LOWEST TEMPERATURE RECORDED IN CAPITAL

NC PARLIAMENTRY PARTY MEETS SUNDAY

Kathmandu, 15 Dec.: Main opposition NC parliamentary party
meets Sunday to adopt an official position
on state restructuring and system of governance.
The party is deeply divided on the themes that have to be incorporated in a constitution that has to be promulgated 28 May in a fresh
deadline.
Top leaders, including President Sushil Koirala, and lawmakers held inconclusive discussions on the themes in Nagarkot Monday
without the presence of senior leader Sher Bahadur Deuba who is touring districts of the West mid-Wes and fat-West to collect support
for a meet of district presidents in a tussle for party leadership with the establishment section.
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LOWEST TEMPERATURE RECORDED IN CAPITAL

Kathmandu, 15 Dec.: The minimum temperature recorded in the capital was 2 degrees Celsius.
The temperature was the lowest this winter.
The country is in the grip of a cold wave that has hit the terai, hills and the Himalayan regions where schools have closed down.
In the terai, sick are flocking to hospitals with cold diarrhea and bronachitis.
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CAN ELECTION FRIDAY

Kathmandu, 15 Dec.: Election for the executive committee of Cricket
Association of Nepal (CAN) is being held for the first time after its establishment 60 years ago in Chitwan Friday.
Election is being held after National Sports Council (NSC), the
country’s supreme sporting authority, dissolved an executive led by
Binaya Raj Pandey earlier in October this year after Maoists were installed in government.
Nobody has announced candidacy for the election so far.
CAN has 91 voters.
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HIGH SECURITY FOR BIRGUNJ INDUSTRIAL FAIR
Kathmandu, 15 Dec.: High level security has been arranged for the international industrial trade fair Nexpo -2011 to be held in Birgunj, RSS reports from Birgunj.

A special force will be mobilized under the command of police inspector round the clock for the security, said Parsa SP Ramesh Kharel.

The fair will have security zone and Wi Fi zone, said Kharel, in which every stall will be filmed from CC TV camera and security forces will inspect and record. Every activity of the fair will be scrutinized, he added.

The fair to be held from December 23 to January 1 is organized by the Birgunj Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in association with Nepal Government, FNCCI, Micro, Cottage and Small Industries Development Fund and will have 200 stalls including those of industries, tourism, agriculture, small and micro industries and financial institutions.

Seventy percent of the stalls have been already booked, said BCCI Chairman Ashok Kumar Temani.

The fair will showcase handicrafts, agriculture, flowers, auto, IT, activities of various governmental, non government and financial institutions accompanied by famous bands, folk dances, fashion show, various sports and food festival.

Special attraction of the fair will be the tallest man of Asia, Indian national Dharmendra Pratap Singh who is 8 ft three inches and the visitors can take autograph or photos with him, and security arrangement has been made for that, said fair manager Lalit Simkhada.

The fair will be inaugurated by Prime Minister
Dr. Baburam Bhattarai.
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PRE-CONTRACT COMMISSIONS SLOW DEVEKOPMENT SPENDING


Kathmandu, 15 Dec.: The government has lagged behind seriously in speeding up capital expenditure, as ministers overseeing large-scale development projects start demanding pre-payment of commissions for awarding contracts. Milam Mani Sharma writes in Republica.

Records of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) show that the government four-and-half months into this fiscal year has spent a mere Rs 3.93 billion of its capital expenditure budget, which largely finances development work.

Though the figure is slightly better than last year´s, officials at the Ministry of Finance (MoF) said this improvement was nothing to be proud of, particularly as the government this year had managed to bring the annual budget on time.

“The spending has improved, but it is still far below target,” said Finance Secretary Krishna Hari Baskota, adding that he himself was surprised at the sluggish spending under capital expenditure. Top officials at key executing ministries attributed the present sluggish spending to two fresh trends seen in the government.

First, almost all the big ministries are currently reeling under ´differences´ between the political leaders heading the ministries and senior bureaucrats.

“This has affected day-to-day operations, quite apart from the impact it has had on the process of getting development projects approved by the National Planning Commission,” said an official at the Ministry of Irrigation.

A still worse trend, which officials cited as the second major reason behind low development spending, is that of ministers at the leading ministries in recent months demanding pre-payment of commissions for awarding contracts.

“Payment of commissions amounting to as much as 10 percent of total project cost was normal in the past as well. But that used to be after the contract process ended. Unfortunately, ministers are now demanding pre-payment of commissions,” said an official at the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works.

This trend has hit the process of tendering out development projects.

“It is for this reason that many ministries have failed to tender out new projects even to date,” said the source. MoF, on the other hand, had issued clear instructions to all the ministries to get their development programs approved by the National Planning Commission and complete the tender processes by mid-November.

Contractors concurred with what top ministry officials disclosed to Republica.

“Government employees are approaching the contractors, demanding pre-payment of commissions on behalf of the ministers,” said Jaya Ram Lamichhane, president of the Federation of Contractor Associations of Nepal.

Unfortunately, this is happening not just with fresh tenders, but also in projects which have already been tendered out, he added.

That is why even the multi-year contract large-scale projects that have already been tendered out are not working properly. Execution of development projects under the Ministry of Local Development also suffers from the same problem, said another government source.

Irked by the less-than expected level of spending under the capital expenditure budget, Finance Minister Barsaman Pun on Tuesday called a meeting of the chiefs of various development projects and instructed them to work sincerely.

“The government is watching each and every project closely. You all will be judged on the basis of how you perform,” a participant at the meeting quoted Pun as saying to the project chiefs.

However, unless the government manages to control the corrupt behavior of ministers themselves, officials ruled out any chance of the situation improving substantially.
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FATHER OF DALIT BY PLEADS FOR JUSTICE

Kathmandu, 15 Dec : “How dare you enter a Thakuri´s kitchen being a Dalit?” These were the last words Manbir Sunar, 31, heard before he was thrashed to death by Deepak and
Minbahadur Shahi on Saturday, Kalendra Sejuwal writes in Republica from Kalikot..

Sunar´s father, 70-year-old Birebhadra, a resident of Jubitha-8, Kalikot, had never in his worst dream thought that his only son would leave him so suddenly.

“He has gone leaving behind a 15-year-old daughter-in-law and three small children. How will I take care of them in this old age?” said Birebhadra tearfully. What is even more painful for the old man is the knowledge that the culprits would not be punished. “Since they are from higher caste, it is unlikely that justice would be done,” he said.
After being mercilessly beaten by the Shahis, Sunar breathed his last on the way to district hospital at the headquarters.

Birebhadra has seen three deaths in his family in the last 5 years. “My wife left me five years ago. Three years later, my son´s wife Jeeru died due to dysentery,” he said. All the three children, eldest daughter Bimala, 10, son Mukesh, 5, and Amisha, 2, are from Jeeru.

A year after Jeeru´s death, Sunar married another woman, but now the old man is unsure about the future of the kids. “Who is going to take care of them? He was the sole bread winner in the family,” said the bereaved father.

Birebhadra had come to the headquarters for the treatment of his injured son. But he has not been able to return home even after conducting the final rites of the son. “I may not be able to face the innocent faces of his children. They must have gotten nothing to eat. How will I feed them?” said Birebhadra helplessly.

He has been staying at a relative´s house in the headquarters and owns nothing except a small hut back in his village. Sunar used to support his family by working as a blacksmith.

Birebhadra stresses that some people involved in the murder were yet to be arrested. According to him, the hotel owner Jashbahadur Shahi and his wife Balkumari must be punished as well. “The police have detained only Deepak and Minbahadur.

The hotel owners are roaming freely in the headquarters,” he said. Meanwhile, Birebhadra appealed that the government either disown Dalits as the citizens of the country or do justice in the case.
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