TOP LEADERS EMERGE FROM RETREAT MONDAY MORNING

TOP LEADERS EMERGE FROM RETREAT MONDAY
Kathmandu, 16 April: Top leaders emerge Monday morning from their
overnight retreat at Hattiban Resort where they were huddled to work out details on a proposed constitution after agreement on integration of 6,500 former Maoist PLA fighters in Nepal Army (NA).
First Vice-chairman of UCPN (Maoist) Mohan Baidhaya has joined the talks although he has launched a signature campaign against the party establishment citing differences on a constitution with Chairman Prachanda and Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai.
Parties first have to agree on eliminating differences on articles of a constitution bu Tuesday.
Differences between parties are still fundamental on subjects like form of government, state and state structure.
Besides Baidhaya, Chairman Prachanda, Prime Minister Bhattarai, opposition NC and UML leaders and members of the Madeshbadi front in government spent the night at Hattiban Resport.
nnnn

SUPREME COURT REVIVES CORRUPTION CHARGE AGAINST FORMER HOME SECRETARY PADAM PRASAD POKHREL
Kathmandu, 16 April: A division bench of the supreme court Sunday asked the
special court to reopen a corruption case against a former Home Ministry Padam Prasad Pokhrel saying a previous judgment was flawed.

The lower court cleared Pokhrel on a CIAA charge 7 June 7, 2007 on a
technicality.
A special court bench of Bhoopdhoj Adhikary, Komal Nath Sharma and Cholendra SJB Rana
CIAA asked for a five- year jail sentence along with a Rs 15.5 million fine.
The investigating agency appealed the verdict at the supreme court.
nnnn
19 PLAYERS INVITED FOR CLOSED CAMP FOR ACC-16 ELITE CUP
Kathmandu, 16 April: Nineteen players have been called by the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) Sunday for the ACC U-16 Elite Cup cricket tournament closed-
camp.
Malaysia is hosting the tournament 2 to 13 May .
Dipendra Chand, Rupesh Bastola, Kalicharan Yadav, Rabin Gupta, Aakash Bista, Adil Khan, Asif Sheikh, Mukund Yadav, Sashi Bhusan Mishra, Nitesh Thakur, Alfaz Mansuri, Noor Dhoj Sen, Lokesh Jha, Ajay Sahani, Kushal Bhurtel, Samsad Ansari and Jagadish Chand.
nnnn
FNCCI, IEMIA ACCORD
Kathmandu, 16 April: FNCCI President Suraj Vaidya and Chairman of International Enterprise Management and Investment Association (IEMIA) Alice Cheng, Sunday
signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to promote mutual cooperation
in investment.

Representatives of IEMIA and FNCCI agreed to promote trade, business and investment in solar, tourism, hotel, restaurant,

cement and other sectors that have investment opportunities.

Vaidya asked the Chinese representatives to promote Visit Lumbini Year 2012
nnnn

LPG SUBSIDY FOR COLLEGE STUUDENTS
Kathmandu, 16 April: The government has decided to distribute LPG subsidy cards to college students — from Plus Two to masters — to make it easier for them to get cooking gas at subsidised rate, Shiromani Dhungana writes in The Himalayan Times.

However, the committee headed by National Planning Commission member Janak Shah has recommended the government to provide subsidy cards only to those below 26 years of age, assuming that all those above 26 years will be gainfully employed.

“School students will not be eligible to get cooking gas at subsidised rate,” under secretary at the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies Nutaraj Pokharel told THT. “The students, whose parents are jobholders and those who are themselves employed will not be eligible for subsidy.”

“Students should be unemployed to get the subsidy on cooking gas,” Pokharel, who is one of the members of the recommendation committee, said, adding that they have recommended to provide an LPG cylinder to eligible students once every three months.

The Ministry of Commerce and Supplies has forwarded the proposal to the Finance Ministry for its approval, he said, adding that the formal process of providing subsidy cards to students will begin after approval from the Finance Ministry.

The Ministry of Education will be responsible to take necessary action after the approval from the Finance Ministry. “Educational institutions and universities will start the process of distributing subsidy cards to students,” he said. “Students will receive cooking gas at subsidised rate only after providing detailed information and documents to check fake students from could claiming the benefit.”

Meanwhile, the Gas Dealers’ Federation of Nepal will start the distribution of consumer cards for general public from April 17. The Ministry of Commerce and Supplies will provide a cylinder of cooking gas at subsidised rate every month to the general public through dealers. “But the actual number of gas dealers is yet to be calculated though the government has decided to distribute consumer cards using Gas Dealers’ Federation of Nepal,” said deputy director at the corporation Sushil Bhattarai. He said the federation told NOC that it had collected a list of 800 dealers so far.

The corporation had on March 11 directed all bottling plants to submit details of dealers within three days or face action — cancellation of Product Delivery Order. But the warning made no impact.

NOC-IOC pact on April 28

Nepal Oil Corporation and Indian Oil Corporation will ink a new agreement on April 28, according to NOC. “A team from IOC will arrive on April 27 and the agreement will be inked on April 28.” The new agreement will be valid for five years. The five-year petroleum supply agreement between NOC and IOC expired on March 31.
nnnn

MIGRANT WORKERS PAY MORE FOR HOBS IN ISRAEL
Kathmandu, 16 April: Nepali migrant workers who join Israeli jobs pay a service fee that is 10 times more than the service fee set by the government. A study by the Center for International Migration and Integration (CIMI) has revealed that workers from Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Philippines pay between $ 6,900 (Rs 552,000) to $ 9,000 (Rs 720,000) for getting jobs in Israel, Thee Himalayan Times reports.

“Outsourcing agencies are charging at least six times more money from workers,” the report said, adding that

the excessive charge has forced workers to live in an illegal status to earn more money. Foreign workers working in the healthcare, construction and agriculture industries earn $ 900 (Rs 72,000) per month.

Based on more than 200 interviews with foreign workers, research shows that despite a government cap on the amount that manpower agencies are allowed to charge foreigners to secure the necessary permits, visas and work placements, many migrants end up paying thousands of dollars more.

Chinese outsourcing agencies are cheating workers more than agencies in other countries. Chinese workers pay up to $ 31,000 (Rs 2.48 million) to secure a job in the construction industry. The average rate is $ 27,000 (Rs 2.16 million) for Chinese workers.

Israel had banned Nepali caregivers in April 2009 when about 1,000 caregivers were found to be illegal. Department of Population had accused Nepali outsourcing agencies for the growing number of illegal migrant workers.

The ban was lifted in December when the Nepali government reduced the service fee to Rs 70,000, excluding air ticket. However, Nepali outsourcing agencies have not been successful in sending workers at the prescribed fee.

According to the Department of Foreign Employment, only five Nepalis have reached the destination in the last four months and outsourcing agencies have demands for 186 workers — 130 caregivers and 56 agriculture workers.

Statistics included in the report show that there has been a sharp increase in the number of migrant workers coming to Israel. In 1993, foreigners accounted for only 1.6 per cent of the workforce in Israel but by 2010, that had increased to 10 per cent. The latest data from the Central Bureau of Statistics shows that in 2010 there were some 211,500 migrant workers in Israel, of which 116,500 were illegal.

Due to the high fees that workers pay to secure job placements, most of them were forced to borrow capital from friends or relatives, take out loans from official agencies, or even from the black market.

As a result of the high fees, researchers say that it could take up to a third of their entire stay in Israel –– most migrants are allowed to stay for five years –– to pay back the loans, meaning it is nearly a year and a half before they are able to make a profit.

During that time, workers have reported a deep feeling of insecurity and said they were not able to report any kind of injustice or human rights abuses meted out by their employers for fear of losing their jobs, the study found.

“The study demonstrates the necessity to regulate all aspects of migrant workers in Israel,” said director of CIMI Arnon Mantver. “An entire industry has developed here on the back of vulnerable populations.” Despite some steps taken in recent years by the government –– including agreements signed with Nepal, Thailand and Bulgaria to improve conditions for workers –– Mantver said more needs to be done.
Nnnn

GOVT. SEEKS RS1B GRANT FROM RUSSIA TO REVIVE UDAYAPUR CEMENT

Kathmandu, 16 April: The Ministry of Industry is seeking to get Rs 1 billion from the Russian government in the form of grant to
replace the degraded machinery equipment at Udyapur Cement Factoy (UCF), the country´s largest state-owned cement
Factory, Bhoj Raj Pokhrel writes in Republica. .

The ministry is all set to make the request through the Ministry of Finance (MoF).

"We have finalized our homework to approach MoF in order to forward the request to the Russian government," Uma Kanta Jha, secretary of MoI, said. "We will request for grant assistance, if not soft loan would be okay with us."

The ministry has already asked grant for Janakpur Cigarette Factory (JCF) from the Russian government.

"The loan that we are looking for from Russian government is solely to replace machine equipment parts," Jha said. "That will help to upgrade production."

The machineries in the factory are 18 years old. The latest annual report on public enterprises has recommended changing the equipment of the factory, which was established in 1987.

"After this problem is solved we can think of other problems in the factory," Jha said.

The factory, which has 549 permanent employees, frequently faces labor-related problems. As per the annual report on public enterprises, the government has failed to address these problems.

"The factory is in the loss due to the problems related to money, machine and man (3M)," the annual report on public enterprises states. "Interference of trade union is high in the factory."

The factory, whose board members and chief are politically appointed, incurred loss of Rs 879.84 million in 2010/11 and has a cumulative loss of Rs 17.73 billion.
According to Jha, the government will work on addressing the labor related problems after injecting the fund that is anticipated to come from the Russian government. "We are trying to revitalize the public enterprises," Jha said. "The Russian government itself is interested in extending the grant in order to upgrade the situation of state-owned factories."
The factory has audited its financial report only till 2004/2005. According to statistics, the factory is yet to pay Rs 17.4 billion of principal amount and Rs 8.02 billion in interest to the government. "The factory needs other additional investment as well," Jha said. "Replacing machinery parts is a step toward it."
The factory also lacks proper management of human resources. "The factory lacks good governance," the government report itself says, "The chief of the enterprise even does not get the job description."
Moreover, the factory which is facing the shortage of power even does not have any back up support to offset problems created by load shedding.
Nnnn



________________________________________