UML CHAIRMAN KHANAL CONTINUES TELEPHONI CAMPAIGN FOR PEACE, CONSTITUTION

UML CHAIRMAN KHANAL EXTENDS TELEPHONE CAMPAIGN
TO DANG SUNDAY
Kathmandu, 8 April: UML Chairman Jhalanath Khanal Sunday continued a campaign for peace and constitution he launched Thursday over telephone for peace and constitution by 27 May.
Khanal campaigned by talking with party workers and leaders of societ in Dang fromhis residence.
The chairman of the opposition talked with residents of Mustang Saturday.
Khanal, who just returned home after a prostrate gland surgery in New Delhi, said he’ll continue a campaign to achieve the two goals by staying in the capital.
He didn’t attend a party rally in Itahari Saturday.
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SHAKTI GAUCHAN RETURNS
Kathmandu, 8 April: Shakti Gauchan returned home Saturday after a nine-day trail with Rajashan Royals.
He had hoped to play in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
‘At the personal level, the tour has given me the temperament we need to
have while facing top players in the world,” The Himalayan Times quoted
Gauchan as saying.
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EMERGENCY MEET OF PLA COMMANDERS CONVENED
Kathmandu, 8 April: The UCPN (Maoist) on Saturday called all the seven division commanders of the PLA to attend ‘an emergency meeting’ in Kathmandu scheduled for Tuesday, Phanindra Dahal writes in The Kathmandu Post..
The decision comes a day before the crucial meeting of the prime minister-led Special Committee called for resolving the outstanding issues of army integration. The commanders have been asked to furnish progress reports regarding integration process in Tuesday’s meeting of the Integration Bureau of the Maoist party.
“The military in-charge of the party Anantaji (Barshaman Pun) has invited them with the progress report,” said PLA Spokesperson Chandra Prakash Khanal ‘Baldev’. “The meeting will also enquire about the level of interests expressed by the combatants for integration and retirement,” he added.
All the division commanders were informed about the meeting in the Capital by the central secretariat of the PLA on Saturday. The commanders’ meeting is taking place at a time when the teams deployed by the Special Committee Secretariat have reached the seven main cantonment sites to start the process of vacating the camps.
The government teams reached all the seven cantonment sites on Saturday and setting up offices to offer voluntary retirement or rehabilitation options on Sunday. The visit will delay the calendar endorsed by the Special Committee last week, which stipulates that the process of awarding retirement or rehabilitation packages should start from Sunday.
Last Wednesday, the Special Committee had endorsed the calendar, which, among others, commits to vacate the cantonments on April 12. Special Committee Secretariat Coordinator Balananda Sharma said the visit of commanders should support the integration rather than delaying it.
“The commanders have informed us that they will head for Kathmandu tomorrow. We are not told anything regarding their date of return,” Sharma told the Post over phone from Chitwan. “We hope that their visit will help ease the situation and smoothen the process of integration.”
The teams sent by the Secretariat are unlikely to start their work unless commanders return to their respective cantonments. Maoist Politburo leader Janardan Sharma, who is also a member of the party’s Integration Bureau, said the commanders’ visit is intended to support the integration process.
“Top leaders have assured us that they will make final decision regarding integration in Sunday’s Special Committee meeting. We have invited the commanders to instruct them for implementing the decision without any delay,” he said. Last week, Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai had jointly addressed the commanders in the Capital and asked them to expedite preparations for integration into the Nepal Army. Bhattarai had told other party leaders that the meeting was a ‘final farewell’ to the commanders.
Meanwhile, combatants opting for integration at the First Division of the PLA located in Ilam have piled pressure on the party leadership to ensure that their division commander Yam Bahadur Adhikari, alias Pratikshya, gets the top post being offered to the PLA in the directorate. Maoist Chairman Dahal is in favour of sending Santu Darai alias Parawana, also a central committee member, to the post of colonel, claimed a source privy to the development.
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NC AGAINST ETHNIC FEDERALISM SAYS NC PRESIDENT KOIRALA
Kathmandu, 8 April: Nepali Congress President Sushil Koirala has said that his party would not accept the federalism based on ethnicity, The Kathmandu post reports from Parasi.
Addressing an assembly in Nawalparasi in Hindi language on Saturday, Koirala clarified that the party would not go for ethnicity-based federalism.
Koirala maintained that the country should be federated in a different way rather than on ethnic basis and added that the federal states should be as less as possible. He said that his party had been advocating for parliamentary system given that the directly elected president or prime minister would give birth to a dictator.
Koirala also went on to blame that the present Baburam Bhattarai-led government had failed to maintain the peace and security in the country. “This is the worst government in the history,” Koirala said. He warned to seek an alternative to the present government is it fails to conclude the peace process by mid-April.
On the occasion, Koirala remarked that the Madhesi leaders were trying to bring split among the people in Tarai and Hilly region. Speaking in Hindi, Koirala said that he was also a Madhesi. “I am also a Madhesi. We are Madhesi since our past three generation,” Koirala said.
Koirala also accused the Madhesi leaders and the UCPN (Maoist) of trying to push the country into a deep void.
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