TWO SENTENCED TO FIVE YEAR JAIL SENTENCE EACHFOR ASSAULT ON JOURNALIST

TWO PERSONS SENTENCED TO FIVE YEARS IMPRISONMENT EACH FOR ASSAULT ON JOURNALIST AT HOME
Kathmandu, 5 Dec.: A single bench of Saligram Koirala of Sankhuwasabha district court Sunday sentenced Bikash Rai and Rupak Rai to five-year jail sentence each for attempted murder of journalist Kishore Budathoki.
Budhathoki, a correspondent of Annapurna Post, was attacked with sharp weapons at his home in Khadbari in the district in August 2011.
The Rais were arrested a few days after the attack.
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MORE THAN RS.1.BILLION OF PEACE FUND PARTIALLY FUNDED BY EU DONORS WENT TO NON-EXISTING MAOIST FIGHTERS
Kathmandu, 5 Dec.: It has been revealed that more than Rs 1 billion was released from the state coffers in salaries and rations for former Maoist combatants who deserted the cantonment sites and did not show up for the regrouping process, Phanindra Dahal reports in The Kathmandu Post.
The estimate comes from sources at the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction who distribute monthly allowances to all the combatants and food allowances to the commanders every month.
Government records show a spending of over Rs 2.5 billion in rations and over Rs 5.2 billion in monthly salaries of over 19,000 UN verified combatants till mid-November this year.
The regrouping process that completed last week witnessed the participation of around 16,900 combatants, confirming that at least 2,500 former fighters had already left the Maoist army during the five years of their confinement in the cantonments.
Of the 19,602 verified by Unmin in 2007, the Special Committee has obtained information of the death and dismissal of only 114 combatants from the Maoist party so far.
The final figures of deserters are expected to be announced officially by the Secretariat of the Prime Minister-led Special Committee next week. The software used by the Special Committee during regrouping shows the attendance of 16,944 combatants, but the number may decline as the survey process saw multiple cases of double entry, according to Deepak Prakash Bhatta, a member of the Secretariat.
“Current estimate shows that around 13 percent of the combatants did not show up in the regrouping process,” said an official at the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction. “We assume that more than Rs Rs 1.011 billion has been released in their names and sent to cantonments.”
Currently, the government provides Rs 6,500 as monthly allowance to each combatant and provides food allowance of Rs 62 to 110 per individual to commanders based on the locations of the cantonment sites. The monthly salary of combatants was Rs 3,000 in the beginning, but was increased to Rs 5,000 in October 2008.
The food allowance, too, was Rs 60 per combatant until 2008, but was hiked with varying costs as per the remoteness of the cantonment sites. Four months ago, the Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai-led Cabinet had agreed to increase the monthly payment of the combatants by Rs 1,500.
The main opposition, Nepali Congress, has accused the Maoists of taking money in the name of non-existent combatants and demanded legal action in “the corruption case”. “It is a political issue and it should be dealt with as per the law of the land,” said NC leader Ram Sharan Mahat.
The Maoist leadership has dismissed the allegations. “The party has not taken a penny from the money distributed in the name of combatants. The whole amount was used for “easing” their lives in the cantonments,” Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal told the Post in an interview on Saturday.
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AMID A POWER STRUGGLE IN NC, ESTABLISHMENT SUPPORTS RAM CHANDRA PAUDEL’S CANDIDACYFOR PM
Kathmandu, 5 Dec.: Nepali Congress General Secretary Prakash Man Singh has said Ram Chandra Poudel is the party's legitimate prime ministerial candidate if the political parties agree to form a national consensus government under the NC, The Katjmnadu Post reports.
"For the time being, there is no alternative to fielding Parliamentary Party Leader Poudel as the prime ministerial candidate if the NC gets an opportunity to lead a consensus government," Singh, who is close to Party President Sushil Koirala, said. "We won't support a Maoist-led consensus government unless the peace process reaches an irreversible point."
With talks on consensus government commencing, the NC leadership finds itself in a difficult position as the party is tackling a factional fight. Coincidentally, as negotiations for forging a government have begun, NC senior leader Sher Bahadur Deuba, who was the party's official candidate for consensus government earlier, is outside Kathmandu on a week-long visit of far-western districts. His decision to go on the visit is said to have followed a failed negotiation bid for ending intra-party disputes.
Sources close to the establishment faction said the party envisions two stages of NC-led government over the next one year. The first one, on which the parties have started discussions, would be in place till the promulgation of the constitution and the second one would be formed under the new constitution and end with the handing over of powers to an elected government. NC leaders said Party President Koirala could lead the government during a general election to be held after enforcing the constitution, and not now.
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