GOVT DECIDES NO PRICE HIKE OF POL PRODUCTS FOR 3 MONTHS

GOVT. NOT TO HIKE POL PRICES FOR THREE MONTHS

Kathmandu, 23 Dec.: Government decided Friday morning not tohike prices of petroleum products for another three months.
The cabinet took the decision following widespread public opposition.
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TWO MOTORCYCLISTS KILLED IN RAUTAHAT

Kathmandu, 23 Dec.: Two motorcyclists were killed at Debdaha in Rautahat Friday.
One person died when a vehicle transporting oranges to the
capital plunged off the road at Dhanding Friday morning.
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INDIANS FOUGHT AGAINST GOVT. FORCE AS PLA GUERRILLAS

Kathmandu, 23 Dec.: In a disclosure that is bound to send shockwaves, half-a-dozen Indian nationals are among the 19,602 Maoist combatants verified by UNMIN in 2007, according to UNMIN’s database provided to the government, Phanndra Dahal writes isn The Kathmandu Post..
The issue came to light during the regrouping process carried out at the seven main cantonment sites last month. A Maoist commander acknowledged that six Indian nationals were among those in the PLA ranks and four of them visited the Third Division Cantonment in Shaktikhor, Chitwan. Three of them are said to have opted for voluntary retirement and one for integration.
Special Committee Secretariat Coordinator Balananda Sharma was leading the survey team that conducted the regrouping process at the cantonment site. “We did not process their survey forms after they could not prove they were Nepali citizens. We wanted to avoid controversy, hence we asked them to come again with substantial proof of Nepali citizenship, said a source at the Special Committee Secretariat. Sharma has briefed Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai and special committee members from the Nepali Congress and CPN-UML, among others, on the issue.
A Special Committee member said one such combatant told surveyors that he had entered Nepal as an ice-cream seller, but was captured by the Maoists and was drafted into the Maoist army.
In UNMIN’s database seen by the Post, the permanent address of one such combatant—Panalal Kumar Chaudhary—has been recorded as Motihari in Bihar in India.
“We have kept around a dozen forms on hold because the information they provided did not match with UNMIN’s record,” Sharma told the Post.
Recalling the participation of Nepali politicians in India’s independence movement, some other combatants have argued that their affiliation in the “People’s War” should not be looked in a negative way.
PLA commanders, however, are mounting pressure on the government, saying that such combatants should be awarded the package offered by the Special Committee. “During the Beni attack, one youth from Darjeeling who was our supporter became a martyr,” said
commander of the Second Division Suk Bahadur Rokka. “There are six Indian nationals who are in the PLA. They have expressed solidarity with the Nepali revolution, hence they should be given the voluntary retirement package,” he added. Rokka clarified that the combatants with Indian nationalities are not affiliated to any Indian communist party.
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FILLING OF 3,000 VACANCIES IN NA STILL UNCERTAIN
Kathmandu, 23 Dec.: The government’s decision to revive 3,000 vacancies scrapped in 2006 for recruiting youths from Madhesi and other minority groups remains ambiguous. Sources said a minute of the decision, which has drawn flak from the opposition parties, has not been finalised yet, The Kathmandu Post reports.
It’s been three days since the Cabinet took the decision, the Ministry of Defence and the Nepal Army have not received the official text of the policy paper that aims at making the Nepal Army more inclusive.
Minister for Information and Communications Jay Prakash Prasad Gupta is scheduled to make some amendments in the draft proposed by the Defence Ministry and finalise the policy paper on Friday.
Talking to reporters after Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, Foreign Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha had said the government had decided to revive 3,000 vacancies to recruit youths from Madhesi, Dalit, Janajati, Women and Muslim communities. Cabinet members affiliated to Madhes-based parties had informed that new posts would be filled by recruiting 2,000 Madhesi youths and 1,000 youths from other minority groups from the Tarai.
Confused by varying interpretations of the Cabinet decision, the Nepal Army on Wednesday had stressed that the recruitment process should be in line with the constitution and military law and that it cannot go for a recruitment drive only for a single community.
Under the existing law, the Army recruits 55 percent of the total seats through free competition and 45 percent under the reservation quota.
The draft of the policy paper, according to the Defence Ministry source, had recommended the government carry out new intakes on the basis of the existing inclusive policy of the government. The paper also included statistics on inclusiveness in the NA and examined the reason for ‘under representation’ of youths from Madhesi community.
Madhes-based parties are learnt to have agreed the policy paper in principle and expressed the need of ‘some revision’ in its texts. “We are optimistic that we can finalise the text by tomorrow,” added the source.
The paper had recommended for opening 16 orientation centres in various parts of the country to disseminate information and conduct training for youths willing to join the Army. The Army, according to the policy paper, would open three orientation centres in the Himalayan, five in the Hill and eight in the Tarai regions.
Madhesi leaders have admitted in private that they don’t want all 3,000 posts for Madhesi youths but only a segment of it to prove that they fulfilled their commitment when they were in the government.
The proposal passed to Cabinet by Defence Ministry proposed setting up a new unit in the Nepal Army for Madhesis but was not specific on whether it should be a new battalion or a smaller unit. Such unit could be named as Janaki or Simraungadh, informed the source.
Meanwhile, Chief of Army Staff Chhatra Man Singh Gurung called on President Ram Baran Yadav and discussed about integration of former Maoist combatants and recruitment of Madhesi youths in Nepal Army on Thursday. General Gurung is learnt to have told the President that he had no concrete information on the government’s official decision.
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