UML LEADER OLI SAYS MAOISTS PRACTICING VIOLENCE Kathmandu, 23 April: CPN UML leader KP Sharma Oli on Sunday has said that a party that believes in the politics of violence in a democratic era cannot be a 'communist party', RSS reports.. Taking part in a programme organised by the UML Valley Special Coordination Committee here today commemorating the 63rd anniversary of the Nepali Communist Movement, Oli accused the ruling party UCPN-Maoist of still practicing the violence of politics. Stating that the meaning of the 'people's war' as defined by the Maoists was not acceptable for other parties, the UML senior leader accused the UCPN-Maoist of fighting for capturing state power. He further said that the followers of communism should fight to guarantee the rights of all caste and communities rather than any specific caste, community or the gender. Also speaking at the programme, UML Secretary Yubraj Gyawali said his party would never forget the basic principles of Marxism and never violate the democratic norms and values. Similarly, founder of the Communist Party, Nar Bahadur Karmacharya and UML politburo member Ramchandra Jha also shared their views at the programme chaired by UML valley in-charge Rajendra Shrestha. Nnnn YOUTH ABDUCTED IN MOHOTTARI FOR RANSOM AND KILLED Kathmandu, 23 April: A youth from Mohottari was abducted for ransom, his family said, shot dead across the border in India. The body of Sanjaya Shah ,27, a farmer, of Sundarpur was found Sunday n Khairbanni and Ragunathpur VDCs of the Indian side. Abductors demanded a Rs 1.6 million ransom. Nnnn TWO INJURED IN ACCIDENT DEAD Kathmandu, 23 April: Two people who were critically injured in an accident at local Pashupati Nagar here last night died on way to the Bharatpur Hospital, police said, RSS reports from Hetauda. The deceased have been identified as 40-year-old Niranjan Rayamajhi of Daman VDC-4 and 35-year-old Raj Kumar Rayamajhi of Hetaunda Municipality-4, Makawanpur district. They were heading to Hetauna from Birgunj on a bike till it was hit by a tractor at Pashupati Nagar. Police have impounded the tractor and arrested its driver for necessary action. nnnn VALLEY ROAD WIDENING DRIVE TO CONTINUE Kathmandu, 23 April: The road expansion initiative in the Kathmandu valley, which had come to a standstill with recent annulment of the Town Development Act 2045 in keeping with a Supreme Court directive, is likely to gather momentum in line with the Kathmandu Valley Development Authority Act, which took effect on April 13, The Himalayan Times reports, . Meanwhile, bulldozing of structures built on encroached land will continue, said Bhaikaji Tiwari, chief of the Kathmandu Valley Town Development Committee Implementation Committee, after a meeting with Minister for Physical Planning and Construction Works today at the ministry. Sources said Prime Minister had criticised Minister for Physical Planning and Works Hridayesh Tripathi and Secretary at the ministry Tulsi Prasad Sitaula over delays in the road-widening initiative. The government has deputed 200 civil servants at the committee, including Tiwari, who had expedited the broad-road initiative together with DIG and chief of the Metropolitan Traffic Police Division Ganesh Raj Rai, for three months, meaning they can be transferred after the expiry of the period. Their transfer to other departments, authorities fear, will affect the road-widening initiative in the valley. It should be noted that DIG Rai is under scanner on corruption charges. To expedite the road-widening project, the government plans to form a new authority under a former secretary and fill up positions with political appointees, like in public enterprises, whose performance is not satisfactory. Management consultant Narayan Manandhar said a new authority does not make sense when efforts are on to restructure the state. While Prime Minister’s economic adviser Rameswor Khanal underlined the need for a separate authority to carry out development works like Delhi and Lucknow development authorities. Such bodies, according to Khanal, can make prompt decisions and are not susceptible to frequent transfer o employees. “Government entities like the Department of Urban Development and Building Construction have delivered precious little. A powerful authority will be formed in the upcoming fiscal and it will be given enough funds to execute the tasks,” he said. nnnn JAILED CA MEMBER SEEKS TO ATTEND SESSIONS Kathmandu, 23 April: Constituent Assembly member and former minister Shyam Sundar Gupta, who is now in jail on charges of abducting and taking hostage of businessman Pawan Kumar Sanghai for ransom on December 22, today wrote a letter to Constituent Assembly Chairman Subas Chandra Nembang, asking the latter to make necessary arrangement for his ‘presence’ and ‘participation’ in regular CA meetings. The CA meeting is taking place from tomorrow [Monday] onwards to discuss the constitutional issues, The Himalayan Times reports. Gupta, who is also chairman of Nepal Sadbhavana Party (Anandi Devi) and was appointed as CA member through a Cabinet decision of the late G P Koirala-led government, sent his letter to the CA chairman from Dilli Bazaar Prison, attached with a covering letter of the jail authority, according to Parliament sources. “I am in Dilli Bazaar Prison on false charges of kidnapping and taking hostage a person,” Gupta wrote in his letter, adding, “I am not suspended or disqualified; neither my CA seat has fallen vacated as per the Articles 65 and 67 of the Interim Constitution, nor has the court convicted me on any charge. I, therefore, request you to make necessary arrangement for my presence and participation in regular meetings of the CA from tomorrow.” Parliament sources, however, said that his request would not be entertained as there is no legal provision to do so. The sources added that certain fundamental rights of a person when in judicial custody are curtailed. Parliament authorities, according to sources, have written to the Home Ministry asking the latter on what ground the Dilli Bazaar Prison authorities dispatched such a letter to the CA chairman. Nnnn CHINA SCANDAL EXPOSES ELITE IMPUNITY Kathmandu, 23 April: A sensational political scandal unfolding in China has exposed the high level of impunity enjoyed by elites at a time when social tensions are rising, highlighting the need for change, observers say, AFP reports from Beijing. The affair -- which toppled Bo Xilai, one of the Communist Party's stars, and prompted authorities to probe his wife for murder -- has played out in an unusually public manner despite the best efforts of China's censors. There have been scant official announcements about the case, but allegations of massive corruption and abuse of power involving Bo and his family have trickled through online to Chinese people already weary of graft scandals. "The Bo Xilai case clearly shows that corruption among some of the most powerful leaders can be horrendous," said Sidney Rittenberg, an American who spent decades in China and gained first-hand insight into the party's workings. "Today, officials who genuinely want to fight corruption, including some at the very top, are often in a minority and lack the power to clean out those Augean Stables," he said, referring to the daunting task of Greek mythology. "Along with the necessary economic decentralization and the end of a centralized command economy, local officials are able to pretty much rule the roost in the areas under their command." Bo was sacked from his post as boss of the southwestern city of Chongqing last month, and subsequently suspended from the party's top-level, 25-member Politburo for "serious discipline violations" -- code in China for graft. His wife Gu Kailai, meanwhile, has been placed under investigation for the suspected murder of a British businessman -- a scandal that came to light when Bo's right-hand man fled to a US consulate and reportedly asked for asylum. The saga reads like a Hollywood thriller and has gripped ordinary Chinese people, some of whom thought the charismatic Bo was a refreshing change from the country's stiff, technocratic leaders. Jiang Weiping, a journalist who was jailed for five years in 2000 after writing articles critical of Bo and Gu, says he caught wind of their corrupt practices in the early 1990s when Bo was propaganda chief of Dalian city. He alleges that Gu raked in money through initiatives such as setting up a company to facilitate foreign investment in the northeastern city or through donations given to a research institute she established. Later, their son Bo Guagua was able to study abroad in Britain, where he attended the prestigious Harrow school and then went to Oxford University. Jiang also alleges that Bo managed to secure his rise through the ranks by giving key officials benefits such as land or tax incentives, thus shoring up high-level support. After arriving in Chongqing, Bo drew criticism for launching a draconian crackdown on criminal elements in 2009 that led to a series of executions and suicides, amid allegations of widespread torture and false confessions. "He is two-faced. On the one hand, he is very talented and charming, but on the other, he is a conspirator... He has the gift of the gab and he is a great showman," Jiang, who now lives in Canada, told AFP. The Bo case has been described as the biggest political crisis to hit China in decades as it exposes deep-set power struggles within the party, although other high-profile corruption cases have also emerged over the past years. Former Shanghai boss Chen Liangyu, for instance, was jailed for 18 years in 2008 for his role in a pension fund scandal, and former Beijing mayor Chen Xitong was removed from his post in 1995 for corruption and jailed for 16 years. But China watchers say the economic and social situation is now very different from when those two top officials were convicted, and Bo's case -- while not a trigger -- may still bring to the fore the need for reforms. "People in China with whom I have communicated -- people of many different viewpoints and loyalties -- all concede that some political reform is now necessary," said Rittenberg, a consultant who spent decades working closely with Chinese leaders including Mao Zedong. Much of the party's legitimacy in recent years has rested on China's breakneck economic growth -- which is able to pull people out of poverty -- but this is slowing and the growth model is becoming unsustainable. Social tensions are on the rise, with land grabs one of the most volatile issues, triggering violent protests when farmers who have been forcibly evicted from their land have no recourse to legal arbitration. Cheng Li, an expert on Chinese elite politics and a fellow at the Brookings Institution, says the party needs to make "profound transformations" if it wants to "regain the public's confidence and remain in power." He said in an interview with the US-based National Bureau of Asian Research published Wednesday that there should be a call for widespread legal reforms, intra-party elections for leadership positions and media openness. "The Bo Xilai crisis can be either a curse or blessing for the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) -- a curse if the party pretends that its rule can remain as before, but a blessing if the party decides to transform itself," he said. nnnn