SIX ROADS RENAMED

SIX ROADS RENAMED BY CABINET
Kathmandu, 21 Dec.: The cabinet decided to name six roads after martyrs and prominent persons Tuesday.
Lamahi-Tulsipur road is being named after Krishna Sen Ichhuk, Rubani-Rajbiraj road will be Gajendra Narayan Singh [a NSP founder] Marga and Nepalgunj-Bagauda road will be martyr Kamal Giri Marga.
Bardibas-Jaleshwor road will be martyr Durgananda Jha [NC activist
killed in panchayat rule] Marga, Drabya Shah road of Gorkha will be martyr Suresh Wagle Marga and Mirchaiya-Siraha road will be martyr Ramesh Mahato Marga.
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INDIAN NATIONAL ARRESTED ON CHARGE OF MURDER

Kathmandu, 21 Dec.: Suspect Indian national Raju Sah has been arrested for involvement in a 2 December murder of Jujukazi Bajracharya at a jewelry shop in Pulchowk.
Sah, who worked in the shop, was presented to media Tuesday by police.
Four suspects are absconding, police said.
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•
• ANOTHER MERGER APPROVED
•
• Kathmandu, 21 Dec.: Shikhar Finance and Kashtamandap Development Bank are merging with the approval of the
• proposal by the annual general meeting of the finance company.
• :The final proposal is being presented to Nepal Rashtra Bank, a
• statement said.
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• GOLDEN HANDSHAKE FOR JUDGES
Kathmandu, 21 Dec.: The Judicial Council has been working on a scheme to offer voluntary retirement scheme to judges who are past their prime, Ananta Raj Luitel writes in The. Himalayan Times.
“We have been doing groundwork for introducing the scheme by amending the Judicial Council Act,” Upendra Keshari Neupane, JC member told The Himalayan Times today. According to him, the JC wants the dead wood to make way for competitive lawyers and judicial officers.

A four-member committee led by senior most Justice Damodar Prasad Sharma, JC members Khem Narayan Dhungana and Neupane and Secretary Jiwan Hari Adhikary has been doing the groundwork for introducing the scheme. The Committee would table its report in the meeting of the JC scheduled for next week.



JC expects at least 30 per cent of the 220 district and appellate court judges to benefit from the scheme, as many of them have not got an opportunity for promotion for the last many years. “Some of the judges have been serving in district and appellate courts for more than two decades on the same post,” said a Supreme Court justice.

“We’ll make fresh appointments in the district and appellate courts for making the lower courts more dynamic,” Neupane added.

The JC has proposed that those who accept the golden handshake be paid the salary of remaining service period as lump sum, besides pension that they would have got had they got a promotion.

Since neither the JC nor the apex court has sufficient funds to implement the scheme, the JC would seek help from the Ministry of Finance and the government.

Prem Bahadur Khadka, President, Nepal Bar Association, said the scheme might not serve the desired purpose i.e. judicial reform. He reasoned that competent persons who are confident of getting job outside the service may opt for VRS instead of the incompetent judges that the JC wanted to get rid off. That’s what happened when the scheme was introduced in government owned corporations, Khadka added.

This is the third time that the government is mulling over VRS for judges. In 2005, the then Chief Justice Kedar Nath Upadhyay had proposed to introduce the scheme for the first time

but it remained a pipe dream for want of attractive packages.

The judges had opposed the VRS when Pushpa Kamal Dahal-led government proposed the scheme three years ago, fearing it was intended to be a systematic attack on the judiciary.

Voluntary retirement scheme

• JC expects at least 66 district and appellate court judges will opt for the scheme

• To get salary of remaining service period as lump sum, besides pension for a higher post

• Judicial Council to ask Ministry of Finance and the government to foot the bill to execute the scheme
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DRI ENCOUNTERING DIFFICULTY IN BOOKING SUSPECTS FOR IC MISPPROPRIATION
Kathmandu, 21 Dec.: The Department of Revenue Investigation is facing hard times to bring guilty of Indian Currency (IC) misappropriation scam into book. “Whom to bring into book since there seems no legal existence of any firms involved in IC misappropriation,” director general at the department Shanta Bahadur Shrestha said. Shiromani Dhungana writes in The Himalayan Times.

The department had arrested four persons in cooperation with Nepal Police so far. “But only two of them are owners and others are employees,” he said, adding that some firms involved in IC misappropriation have used fake PAN number. “Only banks have legal existence in the IC misappropriation scam.”

However, the investigation is unfolding many new angles and the defrauded amount is also increasing steadily.

The amount has touched IRs 1.19 billion until today.

“Sheer negligence from the banks have been key reason behind the scam,” Shrestha said, “Firms have succeeded in withdrawing millions of IC repeatedly using a single customs declaration form with the same registration number.”

The amount of IC misuse from NIC Bank reached IRs 624.7 million, the largest transactions among the banks. Similarly, SBI Bank, Laxmi Bank, Everest Bank, Siddhartha Bank, Citizens’ Bank International, Nepal Bank, NIBL and NB Bank have released IRs 312.3 million, IRs 124.1 million, IRs 30 million, IRs 73.4 million, IRs 1,500,000, IRs 890,000, IRs 10.3 million and IRs 12.1 million, respectively, Shrestha added.

Meanwhile, the central bank is also finalising its report. “The banks have missed to follow Know Your Customer (KYC) policy,” according to the source involved in the report preparation.


China visa consultancy centre

Department of Revenue Investigation is investigating against China Visa Consultancy Centre after receiving complaint of VAT evasion by undercounting the number of visa. It has asked Foreign Ministry to help probe.
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