COLDEST TEMPERATURE RECORDED IN CAPITAL MONDAY MORNINGWINTER

COLDEST WINTER RECORDED IN CAPITAL

Kathmandu, 26 Dec.: The coldest winter was recorded in the capital Monday morning.
The temperature was 2 degrees Celsius.
An extended cold wave ended in central terai Sunday after nearly two weeks.
Schools reopened Monday in the region.
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MAOIST LEADER MAHARA SAYS DIFFERENCES WILL BE RESOLVED
Kathmandu, 26 Dec.: Foreign Bureau Chief of UCPN-Maoist, Krishna Bahadur Mahara has said that the intra-party rift in the Maoist party would be taken to a positive conclusion, RSS reports from Lalitpur.
Speaking at a programme organised on the occasion of Christmas here today [Sunday]
, leader Mahara said that political debates was obvious in all the parties and added that the intra-party debate in the UCPN-Maoist party would be resolved positively.
Saying the Maoist party was on a mission of peace, prosperity and unity, Mahara added country's problems would be resolved if all political parties were united by managing their conflict.
Mahara said religion was not confined to a particular country and community and the Maoist party was liberal towards all religions. He also stressed on the need for all the stakeholders concerned to work for social transformation through religion.
On the occasion, Chairman of the World Hindu Federation, Damodar Gautam said establishing humanism through religion was the real respect to all religions.

Pastor Uttam Pariyar of the Nepal Christian Citizens' Association prayed to Jesus for peace and constitution in the country.
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FIXED LINE TELEPHONE EXPANSION SLOWS DOWN
Kathmandu, 26 Dec.: The fixed-line telephone popularly known as ‘land-line’ telephone is loosing its ground despite steady growth of telecom sector in the country. Telephone services– mobile, CDMA and land-line– had reached to 53.50 per cent of 26.62 million population, The Himalayan Times reports.

The increment rate of fixed-line is around one to two thousands every month, according to Management Information System (MIS) report released by Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA).

The number of fixed-line consumers has reached to 843,847 until mid-October, according to the regulator. The number of consumers was 842,352 a month ago.

However, telecom service providers have succeeded to expand consumer base by nearly 500,000 during the same period of time. The consumer base of mobile service was 12,153,234 until mid-September but it reached to 12,615,533 in the mid of October, the regulator’s report revealed.

Currently, five telecom companies out of six are providing fixed line telephone service to the consumers. Nepal Telecom, UTL, Smart, STM and Nepal Satellite are providing the service of fixed-line, according to the authority.

Nepal Telecom has the largest number of consumers, the report informed. Nepal Telecom’s fixed-line consumers have reached to 764,694 until mid-October. Similarly, UTL has 70,957, STM has 5,108, Nepal Satellite has 2,490 and Smart has 598 consumers, the authority said.

Consumer attraction have been shifting towards mobile technology since mobile is portable and easy for use, NTA official said, adding that the consumers of fixed-line are mostly government offices and other organisations.

The total consumers of voice telephony has reached to 14,248, 818 until mid-October making overall telephony rate of 53.50.
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COMMERCIAL FRAUD A THREAT
Kathmandu, 26 Dec.: Commercial frauds are posing threat to genuine business in the country. Bogus importers have been creating an adverse environment for genuine business, the Finance Ministry source said, Shiromani Dhungara writes n The Himalayan Times.

“Importers have created a chain to commit commercial fraud from customs offices,” the source informed. “Those importers have acquired license from the government but they are false importers.”

According to the source, new firm can import goods without the support of those false importing firms because of the syndicate. There are numbers of instances that cartel and syndicate among bogus importers have been blocking genuine business, the Finance Ministry source claimed citing an example from Pokhara, “A printer tried to import printing materials from China without their helps, but he could not.”

“Investing Rs 2 million he was importing goods from Khasa in his own initiation but bogus traders sized his goods on the way to Kathmandu in Araniko Highway,” said the ministry source explaining the trend. However, the source did not furnished the name of the entrepreneur.

Later, he approached to the officials at Tatopani Customs Office. And the officials at Tatopani Customs Office identified that the goods were seized by bogus importers. “The customs office succeeded to return his Rs 1 million after negotiation with illegal importers,” the source said. That entrepreneur borne huge loss after the incident.“But he did not get justice due to the involvement of influential people in the bogus importing scam,” the source revealed.

“Customs commercial fraud perpetrators are taking advantage of every opportunity to hurt the public purse,” he informed.

Further, it is suspected that some aspects of customs commercial fraud, in particular undervaluation, have been linked to capital flight. Commercial fraud at different customs points remains a long-standing and unsolved issue, especially because of its varied modalities and political protection.

In order to effectively prevent and detect commercial fraud, customs needs to employ a strategic multi-faceted approach, including capacity building and cooperation among different stakeholders.

Identity card delays

KATHMANDU: The government programme to introduce import identity card will take few more months as legal ground has not established yet. The government had pledged to introduce the system by the mid-December in budget 2011-12. Identity card to importers cannot be distributed soon due to legal barrier, acting director general at the Department of Commerce Shankar Prasad Paudel said adding that legal clarity will come only after amendment of Export and Import (Control) Act. It is not possible to complete the process in current fiscal year.
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PARLIAMENT TO SEEK REVIEW OF CA EXPIRY VERDICT

Kathmandu, 26 Dec : The parliament secretariat is preparing to apply for the review of the November 26 Supreme Court (SC) verdict that said the Constituent Assembly (CA) term would automatically expire in six months after its last extension on November 31, Thira L. Bhusal writes in Republica..

Sources said the secretariat has completed all the preparations and will forward the application to the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) most likely on Monday. “We have completed all the preparatory works in this regard. If everything goes as planned, we will forward it through the OAG to the apex court on Monday,” a source at parliament told Republica.

An official said the secretariat is planning to forward it through the OAG though the parliament can register the application directly. “We decided to do it through OAG because the attorney general should plead on behalf of parliament as well,” said an official.

Speaker Subas Nembang also held consultations with various sides concerned on the issue. He held discussions with a group of lawyer-turned lawmakers -- Agni Kharel and Sapana Malla of CPN-UML, Radheshyam Adhikari of Nepali Congress, Khimlal Devkota of UCPN (Maoist) and Laxman Lal Karna of Sadbhavana Party -- on Sunday.

Saying that seeking review of the verdict is the only appropriate option left, the lawmakers suggested to the speaker to advance the procedures. Review of the verdict is possible as errors have been committed while issuing the latest verdict, said Kharel.

Officials said the review will be sought on the ground of past precedents, or if there is any room for reinterpretation of constitution, or if any serious legal error has been committed while issuing the verdict, among others.

Legal experts see the possibility of review on the ground of past precedents.

In one of the SC verdicts issued with regard to CA term extension, the apex court had said that there shouldn´t be any alternative other than the CA to write and promulgate the new constitution.

“The interim constitution says that it is the CA that has to accomplish the task of constitution writing and state restructuring while managing the existing transitional period and this is the right of the Nepali citizens,” read the SC verdict issued on November 4, 2010.

It has also argued that the move to dissolve the CA, under the pretext of delay in constitution writing, would invite anarchy and constitutional crisis.
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NEPALI CARPETS IN TIBET
Kathmandu, 26 Dec.:: Thanks to upcoming new year Lhosar, which falls on February 22, 2012, Nepali hand-woven carpet has found a ready market in Tibet at a time when demand from traditional markets like Europe and US has been on a downslide, Prabhakar Ghimere writes in Republica.

Impressive growth in demand from the northern neighbor has given a new lease of life to the Nepali carpet industry that has been struggling to survive amid shrinking market in Europe that still accounts for over 70 percent of the total carpet export from Nepal.

“To the relief of Nepali exporters, who are on the receiving end of a subdued demand from European markets, Nepali carpet has found a good market in Tibet that is also offering better price compared to European buyers. Upcoming Lohsar festival in Tibet has driven up demand for Nepali carpet,” Gopal Krishna Joshi, Second Vice-president of Central Carpet Industries Association, told Republica on Sunday.

Joshi said carpets that are being exported to Tibet are fetching Rs 11,000 to Rs 22,000 per piece, depending on size and quality. The Tibetan price range is better than what is being offered by European buyers.

“Though demand from Tibet will be for a limited period only, this opportunity is a great relief,” Joshi added. He said over a dozen exporters have started production and export of carpets woven in Tibetan designs. However, he couldn´t provide the exact quantity of demand placed by Tibet for Nepali carpet.

In a bid to diversify the international market, which is getting volatile and uncertain, exporters have already started to target other emerging buyers such as Brazil, Turkey, Japan and Gulf countries. However, traders said the number of manufacturers has continued to decline amid rising cost of production boosted by increasing price of wool - the key raw material - and labor cost.

“Manufacturers are increasingly getting into exports themselves. Rather, many of them opt to outsource production to avoid problems associated with running a factory,” said Bijay Bahadur Bista, First Vice-president of the association. Around 200 exporters and 25 manufacturer-exporters are currently supplying Nepali carpet to overseas market.

According to traders, production of per square meter of carpet has shot up by Rs 1,200 to Rs 4,800 and Rs 8,000, depending on the quality due to rise in wages, price of wool and cotton yarn. The production cost has gone up by over 30 to 40 percent over the last year.

Over the last year, price of wool and cotton yarn has risen to Rs 500 and Rs 165 from Rs 230 to Rs 105 per kg respectively. Minimum wages have also gone up by Rs 1,500 a month.

With the rise in production cost, export price of carpet has gone up by 33 percent per square meter to Rs 7,220 during the first three months of the current fiscal year 2011/12 compared to the same period last year.

However, the volume of export has dropped by around 5 percent to 238,936 square meters though the export in terms of value has grown by 27 percent during the period compared to the corresponding period last year.
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CHINESE MUSLIMS ENTER NEPAL WITH FAKE PASSPORTS , ARRESED AND HAVE GONE MISSING

Kathmandu, 25 Dec.: An initial investigation has found that Chinese passports seized by the immigration officials from seven Chinese nationals in August are fake, causing serious concern at Department of Immigration and the Chinese embassy in Kathmandu, Republica reports.
Officials dealing with the issue said that the Chinese embassy is very concerned over use of fake Chinese passports as the possessors are Chinese Muslims.
This is the first time immigration officials have found Chinese nationals coming to Nepal with fake Chinese passports.
The immigration officials are concerned over the attempt by Chinese nationals to use Nepali soil to go to other countries with fake passports.
Though they were arrested for possessing fake passports, they were later released on condition of presenting themselves when needed.
But the Chinese nationals have been at large since their release.
Immigration officials became suspicious of the Chinese nationals after they found that their Malaysian visas were issued from Bangkok though they were in Nepal on the date they obtained the visas.
Officials involved suspect that they might have gone into hiding in Nepal or India.
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ACHHAM AIDS PATIENTS IN PARENTAL ROLE
Kathmandu, 26 Dec.:As dawn breaks, Nirmala Nepali steels herself for another day of cooking, cleaning, and back-breaking work to get food on the table — a struggle she has faced for many years, AFP reports from Achham.

Yet she is still a child herself, thrown into the role of head of the household at the age of six after her mother died of AIDS.

Nirmala, now 15, has never been to school, never learned to read and write, and never had the sort of childhood enjoyed by her friends whose shouts of excitement drift into her home as they play outside.

“If I don’t go out all day to collect firewood to sell, there is no food to eat. I have to work or my brother and sister will have empty stomachs,” she says.

Nirmala rises at first light, makes sure her 13-year-old sister Sita and 10-year-old brother Suresh are fed and washed and then heads out for work.

She spends all day collecting piles of wood in the forests below her tiny, mud and clay home in Biraltoli, a hamlet high in the hills an hour’s walk from Mangalsen, the main town in Achham.

The money she earns — Rs 100 on a good day —means Sita and Suresh are able to go to school, enjoying opportunities she will never have.

“I’d like to play, but if I spend time playing it means we don’t eat,” she says.

Nirmala’s father, a migrant labourer in Mumbai, infected her mother with HIV on one of his visits home. He eventually died of an AIDS-related illness while he was in India.

Nirmala’s story is all too common in remote Achham where health infrastructure was ravaged by a decade-long civil war that ended in 2006.

Jobs are scarce and up to half of the young male population travel abroad to find work.

“Because of a lack of education, they have unprotected sex with sex workers and contract HIV/AIDs, which they bring back to Achham. It’s a huge problem,” said Sharmila Shah, a UNICEF-funded village facilitator.

The humanitarian organisation estimates that some 13,000 children have lost both parents to an HIV/AIDS epidemic sweeping Nepal’s rural communities, up to 1,500 of them in Achham.

Bikram Augi, 17, cooks rotis for his 14-year-old sister Pashupati’s breakfast before leaving the mud and brick home they share high in the hills above Sanfebagar.

He became head of his household at the age of nine when his mother, 32, died of AIDS-related illnesses. Bikram found out through relatives a year later his father had also died, in Pune. He says at least 20 of his friends are also AIDS orphans.He is positive about the future and wants to pass his exams so that he can help educate others on the dangers of unprotected sex.
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