SUPREME COURT SEES NO NEED TO INTERVENE TO OVERTURN GOVERNMENT DECISIONON ON AMNESTY
Kathmandu, 20 March: A division court of the supreme court Monday declined to oday declined to issue a stay order and intervene in a cabinet decision to overturn an amnesty fir persons by withdrawing cases in courts against persons or criminal activities.
The bench ruled concerned district courts will take appropriate decision
on the government decision as per State Cases Act, 1992.
Under the act, government must seek consent from the courts by showing sufficient grounds for the withdrawal of cases.
A group of lawyers challenged the legality of the February 27 decision of the cabinet in the cabinet to withdraw cases against some persons, including Chairman
Prachanda and Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai in district courts
for criminal charges.
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ORDINANCE ON SEZ FOR INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT SAYS MINISTER JHA
Kathmandu, 20 March: Industry Minister Anil Jha said Monday his
ministry us presenting an ordinance on special economic zones (SEZ) for thir development.
“Development of SEZ for the industrial development is a key,” he told a meeting sponsored by Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) here today.
He revealed industrial enterprise act was also being amended.
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NOC PROPOSES REDUCED IMPORT-FACILITATOR COST TO IOC
Kathmandu, 20 March:: Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has proposed Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) to reduce import-facilitator cost in cooking gas in the new agreement, which is going to be inked in April, The Himalayan Times reports.

“The IOC is charging Rs 3,000 in a metric tonne of cooking gas as import-facilitator cost,” said acting managing director at Nepal Oil Corporation Suresh Kumar Agrawal, briefing a meeting organised by National Planning Commission (NPC) to discuss the development on IOC-OC fuel supply agreement renewal.

Similarly, the corporation has also proposed sole supplier of the petroleum products to NOC to remove out of zone movement cost, which the NOC is paying while importing from Siliguri depot of Indian Oil Corporation.

“NOC pays Rs 100 to Rs 150, as Out of zone movement cost, an official at the corporation said. “Similarly, there is some disagreements between importer and IOC regarding transportation cost charged by IOC.”

IOC has been charging the transportation cost of railway services in all products even though it is using pipeline to supply them, the NOC officials said, adding that IOC, however, refused to recalculate and reduce the present transportation cost during the bilateral talk last month. The implementation of Export Parity Price and introduction of flat rate in marketing margin are yet to be finalised.

Similarly, IOC has proposed to remove Price Adjustment Factor but, it has proposed to increase marketing margin to five per cent from 2.5 per cent. “It has proposed to provide Rs 450 concession in every kiloliter (kl) of petrol, diesel and kerosene and per metric tonne of cooking gas,” the

officials added.

In the meeting with the National Planning Commission today, the NOC officials said that IOC has agreed to construct pipeline from Raxaul depot of IOC to Amlekhgunj depot of NOC. “NOC has proposed different modalities to construct pipeline and IOC has agreed to initiate pipeline construction project,” joint secretary at the Finance Ministry Khum Raj Punjali quoted NOC officials as saying.
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PARLIAMENTARY PANEL UNDECIDED ON WEST SETI
Kathmandu, 20 March: The parliamentary committee on Natural Resources and Means is finding it hard to take a final decision on 750-MW West Seti Hydro
Project, The Himalayan Times reports.

At a meeting, most of the members of the committee today tried to prove that they wanted implementation of the project and said their decision taken 10 days ago wasn’t meant to create hurdles. Constituent Assembly member Laxman Ghimire dominated the meeting, giving the impression that he was chairing it. Sitting on the side of the chair of the meet Shanta Chaudnary, Ghimire took hold of the mike and tried to defend opinions of other lawmakers. Ghimire was against the government’s decision to let China’s Three Gorges International Corporation develop West Seti and said the joint secretary at the Ministry of Energy, Arjun Karki, is presenting himself as a local agent of the company giving rise to the suspicion of irregularities.

However, some other members said, “Our decision to stop the work was wrong. We could have investigated the project without halting the regular work mentioned in the MoU signed three months ago,” said another member Dharma Raj BK.

As per the MoU, the Chinese firm was to carry out a field study by the end of March and register the company by the end of April. However, Ghimire said there would not be a problem if the project was delayed about a week or a month. “We waited for 16 years and a delay of a few more days will not make any difference,” he said.

The committee decided to provide 10 more days to the sub-committee formed to study the project to submit its report while some participants said five days should suffice.

But, Ghimire, who is also a member of the sub-panel, said they needed at least 10 more days. “It is not possible to complete the study before 10 days,” he said. The sub-committee blamed the Ministry of Energy for the delay. “The ministry has not provided documents to us on time. We sent 16 questions to the ministry yesterday and the study will be completed after getting reply,” said Shanta Chaudhary.
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MAOIST CHIEF SAYS PARTY ON VERGE OF SPLIT
Kathmandu, 20 March: Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has told the party´s central committee (CC) members loyal to him that the party is heading toward imminent split or dissolution if current differences within UCPN (Maoist) are not resolved immediately, Post B.
Basnt/ Kiran Pun write in Republica.

“The party is teetering on the brink of a split; it will dissolve even if it doesn´t split. So we should put in our best efforts to save the party,” a participant quoted Dahal as telling the emergency meeting of around 100 CC members close to him and Vice-chairman Baburam Bhattarai at Hotel Summit in Lalitpur Monday.

The meeting came close on the heels of a rival faction´s recent announcement of a series of campaigns against the party establishment. The rival faction led by Mohan Vaidya has accused the establishment of not implementing the decisions of the last CC meeting to dissolve the current government leadership and mobilize the masses to frame "people´s constitution" and integrate the PLA into the Nepali Army (NA) in a “dignified” manner.

According to sources the embattled chairman of the Maoist party did not appear very optimistic about party unity, but tried his best to assume conciliatory tone in his speech.

He pointed out the need to do away with the deeply-entrenched factionalism in the party, and negotiate in earnest with the hardliners.

“This internal contradiction in the party has been going for so long. We have arrived at this critical stage due to our failure to transform ourselves and take the party unity to a new high,” CC member Prakash Dahal, who attended the meeting, quoted party chairman as saying.

The chairman reiterated that the party was still ideologically correct, but argued that leaders should change their attitude. Dahal told the meeting that he would talk to Baidya on holding joint programs including the celebration of the People´s Movement Day on April 6 and Lenin Day on April 22.

Similarly, Bhattarai, according to sources, backed Dahal and told the meeting that it would be counter-productive for his party to dissolve the current government. “I will do whatever the party tells me. But it will be irresponsible to resign now without seeking an alternative,” a leader quoted Bhattarai as saying.

Another vice-chairman, Narayankaji Shrestha, on the other hand, came out aggressive against the Baidya faction. He argued that the call for the prime minister´s resignation was linked to ideological tussle in the party. He was of the view that the hardliners wanted to create chaos and disrupt the peace process through government´s dissolution.



The party´s standing committee members expressed their views during the meeting, which will continue also on Tuesday.

The hardliners had also held a similar meeting at Kathamdnu for three days recently. The establishment faction has been pushed to a defensive position after the radicals began mobilizing ex-combatants to bolster their position inside and outside the party and announced protest programs unilaterally to topple the government.

According to sources, senior leaders from the hardline faction are also holding talks with the “patriots and intellectuals” for the causes of "nationalism and revolution".

Baidya and Dahal, who had strained relations for months, had begun hobnobbing with each other after the last CC meet two months back, but suspicion and mistrust between the two surfaced after the latter did not recall Bhattarai from the government and declined to formulate mass mobilization programs.

´No deal with establishment in bits and pieces´

What do you have to say about the separate meeting of the party establishment held on Monday?

I had talked to the party chairman this morning before the meeting was held. I had asked him about the meeting. But they were not yet clear about it. I am yet to learn about the concrete decisions of that meeting. So it will be too early to comment.

There were voices at the meeting that the unilateral political programs announced by your faction should be withdrawn for the sake of party unity. Will you do that?

Currently, we are working out the concrete protest programs. Last Saturday, we had only announced the protests without any details. There is nothing wrong with that as we will come up with programs in accordance with the decisions of the last central committee meeting. We will not make adjustments to the existing status quo.

What actually do you want?

There are so many issues that we have been raising, including the national sovereignty issue. The Bhattarai government has signed "anti-national" agreements. On top of that we cannot compromise on the contents of the new constitution. It seems the party is not working to formulate a "people´s constitution". They are rather surrendering to the parliamentary parties.

That means you cannot forge common programs with the party establishment, to keep the party united.

We are against signing agreements with the party establishment in bits and pieces. There are political, ideological and organizational issues that need to be dealt with in a package. We were compelled to announce the protest programs unilaterally after the chairman said clearly that he cannot implement the decisions of the last central committee meeting to recall Bhattarai from the government and formulate programs of mass mobilization for a pro-people constitution.
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CIAA SEEKS POKHARA AIRPORT DETAILS
Kathmandu, 20 March: Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has sought clarification from Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) following complaints that officials were allegedly involved in curruption in the tender process of proposed Pokhara Regional International Airport, Samiksha Koiralawrites in Republica..

Two different complaints filed on March 11 and March 19 stated that tender was called with the intention to award it to China CAMC Engineering Company.

Quoting a complaint filed on Tuesday, CIAA Secretary Bhagwati Kafle said, "The complaint has asked us to probe the issue and has stated that the duration of tender of 46 days was not enough and bidders were not given bid document."

CAAN had invited Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract for execution of the project on February 9. According to the tender documents, the bidder must be a Chinese company or joint venture of the Chinese companies or joint venture of the Chinese and Nepalese companies with more than 50 percent share of Chinese company.

The government of Nepal is in the process of receiving soft loan to finance the project from Export-Import Bank of China (Exim Bank) for soft loan of around $ 145 million.

A study carried out by Joshi Consultancy estimated the cost of the project at around $ 166 million. "China CAMC Company limited has redesigned the technical and financial proposal estimating the cost to be around $ 287 million which confirms the corruption of concerned officials as the amount is too high against the estimated cost of local consultancy," the complaint added.

The complaint has also charged officials of finance ministry and tourism ministry for illegally signing MoU with China CAMC Company limited for the implementation of the project in December 2010, and the current tender invitation was an attempt to make the old MoU legal by awarding the tender

CAAN officials however said that they had no idea about the MoU with China CAMC Company and there were no irregularities involved in the process. Suman Shrestha, deputy director general of CAAN said 46-day period was per the existing regulation and 10 companies had already taken the bid document. The final date for the submission of tender is March 25 and companies including Avic International, Sino-Hyrdo, China Railway Airport Construction and China Harbor.

The airport which is targeted to be completed within three years from the day of execution of project will be able to handle aircraft as big as Boeing 757. In 1975, the government had expropriated 3,106 ropanies of land for the construction of the airport at Chhinedada in Pokhara. The airport will have 2,500 meter long runway.

Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is also preparing to summon officials of CAAN and MoTCA on Wednesday seeking details of the tender invitation.
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