NC BEGINS EASTERN REGION M EET WHILE REVIEWING TERAI OUTLOOK

NC MEET TO REVIEW TERAI OUTLOOK BEGINS

Kathmandu, 6 March: NC two-day eastern region meeting Tuesday began a review of a party terai policy in Itahari following dissatisfaction of activists from the south while attempting to ascertain reasons for its defeat in the 2008 parliamentary/ constituent assembly elections at hands of Maoists
Top leadership accompanied by President Sushil Koirala flew for
the meeting venue from the capital Tuesday morning.
The main opposition party lost its vote bank in the 2008 election
with the rise of Madeshi parties as well.
The party is having a late re-think for change
get back its base amid difficulty with entrenchment of
communists in national politics and Madeshis as regional parties.
Meetings will be held in remaining four regions as well.
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DISQUALIFIED MAOIST FIGHTERS CONTINUE STRIKE

Kathmandu, 6 March: Life was disrupted for the third successive day in the eastern region Tuesday by a strike of Maoist fighters disqualified by UNMIN and sent out of 28 cantonments and satellite camps.
The strike didn’t affect the mid and the far-West.
Several vehicles were vandalized during the strike Monday in the
East with the arrest of several dozen disqualified fighters from the streets.
Disqualified fighters are demanding reinstatement while seeking oher
facilities.
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FAMILY OF WOMAN KILLED ON WITCHCRAFT GETS
ONE MILLION RUPEES RELIEF

Kathmandu, March 6:
Kathmandu, 6 March: Cabinet Monday awarded one million rupees to
the family of Hekani Mahato who was charged for witchcraft and killed , in Chitwan recently.
Government also decided to meet the education expenses of Mahoto’s children.
The cabinet meeting formed a 10-member Advisory and
Recommendation Committee under the coordination of legal secretary of the Prime Minister’s Office to study the legal rights of the administrative officers.
The committee will study and recommend for the legal rights of the administrative officers.
The cabinet decided to give responsibilities to newly promoted joint-secretaries

Those appointed are: Surya Prasad Paudel (Agriculture Service), Krishna Prasad Panta (Agriculture Service), Bharat Mani Subedi (Education Service), 13 joint secretaries including Krishna Prasad Paudel in administrative service, Suman Raj Aryal (Finance Service), Sarju Kumar Baidhya (Engineering Service), Kamal Prasad Budhathoki (Engineering Service) and Dev Kala Bhandari (Health Service).
The cabinet extended the term of the panel formed to investigate the exams of the Higher Secondary Education Council led by Jayaram Giri by 15 days.
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MEDIA GOOGLE
"The SC verdicts regarding the group-wise recruitment of the Madeshi youths in Nepal Army, citizenship based on the descent and enlistment of voters on the basis of citizenship have proved the prejudice against the Madhesh people.”
(Agriculture Minster Nandan Kumar Gupta, The Rising Nepal, 6 March)
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DEFENCE MINISTRY UNHAPPY SIDE-LINING
Kathmandu, 6 March: As the Nepal Army’s proposal on integration of Maoist combatants hogged the headlines in the pat one month, the Ministry of Defence was left in the dark, thus, also leaving it a little disgruntled, Phanindra Dahal writes in The Kathmandu Post..
Officials at the ministry said the Army did not inform them about the proposal the latter submitted to the Prime Minister last month. The officials said the Army bypassed the ministry in doing so. They added that the
controversy surrounding the proposal could have been avoided had the Army gone through the line ministry.
“We are not in the know about the proposal that is said to be submitted to the government. The Defence Ministry is not involved in the process,” said Defence Ministry Spokesperson Dwarika Prasad Acharya.
The ministry’s comments come nearly a month after the integration proposal was submitted to the government by Chief of Army Staff Gen Chhatra Man Singh Gurung.
Defence officials said that since it was the ministry that asked the Army in writing on February 9 to prepare for integration of the former combatants, the proposal should have been routed to the PM through the line ministry.
Accompanied by the Director General of Military Operations Maj Gen Daman Ghale, Gen Gurung had made a powerpoint presentation before the PM three days after the official order was sent from the Defence Ministry. The proposal drew criticism for being “too flexible” on the Maoists after it recommended shortening the duration of training for combatants eligible for integration.
Both Defence bureaucrats and a section of the Army have criticised the Army leadership for bypassing the line-ministry in the integration process.
“The proposal could have avoided controversy had it been referred to the government through the official channel. The Army leadership should have taken the line ministry into confidence rather than directly approaching the prime minister,” a former Defence bureaucrat said.
According to sources, the Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister, Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar, and senior officials of the ministry have inquired about the proposal with Army officials.
“We have not received any satisfactory response,” said an official, insisting anonymity.
Army generals have reportedly told ministry officials that the proposal was the same document that was prepared during the tenure of the Madhav Kumar Nepal-led government. They have also said it is only a recommendation and the final call needs to taken by the political leadership.
“The prime minister’s office kept on insisting on the proposal. So we had to rush to Baluwatar to present it without referring it to the Defence Ministry,” said a general close to the Army leadership.
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MAOISTS SEEMNGLY SOFTEN STANCE
Kathmandu, 6 March: In a shift to party's standing policy, UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai have agreed to conclude the peace process, mainly the integration of combatants before moving forward on constitution drafting, Kamal Dev Bhattarai writes in The Kathmandu Post.
Completing the peace process was the opposition parties' buttomline for moving on to constitution drafting. Earlier, the Maoist party had been insisting that both the peace process and constitution drafting should progress simultaneously.
According to leaders, the party has taken a new policy after the opposition parties blamed that the Maoists used the combatants issue as a bargaining chip in the constitution drafting process. The Constitutional Committee(CC) of CA is not making any progress on constitution drafting as the oppossition parties are not ready to talk about constitution without settling peace process.
According to a Maoist leader, party will also adopt a flexible stance on the rank determination of PLA, a contentious issues. In the three-party meeting Maoist Chairman Dahal is demanding a 'brigadier general' to the PLA. "To conclude the peace process, we will adopt further flexibility on it," said the leader. The hard-line faction led by Mohan Baidya, however, is pressing party leadership for a package deal among parties on all contentious issues such as integration, constitution drafting and power sharing.
In the recent meetings, Dahal had tried to convince Baidya to conclude the peace process first. A leader close to PM Bhattarai said there is internal pressure upon Dahal and Bhattarai to conclude integration process at the earliest.
The opposition parties Nepali Congress and CPN-UML have put the condition that only the completion of integration process and vacating the cantonments will open the door for the constitution drafting process. According to Maoist leaders, even NC has hinted to join the government if the integration process of combatants is completed. "We want our one representation in the NA directorate, we do not want to stall the integration process," said Haribol Gajurel, a Maoist leader close to Dahal.
He informed that party leadership is eager to conclude the peace process at earliest and concentrate on the constitution drafting process.
Maoist leader say the conclusion of the integration process will exert pressure on other parties to adopt flexible stance on the constitution drafting, mainly about the system of governance.
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UPDATE CHAIRMAN KHANAL SLAMS MAOISTS
Kathmandu, 6 March : CPN-UML chairman Jhala Nath Khanal Monday presented his 65-page report in the first meeting of the party’s National Representatives Council here, The Rising Nepal reports.
It took about two and half hours for Khanal to read out the document in the delayed meeting.
The meeting was delayed as the party failed to nominate the representative until late Monday.
Khanal’s report criticized the present government.
"It is proved that the present government is incapable, weak, meaningless and irrelevant," he mentioned in his document.
He said that the government lost its relevance after it backtracked from the 7-point agreement and was not serious about the peace and constitution.
He said that the government had no alternative but to step down for the formation of the national consensus government.
He stressed on establishing democratic revolutionary ideology by moving ahead a powerful ideological struggle against the extremist, anarchist, rightist and status quoist forces.
He stated that regressive forces were only defeated, not eliminated and they were waiting for suitable time to reemerge.
Khanal said that UCPN-Maoist represented the extremist and anarchist forces while Nepal Congress was representing the status qoist and reformist forces.
His document suggested that UML should support the Nepali Congress for its positive role in favour of democracy and utilize its friendship with the NC by maintaining a close relationship.
However, he pointed out the need of an ideological and political struggle against status quo tendency of NC.
He said that UML was in favour of democracy, national independency and progressive social and economic changes.
He stressed on strengthening the party’s internal unity by ending group-wise election and adopting the individual-based elections.
His report pointed out the need of maintaining communal harmony and co-work with all people.
In the close session of the meeting widely regarded as ‘mini convention’ of the party, political and organizational reports as well as others were presented.
Informing about the meeting, coordinator of Publicity Sub-committee Raghuji Panta said that the group-wise discussion would begin Tuesday.
He also informed about the formation of the proposal draft committee, minute committee and debate note committee.
According to him, Shankar Pokhrel, Pradeep Gyawali, Raghuji Panta, Prithvi Subba Gurung, Bhim Rawal, Ram Chandar Jha, Chhabi Lal Bishwakarma, Binda Pandey, Surya Thapa, Bishnu Rijal were in the proposal draft committee.
Likewise, the minute committee included Kashi Nath Adhikari, Bishnu Rimal, Ganga Lal Tuladhar, Dharma Nath Sha and Yogesh Bhattarai.
Rajendra Pandey, Nagendra Chaudhary, Prakash Jwala and Bhanu Bhakta Dhakal were in the debate note committee.
Panta informed that altogether 90 representatives including women and dalits were nominated Monday. However, he could not make the mention of the exact numbers of the participants in the meeting.
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