BIG THREE SUMMIT TO ATTEMPT A BREAKTHROUGH TO END DEADLOCK

BIG THREE SUMMIT TO ATTEMPT A BREAKTHROUGH TO END
DEADLOCK

Kathmandu, 20 March: A summit of the Big Three will beheld later Tuesday
afternoon.
Chairman of the main constitution drafting committee Nilambar Acharya, who
has predicted a constitution won’t be promulgated by the28 May deadline, has
brokered the meeting of UCPN (Maoist) and opposition , NC and UML amid a
continuing political deadlock.
No progress has been made in work to eliminate differences themes to be included in a proposed constitution.
Prachanda heads a sub-committee under the main Acharya committee and top
leaders of the Big Three have been separately empowered to resolve differences.
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UML CONVENES MEETING OF LAWMAKERS TO PUSH PEACE, CONSTITUTION

Kathmandu, 20 March: Opposition UML has convened a meeting of lawmakers
to push peace and a constitution later Tuesday at a meeting hall of a parliamentary committee.
The meeting has been convened by a 27-member secretariat of the party whose
two-day national representatives assembly in the capital decided to press for the
twin goals.
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TRANSPORT FARES INCREASED

Kathmandu, 20 March: Public transport fares were increased Tuesday following
hike in prices of POL products, including petrol, diesel ,kerosene aviation fuel and cooking gas even amid continuing shortages inconveniencing people after the hike.
State monopoly Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) said prices will be further increased with continuing losses.
Fares were increased 4.54 percent
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SECOND DEATH ANNIVERSARY OF GIRIJA PRASAD KOIRALA
OBSERVED

Kathmandu, 20 March; The second death anniversary of Girija Prasad Koirala
was observed Tuesday by his party NC which is now the main opposition; the
party was once the country’s largest.
NC is holding nation-wide programmes to commemorate the death of the party president and former prime minister who was 85 when he died.
Koirala abandoned the traditional party support for constitutional monarchy and multi-party democracy and aligned four years ago with Maoists, with foreign support to topple monarchy and establish a republic which hasn’t yet been institutionalized.
Political uncertainly prevails amid threats by Maoists, now established as the biggest foce,of another round of deaths numbering more than 50,000, to promulgate a republican constitution.
The 28 May deadline will be missed if normal and established procedures are followed to give legality to a republic declared by an unelected parliament.
Even if a constitution is promulgated, it will have been promulgated by a constituent assembly that was once elected but couldn’t complete its mandate in a two-year tenure.
More than 26 million Nepalis are now paying the price and suffering for
Koirala’s ‘gamble’—a word he used frequently in his later years to describe his alliance with Maoists to under in a republic in a once tranquil and peace Himalayan state edeviled with lawlessness and insurgencies threatening the country’s sovereignty andindependence.
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