CAPITAL MNIMU TEMPERATURE 4.2 DEGREES CELSIUS

MINIMUM TEMPERATURE
IN CAPITAL SUNDAY 4.2 DEGREES CELSIUS

Kathmandu, 11 Dec.: The temperature recorded Sunday morning in the capital was 4.2
degrees Celsius in the capital.
The mercury is expected to rise to 17/19 degrees Celsius in the afternoon.
LAW ON STATE BENENITS SO0N
Kathmandu, 11 Dec.:: The government is working to bring in a new law at the earliest to regulate state benefits provided to former top public officials and has assigned a team of secretaries to submit a draft law within a couple of days,Bimal Gautam and Tirtha
Bhusal report in Republica. .

Following the government directives, Chief Secretary Madhav Prasad Ghimire, Home Secretary Sushil Jung Bahadur Rana and Law and Justice Secretary Bhesh Raj Sharma held an emergency meeting at Singha Durbar on Saturday.

"The government is preparing to bring the new law shortly and it is likely to lay down that only former presidents, former vice presidents, ex-prime ministers, retired chief justice and former speakers will be entitled to state facilities," an official, preferring anonymity, told Republica.

Sources also disclosed that the former prime ministers who returned or have decided to return their vehicles, will get back the same vehicles within a couple of days once the new law comes into effect. "The government is making preparations accordingly," the official said. However, they are still studying whether they need to bring a new act of parliament or new regulations will do.

The government can immediately bring new regulations into effect after endorsement by a cabinet meeting but it requires more time to bring in a new act as this requires endorsement by parliament.

The meeting also entrusted Home Secretary Rana with the responsibility of preparing an initial draft of the new regulations.

The SC, in its verdict on Thursday, instructed the government to provide state benefits only as per the law and nullified all cabinet decisions taken at different times in this connection. The benefits were provided on the strength of the cabinet decisions.

The apex court verdict sparked a flurry of activity among top leaders of major political parties over the last two days for returning vehicles they were using in their capacity as former prime ministers and ex-home ministers.

What are ex-PMs riding now?

With the return of government vehicles, some former prime ministers are now left without any personal vehicle.

According to aides, former prime ministers Jhalanath Khanal, Madhav Kumar Nepal and Pushpa Kamal Dahal have no personal vehicle and they are in discussions about finding new vehicles.

"He has no personal vehicle at present. But since he is also the UML chairman, the party will shortly find a vehicle for him," Khanal´s aide Ram Babu Adhikari told Republica. According to Bishnu Rijal, aide to ex-PM and senior UML leader Nepal, the latter has no vehicle now and is yet to find a new one. "There is no vehicle with any other member of his family either. So he urgently needs a vehicle, but he is yet to decide on the matter," said Rijal.

Former PM Lokendra Bahadur Chand also has no personal vehicle. "Following the SC verdict, I am asking my son to pick and drop me to and from my destinations," Chand told Republica.

The only two former prime ministers who own personal vehicles are Nepali Congress (NC) leader Sher Bahadur Deuba and Rastriya Janashakti Party Chairman Surya Bahadur Thapa. Deuba´s aide Badri Sigdel and Thapa´s aide Kiran Giri said they are using SUVs.

Meanwhile, former home ministers Bhim Rawal and Bamdev Gautam also returned the vehicles they were using on Saturday, said Ekmani Nepal, assistant spokesman at the Home Ministry.

No return of security officials

The government, however, hasn´t issued any instructions with regard to recalling personnel deployed for the security of the leaders.

Officials said that despite the court order they cannot abruptly remove the security details, so as to avoid any untoward incident.

"Following the court order, I requested the security personnel deployed for my security to go back but they told me they wouldn´t do so unless they got an order from their command," said Chand. "When I made enquiries, I found that similar was the case with other leaders as well."
Nnnn



NOC BRINGS IN DUAL PRICE FOR DIESEL, KEROSENE

Kathmandu, 11 Dec.: In its latest bid to curtail loss and manage supplies, Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has decided to enforce dual pricing on diesel and kerosene. Under the new policy decision, which the NOC board took on Saturday and comes into effect immediately, industries, hotels, foreign missions, hospitals and development projects will now need to pay around Rs 95 per liter for diesel, Milan Mani Sharma writes in Republica.

Likewise, they will need to pay around Rs 84 per liter for kerosene.

Transporters and general consumers, however, will continue to get these fuels at the prevailing subsidized rate, which is Rs 76 per liter for both.

“Consumers and transporters will not be affected by the new decisions. Industries, missions, development projects and other commercial ventures, however, will need to pay break-even price (price at which the fuels are imported),” said NOC Spokesperson Mukunda Dhungel.

NOC´s latest decision is going to cost the industries and development projects dearly as it has straightaway increased their fuel cost by 25 percent in case of diesel. “This is an unpleasant decision. But we had no other choice,” Dhungel told Republica.

Members of NOC board said they took the policy decision mainly because the government did not allow them to raise the diesel and kerosene prices across the board. At the existing retail rates, the state-owned petroleum import monopolist is incurring a loss of Rs 18.91 on a liter of diesel and Rs 7.12 on a liter of kerosene.

As a result, these two products were estimated to inflict a monthly loss of Rs 1.04 billion and Rs 284.68 million respectively on the corporation in December.

“We pushed for a hike across the board in the price of these two products. However, the government did not give its consent. Hence, we had to resort to this policy,” said an NOC spokesperson.

The government refused to adjust the prices mainly referring to inflationary impact of a price-hike in diesel. Dhungel, however, refused to elaborate to what extent the new decision will help it cut the losses.
Meanwhile, industrialists and contractors handling development projects, flayed the decision. “Fuel cost makes for around 15 percent of the total cost for roads and major development projects. Rise in diesel price by a 25 percent will straightaway raise the total project cost by around 4 percent,” said Jaya Ram Lamichhane, president of Federation of Contractors Association of Nepal. “This will mainly hurt the ongoing projects for which the construction costs have already been quoted,” he added.

Industrialists too said the use of generators for power-supply is already making their costs go up. With such a sharp rise in diesel prices, they said they will simply fail to compete in both domestic and international markets.

Moreover, sources at the corporation said the decision does not take into account the possibility of leakages. “Such massive difference in the prices will most probably spur price anomaly and also shortage in the market as petroleum dealers to whom fuel is supplied at lower rates for retail sales might funnel the supply to industries and projects,” said the source.

Dhungel too admitted of such a possibility. However, he said the corporation is stepping up market inspection in partnership with the Department of Commerce from Sunday to check such anomaly. “We will make sure that supplies made to dealers are retailed to general consumers,” he stated.

Amid rise in losses, NOC has failed to import petroleum products in sufficient quantity over the last 10 days.

This has already caused scarcity of diesel in the market. Contractors complained of shortage affecting construction projects including national priority projects like Sikta Irrigation, Mid-Hills Highway, Melamchi Drinking Water Project, Tama Koshi Hydropower and Chameliya, among others.

NOC record shows it is presently distributing just around 2,000 kiloliters (KL) of diesel a day against the demand of 3,000 KL in the country.
nnnn
________________________________________




MINISTER GUPTA WARNS OF POSSIBLE WAR

Kathmandu, 11 Dec.: Minister for Information and Communications Jay Prakash Prasad Gupta today said ‘the country will head to a civil war’ if the parties failed to promulgate the constitution within the new deadline of the Constituent Assembly, The Himalayan Times reports from.Dhulikhel.

The CA term was extended for another six months following an agreement among the parties.

“If parties continue to bicker over who gets to lead the government, peace and statute-drafting processes will not be completed by the deadline,” said Gupta, who is also the chairman of Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum-Republic, at a party programme in Dhulikhel. “Madhesis will be affected the most, if there is renewed conflict,” said the Madhesi leader. “The strife would overshadow the issues of Madhes,” he added.

Stating that the ongoing peace process is far from over Gupta said, “The country can again revert to conflict if the needs of the fighters are not addressed.”

“There is a need to hold discussions about the fate of PLA fighters as more fighters have opted for integration than the number that was previously agreed upon,” Minister Gupta said referring to the agreement among parties to integrate up to 6,500 fighters into the national army.
Gupta called on parties to focus on drafting of the constitution, given the limited time the CA has. He criticised Madan Pariyar, coordinator of State Reconstruction Commission, for airing his views on federalism in public. “I doubt that a commission headed by such a person will come up with anything worthwhile.” Pariyar recently had said at a public programme that it was appropriate to federate the country north to south, however, the SRC, the nine-member team which has a two-month deadline to submit its report, is yet to come.
Nnnn

GOVT. RIGHTS RECORD DRAWS FLAK

Kathmandu, 11 Dec. Prominent activists today said although cases of rights abuses have been on the decline in the post-conflict era, the country has had a shoddy record of bringing violators to book and addressing needs of victims, The Himalayan Times reports.

Their comments come as the world observed the 63rd anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, today.

“As we mark the 63rd Human Rights Day, we are reminded of the various commitments made by the government and how it has failed to deliver on those promises. The government has been shielding those accused of committing gross violations of human rights,” Govinda Bandi, a rights advocate, told this daily.

As a case in point, Durja Kumar Rai, who has been accused of violating human rights, has been promoted to Additional Inspector General.

Likewise, police officers Pawan Jung and Kuber Singh Rana, also facing similar allegations, have not stood trial but have been promoted to higher offices.
Likewise, police officers Pawan Jung and Kuber Singh Rana, also facing similar allegations, have not stood trial but have been promoted to higher offices.

The government has also not pressed charges against former minister Prabhu Sah, who resigned following allegations of orchestrating the murder of a Hindu activist.

Similarly, lawmaker Balkrishna Dhungel, convicted of murder, is not only evading arrest but has also been taking part in parliamentary business. Defying calls from rights activists, Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai recently appointed Surya Man Dong, who has been accused of being involved in murdering Arjun Lama, as state minister for energy.

The government’s actions speak volume of its disregard for bringing rights violators to justice. It has failed to form two commissions crucial to uphold transitional justice -Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Commission on Disappeared- and settle violation cases during the conflict.

“Rights situation has improved after the conflict ended,” said Bishal Khanal, secretary at the National Human Rights Commission. “However, looting and extortion are still rife in the Tarai and eastern hills,” he added.

The government has taken a wrong path to addressing victim’s needs, activists said. It is attempting to placate victims by distributing paltry compensation in the name of relief. Victim’s justice expert Dr Shanker Kumar Shrestha stressed on the need to redefine human rights to make it more victim-centred.

“It is useless to observe the Human Rights Day at a time when perpetrators of rights can go on evading justice,” said Shrestha.
Nnnn