
He unified modern Nepal with help of Nepal Army
A report will be presented in two months.
The agreement to form a commission instead of launching an expert
panel followed a two-point agreement between the Big Three and a
front of six Madeshbadis in government with UCPN (Maiost) at the helm of government for more than two months.
Before the dramatic turning events government first withdrew its own proposal for an 11th amendment bill to the interim constitution to facilitate the formation of an experts panel which couldn’t be approved by the legislature,
Jjanajatis or indigenous lawmakers across party lines and a
Maoist faction headed by first Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya opposed the expert panel formation which if put to vote would have been defeated.
Government would have failed to muster a two-third majority.
Parliament was adjourned until 24 November early morning.
Two attempts were made to form an expert panel—first on 11
November.
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NEPAL, FAO CELEBRATE 60 YEARS OF COOPERATION

Kathmandu, 19 Nov.: Vice-president Parmananda Jha was chief guest Friday to mark 60 years of cooperation between the UN Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) Friday.
Nepal joined FAO 21 November 1951.
FAO is the first UN agency to start technical assistance in Nepal.
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GOLD PRICE SLIPS SLIGHTLY FRIDAY

Kathmandu, 19 Nov.: Gold price Friday fell slightly on the last day of weekly trading as the price of the yellow metal slipped to Rs. 46,810 per tola.
Price fell by Rs.515 per tola during the week.
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NEPAL ARMY CLUB MEETS BANGLADESH TEAIN FINAL
OF POKHARA FOOTBALL TOURNAMENT

Kathmandu, 19 Nov.: Tribhuvan Club of Nepal Army and Dhanmondi Club of Bangladesh play in the final of the Safal Pokhara Cup International Inter-club Football Tournament in he resort town in the test.
The Bangladesh team is on its second Nepal outing.

BRITISH WOMAN RECORDS NEW TIME FOR EVEREST BASE CAMP, KATHMANDU RUN

Kathmandu, 19 Nov. : A British woman bettered her own world record on Friday by completing a 320-kilometer run from Mt Everest Base Camp to Kathmandu in two days, 23 hours and 25 minutes, Bikash Sangrula
reports in Republica.
Dr Elizabeth Hawker, 35, better known as Lizzie, achieved the feat despite having to stop for eight hours in Bupsa village just below Lukla for shelter due to rain and freezing cold.

Hawker had completed the run in 2007 in three days, two hours and 39 minutes with partner Stephen Pyke.

“After reaching her hotel, she ate, showered, and crashed in bed,” said Roger Henke, general manager of Hotel Summit, where she is staying.

Lizzie didn´t sleep throughout the run and made the journey even while nursing a chest infection that she developed while participating in a nine-day Everest Sky Race.
“There were difficult moments and easy moments,” Lizzie later told us, requesting to keep the interview short as she was hardly able to speak due to weakness.

“The first night, I had planned to run straight through,” she said. “But it started raining, and was very cold. I had to take shelter for eight hours in Bupsa village to keep from getting soaked and getting sick,” she said.

The long stop left her worried that she would end up taking more time than she did in 2007 to reach Kathmandu. But she eventually managed to surprise herself.

The last part of the run on blacktopped roads leading to the Dasarath stadium were also tough, Lizzie said.
“I´d really love to use this opportunity to promote trail running in Nepal,” said the runner, who said she is exhausted more due to lack of sleep than anything else.

Though she ended up achieving this, she had arrived in Nepal this time for a different purpose. She had arrived to run the 1,600 kilometer Great Himalayan Trail traversing Nepal from Mt Kanchenjunga in the east to Hilsa in western Nepal bordering Tibet.

But she had to abandon the plan after losing a sack that carried a satellite phone, permits for the journey, solar panel, camera, money, compass and maps.

She then participated in the Everest Sky Race, a 200 kilometer nine-day race staged race from Dolakha to Ama Dablam base camp in Nepal. And finally, she decided to better her record of running from Mt Everest Base Camp to Kathmandu.

Lizzie has is a well-known name in ultra-distance and endurance running sport.

Lizzie dreams to encourage people to realize the inspiration of nature, the mountains, of our world, and to realize the richness of our environment and our responsibility to protect it.
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DEVELOPERS LIVING OFF CUSTOMERS

Kathmandu, 19 Nov.: Despite relaxation in income disclosure provision and the central bank allowing home loans up to Rs 8 million, realty market in the Kathmandu valley continues to look downcast in November even though property transactions pick up during this time, Milan Mani Sharma writes in Republica..

Worse, customers are hesitant even though many housing developers in the valley and outside have announced discounts in a range of 10 to 20 percent.

"Till early 2011, I was not eager to sell the houses at Rs 10 million apiece. But six months down the line, customers are still reluctant even though I have lowered the price," said Ravi Thapa, a developer at Pepsi Cola Town Planning.

Unlike individual developers like Thapa, who are open to publicizing their discount offers, big housing developers barring a few are still reluctant to make their offers public. "Their fear is such publicity might result in across the board drop in prices. If you approach housing developers, they will invariably offer you handsome discounts on the housing units on sale," said a senior official at Nepal Land and Housing Developers Association (NLHDA).

And, the nightmare that the developers refuse to share is that even after such price-cuts, customers are not responding positively.

"Clients visit my house almost every week. They talk as if they will buy it the very next day, but they never call back," said Thapa. The stories that NLHDA officials related in confidence are no different.

As a result, five Land Revenue Offices (LROs) that used to be heavily crowded in the past continue to cast a deserted look and the Department of Land Reform and Management (DoLRM) -- the parent agency for these offices -- says the volume of business is not even one-fourth of what it used to be two years ago.

"Transactions in the first four months dipped by almost half in the last fiscal year itself. It has further shrunk by around a quarter during the same period this year," said Tulasi Ram Vaidya, a DoLRM official.

As a result, the department´s revenue collections from land and housing transactions has dropped by about 25 percent during the period, compared to the same period last year. "This gloomy trend continued even in the month from mid-October to mid-November (the 4th month of the current fiscal year), when property transactions generally pick up," said Vaidya.

DoLRM records show the government mobilized Rs 90.5 million in revenue from realty trade during the month whereas it collected Rs 111.80 million in the same month last year.

The realty market has witnessed a sharp downturn since December 2009 when Nepal Rastra Bank imposed cap on banks and financial institutions´ exposure to realty loans, in a bid to stabilize the banking sector after fears that developers would sink together with the banks as the realty bubble was showing all signs of busting. Even though it excluded home loans up to Rs 8 million from real estate loans, people are still shying away from buying new dwellings.

"Reality is that consumers know land and housing developers are still holding on the prices and has no other option but to let the prices crash. They are anticipating prices to fall. Hence, they are responding coldly to the present personalized discount offers," said Vaidya.

The central bank had intervened in the realty market, mainly as prices soared unnaturally during 2006 to 2009 on the back of easy bank financing. Deteriorating law and order situation in Tarai and other parts of the country, which spurred rapid transfer of assets to Kathmandu, too had fueled the prices.

Since the NRB intervention, volume of transactions in the valley has shrunk sharply.
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