NILAMBAR ACHARYA COMMITTEE MEETS TO APPOVE PRACHANDA SUB-COMMITTEE REPORT

MAIN CONSTITUTION DRAFTING COMMITTEE MEETS TO APPROVE AGREEMENTS AT PRACHANDA SUB-COMMITTEE

Kathmandu, 9 Jan.: The main constitution drafting committee headed by Nilambar Acharya meets Monday to approve agreements between parties at a Prachanda sub-committee to resolve differences on themes to be incorporated in a proposed constitution to be promulgated by 28 May.
The rescheduled calendar has to resolve differences by 29 January after the 30 December deadline couldn’t be met.
A Maoist faction led by First Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya has been demanding dissolution of the Prachanda sub-committee
Two largest opposition parties NC and UML Sunday protested attempts by the Baidya group to raise objections on themes already settled delaying the.constitution drafting
The constituent assembly last week approved a new schedule to draft a delayed constitution.
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WOMAN KILLED IN MORANG FOREST

Kathmandu, 9 Jan.: A woman was smashed to death by a wild elephant at Pathari jungle in Morang Monday
The elephant entered Nepal from India and killed the foraging woman.
Wild elephant have been killing and terrorizing people in neighboring Jhapa as well.
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19 PARTIES PROTEST BIPPA

Kathmandu, 9 Jan.: Nineteen parties Sunday held a protest rally
in the capital against the Bilateral Investment and Protection Agreement (BIPPA) signed in New Delhi November 2011 when Prime
Minister Baburam Bhattarai visited New Delhi.
Splinter communist parties were among protestors on the street.
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MEDIA GOOGLE

‘This is history’s most friendly government to Madeshis.
Government has approved a policy to integrate Maoists in the
army and is approving inclusive and citizenship bills.”

(Mahendra Prasad Yadav, Nagarik, 9 Jan.)
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12 MILLION VOTERS REGISTERED BY EC
Kathmandu, 9 Jan. :The Election Commission (EC) has registered 12 million voters in 73 districts under its voter registration programme with photograph and biometric information, The Kathmandu Post reports.
"We have registered 12,000,000 eligible voters in the new electoral roll," said EC Spokesman Sharada Prasad Trital.
The EC, which aims to add an additional 700,000 voters within May, is yet to complete the registration process in Rupendehi and Banke districts. Formal registration campaign has ended in 73 districts. For the 2008 Constituent Assembly elections, the EC had registered 17.6 million voters.
Even after completing the formal registration campaign across the country, the EC has been enrolling voters in 75 District Election Offices and some District Administration Offices mainly in the Tarai and the Kathmandu valley.
The long-obstructed voter registration process has recently resumed in Banke while the process is over in most Village Development Committees in Rupandehi district.
In the aftermath of the registration process, the EC will launch a door-to-door campaign with the new voters' list for verification. "We will ask missing voters to enrol while fraud names will be deleted after verification," added Trital.
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PLA DEMANDS MAJOR GENERAL POST IN NEPAL AMRY
Kathmandu, 9 Jan : The spokesperson of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of the UCPN (Maoist) Chandra Prakash Khanal aka ‘Baldev’ has said that the integration process will not move ahead until the PLA commander gets the post of Major General in the Nepal Army (NA) while integrating the combatants, Greatway Online reports.
Khanal, speaking at an interaction programme organised by Reporter’s Club in the capital on Sunday, said that the PLA will not go ahead for the integration until the political parties agree to integrate the top commander of the PLA as the Major General of the NA.
“Integration based on the personal qualification is not acceptable for us. We want respectful integration,” he added.
He also said that if the combatants opting for integration are not integrated due to the limit of the agreed numbers, they should be provided compensation package.
“Until the gap between the numbers agreed upon and the numbers opting for integration is not addressed, we will not discharge the combatants who have chosen for voluntary retirement,’ he warned.
Having said that the peace process was delayed as the leaders who earlier agreed on the presidential governance system have started expressing conflicting views, Baldev stated that the Maoist-led government should given be continuity until the twin tasks of peace and statute drafting are not completed.
On the intra-party rifts afflicting the UCPN-Maoist, the PLA spokesperson claimed that the party chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda is making preparations to bring a proposal of mutual understanding.
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STUDENTS AGREE ELECTION ON PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION SYSTEM
Kathmandu, 9 Jan.: Around a dozen student unions have agreed on the proportional electoral system for the Free Student Union (FSU) election, The Kathmandu Post reports.
A meeting of 11 major and fringe student unions held at the office of Tarai Madhes Student Front on Sunday decided to pressurise the Tribhuvan University to announce the date for the election on the proportional representation basis.
Jagrit Rayamajhi, vice-president of UCPN (Maoist) close All Nepal National Independent Students Union- Revolutionary, said a team of five led by ANNISU-R President Himal Sharma has been formed to come with the ways of implementing the proportional electoral system in the FSU polls. “Once we draft the modality for the adaptation of proportional system we will consult with other unions,” said Rayamajhi.
The other five unions, including Nepal Student Union (NSU) and All Nepal National Free Student Union have been differing on the proportional system. However, the 11 unions have been maintaining that only proportional system can guarantee the inclusive representation of students from all communities in the present context.
While NSU and ANNFSU Sixth have been voicing for the continuation of the first-past-the-post system, ANNFSU is pitching for two mechanisms—an FSU council based on proportional system and a directly elected FSU. The biennial FSU election supposed to be held on February 28 last year, got put off as student unions remained adamant on their demands.

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