GOVT.PREPARING TO DECLARE 37 MORE MUNICIPALITIES

MINIMUM CAPITAL TEMPERATURE THSDAY 6 DEGREES CELSIUS
Kathmandu, 5 Jan.: Minimum temperature in the capital Thursday morning was 6 degrees Celsius .
The mercury fell to 3 degrees Celsius overnight.
Maximum temperature Thursday afternoon is expected to rise to 16 degrees Celsius.
nnnn
MEDIA GOOGLE
"In the past, we preoccupied on the issues relating to the peace process and gave little focus on the form of governance and other contents of the new statute. We want that all political and constitutional issues to be sorted out so that the next government formed after the general elections could work smoothly."
(Madhav Kumar Nepal, The Rising Nepaal, 5 Jan.)
nnnn
LOAN BUYING RELAXED BY CENTRAL BANK
Kathmandu, 5 Jan.: The banks and financial institution can now buy loans of another bank or financial institution that have failed to pay back the loans taken under inter-bank lending as a measure to rake up the outstanding amount, according to the central bank, The Himalayan Times reports.

“The bank that has lent against the defaulted loan can purchase the loans at not less than double the outstanding amount that the borrowing bank need to pay,” said spokesperson of the central bank Bhaskar Mani Gyanwali.

“The move is, especially, supposed to help the banks and financial institutions that are stuck by lending to troubled financial institutions under inter-bank lending like Nepal Share Markets and Finance,” he affirmed. Nepal Share Markets and Finance have obtained loans worth Rs 680 million from different commercial banks that has remained unpaid after its chairman Yogendra Shrestha fled.

The incidence of inter bank lending had surged in the recent times and some of the financial institutions happen to lend some money to the few of the troubled ones, the central bank has found loan loss provisioning necessary for inter-bank lending as well.

Due to liquidity crunch the central bank had allowed the banks and financial institutions to lend to other banks and financial institution.

The inter-bank lending of commercial banks stood at Rs 90.02 billion during the four months of the current fiscal year compared to Rs 119.99 billion in the corresponding period.
nnnn
BANGLADESH KEEN NEPAL USE HER PORTS
Kathmandu, 5 Jan.: Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Dipu Moni has said her country is keen to see Nepal using Mongla and Chittagong ports of Bangladesh for trade, The Himlayan Times reports .

While meeting with newly appointed ambassador of Nepal to Bangladesh Hari Kumar Shrestha on Tuesday, Moni also mentioned Dhaka’s interest to import 1,000 MW electricity from Saptakosi high dam project to meet her country’s ever increasing demand for power.

Moni also shared her willingness to be an equity partner or shareholder of the project, according to a statement of Bangladeshi foreign ministry.

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina revealed her country’s intention with her counterpart Dr Baburam Bhattarai for the first time during their meeting at the 17th SAARC summit in Maldives in November 2011.

Noting the bilateral trade was far below the potential, Moni sought the ambassador’s personal initiative to get private sectors actively involved in enhancing trade relations between Bangaldesh and Nepal. “Foreign Minister noted that Bangladesh had already offered Nepal and Bhutan access to Mongla and Chittagong ports,” the statement read.

Opening up the two ports to Nepal will not only bolster bilateral trade but also could hugely enhance Nepal’s exports beyond the regions, it added.

Several small initiatives including upgrading of facilities at Land Ports/Land Customs Stations and signing of an SOP between Bangladesh and India that allows Nepali cargo vehicles to enter up to 200 meters from Zero Point at Banglabandha would help to facilitate bilateral trade between Bangladesh and Nepal.

She also mentioned the signing of Addendum to an MoU between Bangladesh and India granting Rohanpur-Singabad as an additional route for rail transit to Nepal. The MoU was inked during Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Bangladesh in September 2011.
nnnn

37 NEW MUNICIPALITIES TO BE DECLARED BY GOVT.
Kathmandu, 5 Jan. : The government is all set to declare 37 new municipalities across the country, The Rising Nepal reports.
A cabinet meeting, scheduled for Thursday, is likely to declare the new municipalities, according to a source.
With the announcement of new municipalities, the number of Metropolitan Cities, Sub-Metropolitan Cities and municipalities will reach 95.
Meanwhile, Local Development Minister Top Bahadur Rayamajhi Wednesday said that a new mechanism to run the local bodies would be constituted within 10 days in place of the recently dissolved all-party one.
Speaking at a face-to-face programme of the Reporters’ Club, Minister Rayamajhi informed that a new party mechanism having maximum nine members would be formed in the district level.
The district-wise votes garnered by the parties in the Constituent Assembly elections would be the base for forming such a mechanism, he said and added that the Ministry would soon hold discussions with the political parties regarding the procedures, standards and jurisdictions of such mechanism.
Admitting that corruption practices were more prevalent in the local bodies than in the government offices owing to political instability, Minister Rayamajhi said that the mechanism formed earlier was dissolved in view of the increasing complaints of corruption and the instruction of the Commission for the Investigation of the Abuse of Authority (CIAA).
He said that the government dissolved the political mechanism without consulting with other parties as it was formed also without consulting with the parties.
Nepali Congress leader Dr Prakash Sharan Mahat accused the government of dissolving the mechanism without consulting with other parties.
"The dissolution of the mechanism formed to run the local bodies secretly is suspicious," he said.
The dissolution would only promote the practice of spending money from the district headquarters, he said.
CPN-UML leader Raghubir Mahaseth lauded the decision to dissolve the political mechanism terming it as usual.
"The mechanism should have been dissolved as it had promoted corruption," he said and added that the local bodies should run by taking the employees into confidence.
Nnnn
HAVOC OF PORCUPINES IN RAMECHAP, WILD ELEPHANTS IN SUNSARI

Kathmandu, 5 Jan.: Wild elephants once again panicked the villages in Sunsari district, The Rising Nepal reports from Sunsari.
Locals of Shreepur and Haripur VDCs were compelled to wake up all night from a week after the tuskers destroyed two houses in each VDC some days ago.
According to Pancha Narayan Mandal, local of Shreepur VDC, the elephants destroyed two houses of Rajkumar Kushiyat and two houses of Sitaram Sharma.
He said that the locals guarded up whole night to prevent destruction of the wild beasts which entered the human settlements from Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve.
The locals said around five to seven elephants had appeared in the villages during the night and destroyed the houses as well as standing wheat and sugarcane crops.
They also blamed that the Reserve along with the district administration office had taken no measure to restrict the movement of the wild elephants towards the villages despite their assurance to do so for several times.
Wild beasts occasionally terrify the villages of the eastern districts. The tuskers had earlier terrorized Saptari district before they started appearing in the villages of Sunsari from last month destroying houses and cultivation.
Meanwhile, repeated destruction of vegetables by the porcupines in different VDCs of Ramechhap has infuriated the farmers.
The farmers of Chisapani, Gelu, Puranogaun, Chanakhu, Bhutauli and Fulasi VDCs have long been suffering the destruction of vegetables by the porcupines.
Sanikanchi Majhi of Chisapani VDC said that the porcupines which come from nearby jungles during the night destroy most of the vegetables and crops.
"These small animals not only walk past the crops but cut them from bottom, thus leaving nothing," she said.
One local Balaram Shrestha said that the porcupines’ destruction has not decreased despite the villagers efforts to bury down their holes several times.
He said that the farmers faced substantial loss due to the destruction and almost nothing could be done to stop porcupines’ appearance in the villages.
Agricultural experts said that the destruction of porcupines could be contained by the use of homemade pesticides.
They said that pesticides can be made from available herbs found in the villages and the effect of the pesticides could remain for a period of week.
nnnn
NEPAL POLICE FACES SNAG IN 2011 TO CURB DRUGS
Kathmandu, 5 Jan : The year 2011 remained largely unsatisfactory for the Nepal Police in terms of controlling the abuse of narcotic drugs as the trend of arresting persons involved in drug dealing and seizing drugs had been hitting the drugs-related chart every year, Purushottam Khatri reports in The Rising Nepal.
The comparative data of 2011 and 2010 prepared to study the trend of seizure of drugs and arrest of persons showed that the demand and supply of drugs had been rolling up in the local markets in Nepal.
Sher Bahadur Basnet, Superintendent of Police (SP) at the Narcotic Drug Control Law Enforcement Unit (NDCLEU), New Baneshwore, said that drug traders had now been focusing on import of more and more quantity of medical-purpose drugs rather than traditional drugs.
Cannabis, hashish, heroin, opium and brown/white sugar are known as traditional drugs, while codine, ampule, diazepam, buprenorphine, morphine and other drugs are called medicinal drugs.
"The use of medicinal drugs are becoming common and popular among supplier and consumer every year as it is easier to import and supply them, handy to use and easy to administer by the consumers," SP Basnet told The Rising Nepal daily Wednesday.
Basnet said India’s nearest border points adjoining Nepal dominated the medicinal drugs in Nepal’s markets.
Some unorganized groups or individuals who have become chain drug abusers were, however, found borrowing medicinal drugs from locally available pharmaceuticals under various pretexts and conditions.
Basnet said that in the year 2011, NDCLEU rounded up a total of 2,163 drug peddlers. Among them, 2,055 were men and 108 were women. Of the total arrestees, 124 were foreign men and 11 were foreign women. However, the record of the year 2010 showed that altogether 1,443 drug peddlers were arrested in one year.
Similarly, in the year 2011, police seized 37,186 kgs of cannabis, 2,924 kgs of hashish, 11 kgs of heroin and 2 kgs of opium. SP Basnet said the rate of traditional as well as medicinal drugs supply and demand rates were found increasing. However, the rate of seizure of heroin found to have decreased in 2011 compared to 2010 records. In 2010 police had seized 22 kgs of heroin and in 2011 police had seized 11 kgs of heroin.
Likewise, in medicinal drugs, police had seized 39,695 diazepam, and 27,538 buprenorphine and 83,762 other medicinal drugs like ampule, and codine, among others. However, in the year 2010, police had seized 25,803 diazepam, 35,622 buprenorphine and 22,212 other medicinal drugs.
Talking about the cost to buy various drugs, SP Basnet said that generally the cost of illegal drugs depended upon the supply and demand ratio. When the supply reduced in the markets, the demand would increase and it automatically increased the rates in drugs and the situation became opposite when the supply became higher.
Generally the rate of brown sugar in the market during sufficient supply time would be Rs. 800 per gram and one ampule cost Rs.1,000 during normal situation of its supply.
Basnet said the trend of seizure and arrest of persons had been increasing every year, this was regarded as tightening of security administration and prompt action to curb such practices. "The more sincerely the policemen are deployed in the field, the more the cases of drugs peddlers can be brought under police net and the quantity of work will automatically increase," he said.

Persons Arrested and Quantity of Drug Seized 2010 –2011 (Whole Nepal)
Year No.of Person Nepalese Foreigner Cannabis Hashish Heroin Opium Other
M F M F Kg. Gm. Mg. Kg. Gm. Mg. Kg. Gm. Mg. Kg. Gm. Mg.
2010 1443 1256 72 96 19 14441 957 250 1270 335 20 22 540 519 2 845 Diazepam 25803 , Buprenorphine 35622, others 22212
2011 2163 1931 97 124 11 37186 691 755 2924 457 452 11 586 531 2 353 0 Diazepam 39695, Buprenorphine 27538, others 83762

Source: NDCLEU
nnnn