41PARTIES ASKED TO SUBMIT FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

41PARTIES ASKED TO SUBMIT FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

Kathmandu, 28 Jan.: Election Commission in a notice published in
Gorkhapatra Saturday asked 41 political parties who didn’t comply
with earlier request to submit their income and expenditure statement fo three years from fiscal year 2065 to 2068 within 15 days.
The Commission asked parties to furnish reply why action shouldn’t
Be taken against them got no abiding by a legal provision.
The body named 30 parties for not submitting statements while statements of 11 other parties had shortcomings.
Most of the Madeshbadi parties in government haven’t submitted their financial statements.
Rashtriya Janashakti Party of Surya Bahadur Thapa is included in the list of 30 parties.
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2 KILLED, 15 INJURED IN VEHICULAR ACCIDENT

Kathmandu, 28 Jan. Two persons, including a five-year-old were killed and 15 were injured when a heavy vehicle fell 20 meters off a road at neighbouring Nukwakot Saturday.
The accident occurred a Kurini when the vehicle heading for the
capital veered off the road.
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BHAGAT SINGH GROUP AGREES TO TALK WITH GOVT.

Kathmandu, 28 Jan, Bhagat Singh group of a terai armed outfit has
agreed to talk with government, an announcement said Saturday.
The group responded positively to government invitation for talks.
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FORMER KING EXTENDS NEW DELHI STAY

Kathmandu, 28 Jan.: Former King Gyanendra begins political
consultations n New Delhi Sunday, Bhuban Sharma reports in Naya
Patrika.
The former king was scheduled to return Friday and has extended his
New Delhi stay by one week.
Appointments have been fixed with Indian lawmakers.
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SMALL DEPOSITS INSURED IN ALL BANKS
Kathmandu, 28 Jan.: The depositors should be not confident that their up to Rs 200,000 deposit will now be secure, if they have deposited in any of the 31 commercial
Banks, The Himalayan Times reports.

Agriculture Development Bank Ltd (ADBL) became the last commercial to insure deposits of up to Rs 200,000 as it entered into an agreement with the deposit insurer Nepal -Deposit and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DCGC) today.

“With Agriculture Development Bank, the corporation’s deposit insurance coverage has reached all of the NRB licensed deposit collecting financial institutions,” pointed out chairman of the corporation Bhaskar Mani Gyanwali.

The corporation’s general manager Bhola Prasad Aharma Adhikari signed the

agreement with ADBL’s chief executive

Tej Bahadur Budhathoki on behalf of

their respective institutions for the

insurance of bank’s small deposits of up to Rs 200,000.

Small deposits of up to Rs 200,000 in the saving and fixed deposit accounts of natural person held in 31 commercial banks, 84

development banks, 73 commercial banks and two microfinance development banks has been insured since the scheme began in February 2011.

The deposits worth Rs 120 billion held

in these financial institutions will be

returned back to the respective account holders in case the financial institutions gets liquidated.

According to the regulation, in case of bankruptcy of a financial institution, a small depositor, who has a deposit of up to Rs 200,000, will be paid the total deposit amount and interest within 90 days from the date the institution goes under liquidation.
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EVEN AS POL PRODUCTS AREN’T EASILY AVAILABLE AFTER PRICE
RISE, NOC SAYS NO SMOOTH SUPPLY AFTER REDUCED PRICE
Kathmandu:28 Jan.: The state oil monopoly has warned that it cannot maintain smooth supply of petroleum products in the reduced price, The Himalayan Times reports.

“Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) cannot maintain smooth fuel supply, when it is incurring a loss of Rs 1.26 billion per month,” said secretary at the Ministry of Commerce and Supply Prushottam Ojha, in Finance and Labour Relation Committee of legislative parliament today.

The government has reduced petroleum prices — Rs 3 in a litre petrol, Rs 4 in a litre diesel and kerosene and Rs 85 in a cooking gas cylinder – following a week-long protest of students against price hike.

Earlier, on January 18, the government had hiked petroleum price — Rs 10 in a litre petrol, Rs 9 in a litre diesel and kerosene each and Rs 175 in a cylinder of cooking gas.

Global fuel price is rising following Iran conflict with US and European Union, so more difficult days are ahead, he warned. “Increasing fuel price in international market and strong dollar are hitting our fuel supply and making us unable to maintain normal supply without support to NOC.

However, Ministry of Finance indicated that the state treasury is not in position to bear billions of loss. “We are aware of the problem but we don’t have sufficient fund to support NOC,” said joint-secretary at the Finance Ministry Khum Raj Punjali. “The ministry has approved Rs 250 million to NOC to maintain smooth fuel supply yesterday.”

But our weekly loss comes to almost Rs 310 million, so the amount is not sufficient to maintain smooth supply, said director at NOC Ramesh Chandra Koirala.

Lawmaker Dr Tilak Rawal showed his dissatisfaction over responses of the government officials and urged the government to prepare for difficult days. “Iran factor will definitely hit us in coming days, therefore the government has to prepare for it,” he said, adding that, the country needs comprehensive policy for the fuel.”

“Temporary adjustments will not last for long, he added.

Lawmaker do not get gas cylinder !

Lawmaker Iqbal Ahamad became angry in front of the ‘irresponsible’ officials during the meeting in Finance and Labour Relation Committee as, according to him, he is not getting to buy a cylinder of cooking gas since last three days.

“I went to LPG dealers but they are not selling any cooking gas cylinder,” he said, adding that his children are going schools having bread and tea at a restaurant. “It is the benefit of price hike,” he asked the NOC officials. “NOC does not have rights to hike price, if it can’t maintain smooth supply.” However, NOC officials could not answer him as the meeting was adjourned till January 31 due to heated debate among the lawmakers on government and NOC’s failure in maintaining smooth supply.
, 28 Jan.: Chief Secretary Madhav Ghimire on Friday said the new information policy prepared recently by the government under his panel is “more transparent and progressive.”, The Kathmandu Post reports.
Media reports said the government has issued a new classified information directive that restricts an individual, the media or any organisation from gaining 140 types of information, including those on big development projects, parliamentary decisions and major decisions of the government.
The Right to Information (RTI) Act 2007, however, restricts supply of only five category of information related to national sovereignty, security and judiciary.
The move has irked the Federation of Nepali Journalists and others alike. “The FNJ is seriously concerned about the classification of information which is a matter of shame for the nation,” the umbrella organisation of journalists said in a statement.
Ghimire, who led a committee that made recommendations for the directive, however said they have “tried to keep a freer regime when it comes to information dissemination.”
“Our recommendations are more liberal, transparent and information-friendly than the earlier ones prepared some three years ago,” he told the Post. “Some laws and acts of various ministries or government agencies have a provision of keeping confidential some information for some time and we simply followed that,” he claimed.
Former Supreme Court registrar Ram Krishna Timilsena said the move is against democratic values and will spoil the government’s image if it is not corrected immediately. “This classification goes beyond exceptions that we can have from Clause 3 (3) of the Right to Information Act,” he said. “Though the classification looks like it is in line with the law, it is actually in breach of the law.”
The Ghimire-led panel had held consultations with secretaries of various ministries and government agencies as it prepared the recommendations.
“It is not an attempt to hold back information, but we want to bring in a revolution in the information dissemination system,” Ghimire claimed. Article 27 of the RTI Act authorises the chief secretary to introduce the information classification in a bid to implement the Act in a more systematic way. The chief secretary and secretary of the respective ministry, an expert and RTI activists must be included in the information classification committee. However, the Ghimire committee had appointed former secretary of the Ministry of Law and Justice, Mohan Banjade, as an expert of all the sectors while preparing the directive.
Meanwhile, RTI activists have rejected the government’s new directive. They said it was a politically motivated attempt to hide information of public interest to cover up corruption and criminal cases.
At a programme in the Capital, the activists said they will challenge the decision both in the courts and the streets, condemning it as “unnecessary control over people’s rights to information taken with ill intention.”
FNJ chairperson Shiva Gaule said the FNJ has communicated with the Prime Minister regarding the directive. “The PM has assured he will talk to the RTI activists and media representatives in a couple of days. We will be forced to take the case to court and the streets if our pleas are unheard,” Gaule said. The directive needs to be scrapped as its implementation will automatically leave the RTI Act and the National Information Commission (NIC) formed in 2007 defunct, said Chief Information Commissioner Binaya Kumar Kasaju.
Senior Advocate Tika Ram Bhattarai termed it a “polite version of a royal ordinance.” “It will encourage corruption and crime,” he said.
Move challenged in SC
A writ has been filed in the Supreme Court against the government’s decision to categorise 140 types of information as “classified.” In the petition filed on Friday, advocate Kamal Prasad Itani said the government has decided to classify information of agendas under consideration in the Cabinet, recommendations of the constitutional council, Cabinet recommendation for the post of ambassadors and treaties that Nepal signs with other countries.
Itani argued that the decision to classify such information is against the law and that it must be revoked. The defendants include the Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Ministry of Law and Justice, Parliament Secretariat, the Department of Information and Chief Secretary Madhav Ghimire.
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