SPECIAL COMMITTEE MEETS THE DAY AFTER TO DISCUSS TUESDAY’S DRAMATIC DEVELOPMENTS
Kathmandu, 11 April: One day after sudden request to ask Nepal Army
(NA) to takeover security of cantonments, former Maoist fighters and their containerized weapons, the special committee which took the decision meets again Wednesday.
The committee headed ex-officio by the prime minister will discuss code of conduct, selection of former fighters of Maoist PLA and other technicalities related to integration, Finance Minister and Maoist Spokesman Barsha Man Pun said..
Cantonments were handed over to Nepal Army (NA) amid surge of violence
engineered by dissident Maoists who broke into cantonments and satellite camps.
NA was deployed at cantonments Tuesday in an operation directed by Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai to protest 9,900 former fighters awaiting integration and voluntary retirement.
Both processes were interrupted.
Dissidents called the move of the government and party establishment an “an unilateral; surrender.
Besides disrupting movement of vehicles for one hour in the morning, dissidents are burning effigies of Chairman Prachanda and Prime Minister Bhattarai, a party vi-chairman, and holding torchlight processions.
PLA commanders are also discussing at camps handover of weapons and other details with NA
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Kathmandu, 11 April: Rajaram Khatri, bodyguard of Sindhupalchowk CDO Kamal Mani Kafle shot and injured Dinesh Shrestha Tuesday night at a resort in the district
overnight.
Government driver Dinesh Shrestha was shot at Sunkoshi Riverside Resort last
night following a dispute.
Khatri has been arrested.
Shrestha is undergoing treatment at Dhulikhel hospital.
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Shrestha has sustained bullet injury in his hand. He has been undergoing treatment at Dhulikhel hospital.
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JUJUBHAI TO AGAIN PIERCE TONGUE
Kathmandu, 11 April: Jujubhai Baga Shrestha will pierce his tongue again this
14 April Saturday or one day after Nepali New Year Year 2069 at Madhyapur Bode.
This was revealed at a news conference Tuesday.
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DUAL PRICING OF LPG SOON SAYS MINISTER
Kathmandu, 11 April:
Minister for Commerce and Supplies Lekhraj Bhatta Tuesday said that the ministry was effortful in implementing a dual pricing system of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) soon in order to improve its distribution, The Rising Nepal reports.
Addressing an interaction in the Capital, Minister Bhatta asked the concerned bodies to support the government to enforce the scheme.
Earlier, the government had planned to introduce two types of gas cylinders for consumers and industrial purpose.
He said that the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) was collecting the data of gas dealers through the gas industries as well as the information about consumers.
He, however, said that his initiative could not materialize due to the lack of support from bureaucrats.
Talking about the shortage of gas, he said that the government was effortful to manage the supply of gas even by facing heavy losses.
He further said that the NOC has been selling fuels lower than the cost prices. "So, the loss of the corporation has been increasing every month," he added.
Suresh Kumar Agrawal, officiating managing director of the corporation, said that the distribution of gas will improve after enforcing the dual gas distribution system.
"Because of haphazard distribution of gas by the industries, there have been some problems in the market," he said.
He hoped that the dual gas supply system will be implemented after collecting the data of consumers and dealers.
He further said that the NOC will distribute gas to the industries on the basis of the number of cylinders they have because it will take time to bring in separate ones.
Maheshwor Kumar Shrestha, general secretary at the Gas Dealer’ Federation Nepal, asked the government to implement the dual distribution system of gas as soon as possible.
He said that the supply of cooking gas had not eased in the market even after NOC increased its supply. He attributed the situation to the gas bottling companies’ tendency of importing more gas cylinders in the market.
Around 200,000 additional cylinders have entered into the market within the last two months. Now, the total number of gas cylinders has reached around 4,200,000 in the market.
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CIAA TO PROBE CAPITAL’S CONTROVERSIAL CLEAN-UP DRIVE
Kathmandu, 11 April: The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority has said it will summon Kathmandu Metropolitan City chief Kedar Bahadur Adhikari and seize all documents related to the procurement of materials used in the Kathmandu clean-up drive “National Volunteer Campaign”—the pet project of Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, The Kathmandu Post reports.
“We are taking this issue seriously. All the documents related to materials procured for the clean-up campaign will be seized tomorrow,” said CIAA Secretary Bhagwati Kumar Kafle. The details provided by KMC sources reveal the officials involved in the campaign have gobbled up around Rs 1.2 million of the total Rs 20 million budget allocated for the programme, jacking up prices of logistics and publicity materials such as masks, gloves and pamphlets as much as ten times their current market price. KMC officials also breached the legal procedures in purchasing materials while procuring 30,000 pieces of masks at the rate of Rs 17 and 30,000 pairs of gloves at the rate of Rs 30. Similarly, the KMC printed 350,000 pieces of pamphlets at the rate of Rs 1.5 per sheet. However, the same pair of gloves are available at Rs 5 in the market, while a mask costs Rs 3.20.
The Prime Minister’s Office has launched a separate probe into the matter. On Monday, Chief Secretary Madhav Ghimire summoned Adhikari over the alleged misappropriation of the campaign funds.
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