FOREIGNERS AND BIG PARTIES TRYING TO DIVIDE NEPAL CHARGES BIJUKSHHE Kathmandu, 2 May: President of Nepal Majdoor Kissan Party, Narayan Man Bijukche has said the declaration of federal units based on ethnicity and language would not be acceptable to his party, RSS reports. Addressing a mass meeting organized by Nepal Revolutionary Workers’ Association, Central Committee to mark the May Day here on Tuesday, Mr Bijukche accused the foreign expansionists of trying to disintegrate Nepal and the bigger parties of acting accordingly. Declaring federal states on the basis of ethnicity and language is an effort to sideline the workers and the people, he said while adding that federal states formed on such basis would weaken the communist parties. At the program, Party leader Prem Suwal and other speakers emphasized on the need for the Government to take the initiative in the interest of the workers. Earlier, the Association took out a rally that went round various parts of the city before converging into a mass meeting at Bhaktapur Durbar Square. nnnn NEPAL, CHINA TO SIGN AGREEMENT ON DRY PORT SOON Kathmandu, 2 May: : The government will sign the construction agreement for Larcha Dry Port with China next week, The Himalayan Times reports. “It was slated for this week,” said secretary at the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies Lal Mani Joshi. “But the agreement signing process had to be postponed due to hurdles from locals, who have occupied the land after completing the land acquisition process. “They were compensated for their land earlier but they returned to reclaim the compensation,” he said, adding that the government will vacate the land within a week, before signing the agreement with China. China had agreed to construct a dry port through a grant at Larcha to expand trade activities between the two countries. “China will hand over the dry port to Nepal after the construction is completed,” said Joshi, adding that the construction was supposed to start in January. The Larcha Dry Port in Tatopani — some 110 km north of Kathmandu — on the Kodari Highway will facilitate the growing trade between the two countries. The total construction cost has been estimated at around Rs 1 billion. “All the cost will be borne by the Chinese government and the cost of land acquisition has been borne by the Nepali government. The dry port, which will be built in an area of 34 hectares, will accommodate a storage house, parking facility for 200 vehicles and a weighing machine that can weigh from 60 tonnes to 100 tonnes of goods at a time. There will also be a customs office along with a residential facility. The existing customs office has a capacity for only 60 containers. The construction is expected to be completed in two years. The government had acquired 11 hectares of land two and a half years back whereas the rest of the necessary land is owned by the customs office. The government spent Rs 600 million to acquire the land. Nepal and China had an agreement to establish the dry port in Tatopani four years back. Two Chinese companies had done the detail project report. The government Nnnn PASHUPATI FACILITIES TO GET BOOST Kathmandu, 2 May:: Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT) has planned to develop basic infrastructure for the convenience of devotees, on the temple premises within a month, The Himalayan Times reports. A total of Rs 20 million has been allocated to build basic infrastructure at Pashupatinath, said the Trust. “We realised the need to immediately develop infrastructure for the convenience of devotees after we implemented measures to bring transparency in temple offerings about three weeks ago,” said Trust member-secretary Sushil Nahata. He informed that a meeting held today decided to develop the infrastructure within a month. “We will follow the rules while carrying out development activities,” he said. “Permission from the Department of Archaeology is necessary to carry out some development activities at the heritage site.” The activities will focus on providing more facilities to visitors –– hall for devotees to keep their shoes-slippers, resting place for visitors, drinking water and toilet. Likewise, restoring and repairing temple gates will also be given priority, said Pashupati Area Development Trust. Hundreds of Hindus visit Pashupatinath Temple every day. The temple, believed to be more than two thousand years old, has been enlisted in the UNESCO World Heritage Site. “We are going to build the necessary infrastructure as soon as possible,” said Nahata. “We are also going to clean the Bagmati river every Saturday so that devotees can use water for worship,” he said. “The river section beginning from Suryaghat to Tilganga will be cleaned once a week,” he said. The Trust is also going to ban cremation of bodies near the eastern gate of the temple. “Cremation will not be allowed at the two points to maintain sanitation of the temple and the river,” said Nahata. “However, the public can use eight other cremation points on the eastern bank of the river,” he said. Around 48 bodies are cremated at Aryaghat every day. Nnnn MEDIA GOOGLE “ Their (Baidhaya group) recent activities are aimed at slitting the party and it is contributing to the lots of counter-revolutionaries that want to sabotage the ongoing peace and constitution writing processes.” (Maoist Chief Dahal, The Kathmandu Post, 2 May) nnnn