POLICE OFFICER COMMITS SUICIDE

POLICE OFFICER COMMITS SUICIDE.
Kathmandu, 14 Jn.: Policeman Dal Bahadur Tamang, 32, working in the District Police Office, Chautara, Sindhupalchok committed suicide by hanging himseff last night, (Friday, RSS reports from Sindhupalchowk.
He was found hanging on a mango tree in the premises of Nilkantha Campus in Dhadingbesi, said Police Inspector of Dhading, Chandra Singh Lama.
The cause of his death will only be revealed after the post mortem and viscera reports, said Lama.
The Tamang family of Jharlang-3 in Dhading was living in rent in Dhadingbesi. He has two wives and three sons.
The first wife is abroad and he had committed suicide when he had come home to meet the second wife. RSS
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GOVT.DIRECTIVE TO SIGN POWER PURCHASE AGREEMENT
Kathmandu, 14 Jan,: The government has directed the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) to sign the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with six hydropower projects at recently revised rate, The Kathmandu Post reports.
The projects are Solu (23 MW), Lower Solu (82 MW), Maya Khola (15 MW), Khare (24 MW), Mewa Khola (50 MW) and Singati (16 MW).
NEA in June 2011 had increased the PPA rate by 20 percent for projects having capacities less than 25MW. As per the new rate, hydropower developers will get Rs 8.40 per unit during summer and Rs 4.80 per unit during rainy season. Earlier, the rate was at Rs 7 per unit during summer and Rs 4 per unit during rainy season.
“After the ministry’s direction, NEA is now making preparations for signing PPA with the projects at the new rate,” said Energy Ministry Secretary Balananda Poudel, who is also the chairman of NEA.
According to ministry officials, signing of the agreement was delayed after NEA expressed reluctance to purchase power with these projects at the revised rate. The confusion had emerged due to the term ‘posted rate’ mentioned in the bid documents, which the developers defined as the new rate. “But NEA defined it as the old rate,” said Rajendra Chettri, joint secretary at the ministry.
In order to resolve the confusion, the ministry had formed a technical committee a month ago to recommend appropriate rate. “On the basis of the committee’s recommendation, the ministry instructed NEA to sign the agreement at the new rate,” said Chettri. NEA officials said the agreement will be signed soon. “We have prepared the agreement model and called the developers for the signing,” said an NEA source.
As per a recent survey, construction of these projects will cost around Rs 35 billion and they will have installed capacity of 210 MW. Independent Power Producers had long been demanding a PPA rate hike. With rising construction cost and high bank rates, several hydel projects having a collective capacity of 1500 MW have been reluctant to sign PPA.
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MAOISTS RICHEST PARTY
Kathmandu, 14 Jan.: UCPN (Maoist), which emerged as the largest political party in the 2008 Constituent Assembly elections, is also the most resourceful of all, with its annual income and expenditure reaching as high as Rs 90 million, The Kathmandu Post reports.
The income and expenditure details submitted by political parties to the Election Commission (EC) as of Friday reveal that the Maoist party ran the largest financial portfolio followed by the Nepali Congress (Rs 49 million) and the CPN-UML (Rs 30 million) in the fiscal year 2010/11.
As the parties failed to voluntarily submit income/expenditure details every year as per legal requirements, the EC had given all the registered parties till Friday to submit their latest and pending financial reports since the 2008 elections.
The parties are required to make public their sources of income and expenditure within six months after the end of a fiscal year.
Of the 80 parties registered with the EC, only two—Rastriya Jana Morcha and Hindu Prajatantrik Party—had submitted their property details of the last four years.
The UCPN (Maoist), NC and UML submitted audited financial reports of the last four years only this week.
A number of global anti-corruption watchdogs, including Transparency International, have named political parties as the “most corrupt” institutions in Nepal. The 2011 TI report said the parties in Nepal were the most corruption-prone area as they remained largely unregulated.
The financial reports submitted by the parties show that they have identified donations and membership fees as the major sources of income and rallies, organisation building and other official work as areas of expenditure.
The Maoist party’s financial report, for instance, stated that the party spent all the Rs 90 million in the fiscal year 2010/2011 that was collected through party membership, regular levy received from lawmakers and other party members, donations from well-wishers and ministers and other occasional support from donors. The Maoist party collects Rs 10,000 from each of its total 238 lawmakers.
NC’s financial reports show that it generated Rs 49 million and spent Rs 9.8 million in the year 2010/11. Likewise, in the fiscal year 209/2010, it earned Rs 3.8 million, but spent Rs 4 million. NC Chief Secretary Basanta Gautam said levy collected from lawmakers, active and general members and support from various donors were major sources of income.
Similarly, the UML spent Rs 80 million, an all-time high for the party in 2008/09, the year it organised its General Convention. The party’s expenditure in 2009/2010 stood at Rs 50 million. UML’s report submitted to the EC stated that the party was running at a loss. Acting Chief Election Commissioner Neel Kantha Uprety said the parties were asked to submit the details to make them more transparent. Though the EC’s deadline expired on Friday, it is mulling extending the same.
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