PM SUMMONED BY PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE SUNDAY

PM SUMMONED BY PARLIAMENTATY COMMITTEE
Kathmandu, 25 March: Parliament’s state affairs committee has summoned Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai Sunday morning to depose among other issues, on
the dismissal of Labour Minister Sarita Giri and mass transfers in ministries.
Committee Chairman Ramnath Dhakal said appointments to constitutional bodies, national security policy and democratization will be raised.
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SWEDE DROWNS IN PHEWA LAKE
Kathmandu, 25 March: Swede tourist Ksell Gunnar Roger,, 56, died while swimming in Phewa lake in Pokhara Saturday, a published report quoting police said.
He was swimming near Barahi Temple before drowning.
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TWO ARRESTED WITH NEPALI COUNTERFEIT NOTES TOTALING RS.1.6 MILLION
Kathmandu, 25 March: Two persons were arrested with fake counterfeit Nepali currency notes in Dhulabari, Jhapa, Friday.
Dhan Bahadur Limbu of Jhapa and Dhan Kumar Rai of Bhojpur were arrested with counterfeit currency notes of Rs, 1,000 denomination totaling Rs 1.,6 million.
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MINIMUM TEMPERATURE 14 DEGREES CELSIUS
Kathmandu, 25 March: Capital’s minimum temperature Sunday morning was
14 degrees Celsius,
Mercury is expected to rise of 27 degrees Celsius in the afternoon.
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WEST SETI BEING AWARDED TO CHINA WITH AMENDMENTS

Kathmandu, 25 March: Parliament’s :natural resources is preparing a report to enable government to award the West Seti Power project to China’s Three Gorges
International , Nagarik reports
A parliamentary investigation sub-committee has indicated awarding the
contract with amendments of shortcomings in the agreement
‘The project shouldn’t be stopped. We’ve directed shortcomings should be corrected,” committee member Gagan Thapa said..
Thapa heads a team preparing the report.
The report suggest at least 150MW from the project should be aside for an industrial corridor for development of the far-West.


NOC, IOC POL IMPORT TALKS BEGIN
Kathmandu, 25 March: It is likely that Nepal will continue with Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) as its supplier of petroleum products for the next five years even though the government has directed concerned authorities to explore options for other potential suppliers, The Himalayan Times reports.

With seven days left for the agreement to expire between Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) and IOC, both parties have speeded up work to finalise the new agreement.

State-owned NOC and IOC are drafting the agreement paper to renew their five-year petro supply agreement for the import of petroleum products to Nepal from India, said an official at NOC.

“Nepal will most likely keep open the option of importing fuel from third countries in the agreement but it will not look for an alternative to IOC as of now,” the official claimed.

A team from IOC is currently visiting Nepal to sort out all issues which have remained unresolved and to finalise the draft of the agreement.

“Representatives of both NOC and IOC are trying to solve all contentious issues,” the NOC official said. “Unsolved issues are still being discussed at the top level which are expected to be solved by tomorrow.”

The five-year contract agreement between NOC and IOC is a government-to-government supply arrangement under which India, through IOC, is meeting all of Nepal’s petroleum demands via NOC. The existing agreement will expire on March 31.

Both NOC and IOC have made some progress to sign the new agreement, the NOC official revealed.

IOC has already agreed to drop costs associated to refineries and duties, which is known as the Price Adjustment Factor (PAF) under its current price formula.

But, the withdrawal of PAF from the pricing structure has not satisfied the Nepali side. IOC has proposed to raise the other components of the price formula –– the marketing margin –– to 5 per cent from the existing 2.5 per cent levied on the outright prices of the finished products

“NOC will try its best to keep the marketing margin unchanged at 2.5 per cent or to introduce a flat commission system,” the official informed.

Similarly, Nepal has also proposed to reduce transportation price and port-facilitator cost on Liquefied Petroleum Gas, according to the official.

Petroleum business is considered a very sensitive issue since the country does not have any refinery and meets all its petroleum demands through imports from IOC at present.
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GOVT. UNVEILS NATIONAL VOLUNTEER CAMPAIGN 2012
Kathmandu, 25 March: In a bid to increase peoples´ voluntarily involvement in social and economic development activities, the government on Saturday announced National Volunteer Campaign, 2012, Republica reports.

Secretary at the Prime Minister´s Office (PMO) Leelamani Poudyal unveiled the plan---“One Village One Pond (OVOP) Program” and “Clean Kathmandu, Our Kathmandu Campaign, 2012”-- in the presence of Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai in Singh Durbar.

Addressing the function, the prime minister urged one and all to support the campaign saying the program will open the door to development activities in the country.
“We have come up with this campaign in the hope that it will open the door to development in the country. So, I urge one and all for necessary support to make the campaign a success,” Bhattarai added.

Under the OVOP program, one pond will be constructed in each village across the country while sanitation programs will be carried out in Kathmandu valley.
The volunteers will be involved in cleaning rivers, cities and other settlements among others.

Construction of health posts, school buildings, VDC offices, community buildings, roads, toilets in rural areas, residential buildings for Dalits and endangered groups will be built during the campaign.

Also, renovation of temples, new construction and renovation of canals, ponds and other cultural heritages will be carried out during the campaign.

The government will form a steering committee headed by Prime Minister Bhattarai while an executive committee led by Chief Secretary Madhav Prasad Ghimire will be formed to carry out the campaign.

Similarly, a coordination committee headed by the chief district officer and financial resources mobilization committee led by chief district development officer will be formed in each district across the country.

The steering committee will formulate and implement the program related to volunteers´ management and will also monitor and evaluate the programs.
The executive committee will implement the programs formulated by the directive committee.

Deputy Director General of the Department of Irrigation Shiv Kumar Sharma said that the objective of OVOP program is to improve the living standard of beneficiary communities by improving their access to water for drinking, sanitation, irrigation and other uses.

According to him, a total of 20,000 ponds of small, medium and large sizes will be constructed. Altogether, 2.7 million volunteers will be mobilized for the construction of ponds.

He stated that the expected cost of OVOP program is Rs 2.7 billion. The campaign begin after two weeks.
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MAOISTS FACTION AGEEMENT OM ONE PARTY TWO TACTICS POLICY
Kathmandu, 25 March: - The rival factions within the UCPN (Maoist) led by Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya have reached an informal understanding to move ahead adopting a "one party two tactics" policy till May 27, the extended deadline of the Constituent Assembly, The Kathmandu Post reports.
While leaders said they adopted such policy to keep the party united, some influential leaders from the Baidya camp have opposed the idea, arguing that they should form a separate party. Speaking to journalists a few days ago, Dahal had said that the party would neither split formally nor remain united.
Leaders from the hard-line camp--Ram Bahadur Thapa, CP Gajurel, Netra Bikram Chand and Hitman Shakya--are in favour of splitting the party before May 27. But Baidya and Standing Committee member Dev Gurung are against a formal split until May 27.
With such an understanding, the rival factions will function in a parallel way with their own political line. "The party will function in a parallel way till May 27 with separate policies and programmes," said Haribol Gajurel, a Dahal confidante.
The establishment faction headed by Dahal and Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai will engage on the ongoing peace and constitution-writing process, while the hardliners will make preparations for a possible revolt.
The two factions also agreed not to criticise each other publicly. The Baidya faction has also softened its stance on the issue of PM's resignation.
The hardliners had earlier decided to launch street protests to topple the government but later changed their stance, stating that their priority was promulgating a pro-people constitution than unseating the government. The Dahal faction has called the party's Central Committee meeting on Monday, while the hardliners have announced to boycott the "meaningless" meeting.
The rival factions have also agreed to make the CC meeting informal to maintain the party unity. The Dahal-Bhattarai camp is preparing to unveil different programmes to support the ongoing peace and constitution-writing process. Two weeks ago, the hard-line camp held a separate CC meet and unveiled protest programmes.
"When we proposed this policy inside the party a few months ago, Dahal and Bhattarai were reluctant to accept it. Now they have agreed to adopt this policy," said a hardliner and CC member Bharat Bam.
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