ONE DEAD. 13 INJURED IN PALPA BUS ACCIDENT Kathmandu, 27 April: One person died and 13 were injured Friday in a vehicular accident in Palpa. A bus hurled off a road going Tamgas in Gulmi from Butwal. Nnnn MAOIST ESTABISHMENT CALLS GATHERING OF FORMER FIGHTERS TO MATCHMOVE ON BAIDHAYA GROUP Kathmandu, 27 April: To match an initiative of the Mohan Baidhaya faction, Maoist Establishment faction of Chairman Prachanda and Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai is holding a meeting of former PLA fighters at Khanna Garment Factory in Lalitpur. Baidhaya faction has organized former fighters into a volunteer fore to push its programmes. The establishment moves comes at a time when the dissident faction has charged Prachanda and BHattarai for widespread misuse of funds totaling Rs.9.5 billion for upkeep of fighters in 28 cantonments and camps over the years. The money was dole from government and some European states to bring Maoists into the peace process. Not all western donors contributed money to the peace fund through the money was channeled. The establishment faction was afraid the former fighters numbering 19,000 plus who have Been disqualified by UN, voluntarily retired or opted to join Nepal Army might be recruited by other Groups to push various causes. nnnn .l. NPC SUGGESTS POLICY REFORMS Kathmandu, 27 April: National Planning Commission (NPC) Vice Chairman, Deepenra Bahadur Chhetri, has underlined the need of policy reforms for making the foreign employment sector safe and systematic, RSS reports. Releasing a review report on foreign employment policy and its implementation at a programme here on Thursday, he said the Nepali workers going on foreign employment have been facing various hassles as the government policies related to foreign employment sector are not practically implemented. He stressed the need of correcting the shortcomings in the foreign employment sector and also reforming the related policies in tune with the time. Secretary at the Ministry of Labour Somlal Subedi pointed out the need of effective regulation of the foreign employment sector to prevent the workers from being cheated by unscrupulous foreign employment agencies. Member of the NPC, Dr Ganesh Gurung, Acting Director General at the Department of Foreign Employment, Surya Prasad Bhandari and Chief of the International Organisation on Migration, Sarat Das, also spoke of the need to making the foreign employment secure and systematic through collective efforts of the stakeholders. President of the Foreign Employment Agencies' Association, Bal Bahadur Tamang, said the works related to foreign employment have not been effective due to lack of synchronisation between the Association and the Department of Foreign Employment. The policy review report jointly prepared by the NPC and the International Organisation on Migration is an assessment of the implementation status of the foreign employment related policies and regulations from 2007 to 2010 and the topics that need to be reformed. As per the government statistics, between 1,000 to 1,500 Nepalis go on foreign employment daily. So far 2.3 million Nepalis are working in different countries. Nnnn BHUTANESE REFUGEE FAST CONTINUES Kathmandu, 27 April: The Bhutanese women refugees in Damak of Jhapa district have continued their fast-unto-death protest for the third consecutive Day, RSS reports from Bhadrapur. Thursday. Refugees Parbati Chauhan, Tulasa Dhakal, Iramaya Khatri, Chandra Maya Khadka and Renuka Magar led by Durgadevi Bista had begun protest demanding refugee certificate and relief. Earlier, the refugees had ended sit-in after the local administration expressed commitment to address their demands within five days in November. Bista, who is the Coordinator of the protest, said they would continue the fast-unto-death until their demands were met. As many as 3,649 Bhutanese refugees have no refugee certificates in the camps in Jhapa and Morang districts. nnnn DETAILS OF MAOIST PROPOSAL FOR 10 PROVINCES Kathmandu, 27April:: Unified CPN-Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal today came up with a new proposal on carving out federal units on ‘identity basis’, backed by the United Democratic Madhesi Front., Arjun Bhandari. Ram K.Kamat write in The Himalayan Times.I But the Nepali Congress and CPN-UML opposed it, saying the new proposal ignored their ‘economic capability’, which is one of the criteria of carving out the federal units. NC and UML leaders, emerging from the hours-long bi- and multi-lateral meetings, held on the Constituent Assembly premises, Baneshwor, said the Maoist side proposed 10 federal units on identity of particular communities. The Maoist side has proposed eight pradeshes in hill and mountain regions and two pradeshes in the Tarai and Madhes. UML leader Surendra Pandey, who briefed the media about the Maoist proposal, said the Maoist leadership proposed that Chitwan district and eastern part of Nawalparasi be governed by the federal government. Pandey said the Maoists were unclear about whether Jhapa district will fall under the proposed Limbuwan-Mechi Pradesh or under the proposed Madhes-Birat Pradesh. But a Maoist source claimed that Jhapa will belong to the Limbuwan-Mechi Pradesh and entire Kanchanpur district will fall under the proposed Seti-Mahakali Pradesh. Sources also said ‘special autonomous regions’ will be created to address concerns of the Sherpa and the Lama (Jadan) communities. Pandey said his party’s CC meeting scheduled for tomorrow will come up with an official position on the proposal. NC leader Ram Sharan Mahat said Maoists’ new proposal was a ‘mockery’ in the name of federalism. “The proposal has emphasised only on identity of certain communities, not on economic capability,” said Mahat, adding that his party will reject it. Post Bahadur Bogati, a Maoist leader, said identity must be the priority. Minendra Rijal, an NC leader, said they had proposed carving out one pradesh combining the existing Mechi and Koshi zones, where Tarai districts of Jhapa, Morang and Sunsari are located and another pradesh combining Seti and Mahakai Zones, where Tarai districts of Kailali and Kanchanpur are located. He said there could be three to four pradeshes in the hills and mountain. MJF-Democratic leader Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar, backing the Maoist proposal, said the proposed number of federal units would not derail the constitution-drafting process as it had taken into consideration communities’ identities, economic capability, geography, culture and language. nnnn