TALKS WITH THARU COMMUNITY RESUMES WEDNESDAY Kathmandu, 23 May: Government will resume talks with the Tharu community Wednesday. Talks Tuesday were inconclusive. Talks committee of Tharus told government negotiators a closure of 22 terai districts will continue until Friday. nnnn u,ERNMENT WILLRESSUME TALKS t. talks with tahrucommunitywednesday NT PUSHING TELECOM DEALS WITH CHINESE FIRMS Kathmandu, 23 May: The Nepal Telecom (NT) has said that it would seal deals for its 10 million GSM mobile lines project soon with two Chinese vendors—Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corporation. Despite issuing letter of intent (LoI) for the project in two separate packages, the state-owned telecom operator has not been able sign an agreement, causing a delay to the project, Ramesh Sherstha writes in The Kathmandu Post.. The NT had issued LoI for 5.2 million lines to ZTE and for 4.8 million lines to Huawei about two months ago. But it is yet to reach agreements with the Chinese companies, with ZTE showing dissatisfaction regarding the project cost and confusion over the terms and condition for the supply, delivery and installation of equipment to be supplied. “We will sign agreements with the vendors within two weeks once we complete the negotiation,” said Bishu Kasaju, director at the NT’s Mobile Service Directorate. He said that the negotiation was taking some time as they need to make clarification to the vendors regarding some clauses of the project. The NT expects to address demand for 2G, 3G and 4G mobile services for the next three years with this project that is estimated to cost Rs 15 billion. The project implementation has been planned in two packages covering all five regions of the country. “We will be able to start distribution of new mobile lines within six months,” said Kasaju. Upon the completion of this project, the NT will be in a position to distribute SIM cards instantly on customer demand. The Central, Eastern, Far-Western and Mid-Western development regions will be covered under the package ‘A’ that boasts 5.2 million mobile lines, while 4.2 million lines would be allocated for the Kathmandu Valley and the Western development region. A senior NT official said that ZTE had sought some consideration in project cost as it was supposed to work in difficult and wider areas compared to the project areas being covered by Huawei. “Huawei is likely to sign an agreement this week but ZTE might take a little longer,” the official said. The NT is also planning to redesign the network of the Kathmandu Valley to address problems of poor service. Under the project, it will build networks in major cities like Biratnagar, Birgunj, Pokhara and Nepalgunj for 4G services with a priority on data and voice services. The official said that the 10 million lines project had been delayed for three months due to a probe into a lengthy evaluation work and negotiation by the Commission for Investigation for Abuse of Authority. “There is no other option than speeding up this project work as we will run out of SIM cards after couple of months,” the official added. nnnn HUMLA MONASTERY TOGET BACK ITS STOLEN BUDDHA IDOL Kathmandu, 23 May: Tarkakhor Monastery in Humla, which, for the last four months, was at sorrow over the robbery of a priceless Buddha idol, is now all set for the celebration, Ankit Adhikari writes in The Kathmandu Post.. After Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of the Nepal Police confiscated the looted idol from Boudha last Sunday, the heritage recognised by the Department of Archaeology will be returning home soon. Along with the idol that was looted from the monastery on October 1 2011, CIB also arrested racketeers involved in various crimes in the region, including the robbery of the statue. The 33-cm long bronze idol, which weighs 2.5 kg, was kept at Kohalpur of Nepalgunj and Surkhet district before peddling into Kathmandu, said CIB investigator DSP Prabin Pokhrel. After the confiscation of the idol from a rented room of one Karma Tamang in Bouddha, police have arrested altogether eight people, including kingpin Narendra Lama aka Kalu, 38, from various parts of the Capital. Other arrestees include Kamal Lama aka Maila, 41, of Dolakha, Lok Bahadur Aidi, 30, of Humla, Shankar Shahi, 26, of Banke, Pratap Rokaya, 24, of Humla, Dhan Bahadur Baral aka Bipin, 29, of Dailekh and Kamal Rana, 26, of Salyan. According to police, Kalu heads a dacoit gang called “Karnali Tigers” in the Karnali region of western Nepal. Among the arrestees, Pratap and Kamal are said to be ex-Maoist combatants. Three others including Rangkamal Rokaya, Bijaya Budha Chhetri and Raju Tamang, who are all involved in the robbery, are still at large. In the meantime, police also busted another criminal racket that had some tussles with Karnali Tigers. Five members of the other group are said to have stolen the idol from Karma’s rented room a couple of days ago. However, following a deal on shares of money after the idol’s sale between the two groups, idol was returned to Karma and his friends. Lokendra Shahi, 25, Shankar Sharma aka Kingkat, 26, of Jumla, Nirman Budha aka Ravi, 36, of Rukum and Kumar Lama, 29, of Makawanpur, of the other gang were arrested. Shankar and Nirman are also the ex-Maoist combatants. Kalu, the mastermind behind the robbery, has past crime records as well. Under the banner of Karnali Tigers, he was accused of looting 25 kilos of yarchagumba from a local businessman in August 2009. The gang known in the Karnali region for robbery, according to police, may have connections with animal poaching from Bardiya National Park. “The group consists of some 25 youths from the Karnali region,” said DSP Pokhrel, adding that police suspect the group may also possess small arms back in Karnali. On the day of robbery, the group of a dozen looters barged into the monastery with khukuris and local weapons and took away the idol. “They were about to trade the idol very soon,” said DSP Pokhrel, adding that there had been delay in the sale following some disputes within the group about division of money. Nnnn