US ENVOY PAYS FAREWELL CALL ON PRACHANDA Kathmandu, 17 May: Outgoing US Ambassador Scott H. DeLisi paid a farewell call on Maoist Prachanda Thiursday. DeLisi, who has been appointed ambassador to Uganda ,appreciated the Maoist chairman’s role in ending a politicaldeaddlick, Maoist chief’s aide said. nnnn DOZER OPERATOR KILLED Kathmandu, 17 May: A dozer operator died after the equipment was buried by falling mound in course of road construction at Chaile here on Wednesday, RSS reports Myagdi.. He has been identified as Rohit Majhi, 28, of Bansbari, Sindhupalchowk district, the District Police Office, Myagdi stated. The incident took place during the construction works of the Kagbeni-Lomanthang road. A mound of mud fell onto the dozer and buried it, according to construction workers. nnnn LOANS, GRANTS FOR PEs PLANNED Kathmandu, 17 May: Finance Ministry will introduce a special provision regarding loans and subsidies to public enterprises (PE) as it has faced a lot of problem due to PEs seeking loans and grants, though there has not been any amount earmarked for them, The Himalayan Times reports. in the fiscal policy. The ministry has been facing problems to manage fund for public enterprises since the government does not allocate a budget for those entities, said spokesperson at the finance ministry Rajan Khanal. “Also the release of huge amounts as loans or grants has been hitting development projects as it means a reduction of the budget for development work.” The government has to spend at least Rs 360 million every year on a few public entities just to distribute salaries to their employees and in other administrative costs, according to the Finance Ministry. Besides, loans to Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) and other public enterprises which have been incurring losses has emerged as a key issue. The government provided a loan of Rs 10 billion to NOC alone, he said, adding that one third, out of the total amount, was directly released by the government and the rest was provided after the Finance Ministry provided a guarantee to the lenders. Similarly, the government has to bear Rs 20 million in administrative costs of Janakpur Cigarette Factory and Rs 4 million for Nepal Drugs every month, according to Finance Ministry. Nepal Orind Magnesite and Nepal Metal Company are also completely dependent on the government for their administrative expenses. Most of the loss-bearing public entities have been regularly approaching the Finance Ministry for grants or loans. “So, the government should allocate some fund in the budget.” The ministry is planning to introduce some clear conditions which will be applied to all public entities when they approach the ministry for a loan. “Not all PEs will be eligible to ask for loans from the Finance Ministry,” said Khanal, adding that there has to be a convincing reason to avail a loan or grant. nnnn 1,500 ROPANIS PASHUPATINATH LAND LOST Kathmandu, 17 May: Authorities have lost track of around 1,500 ropani land belonging to the Pashupatinath Temple, Bishnu Prasad Aryal writes in The Himalayan Times. The Pashupati Guthi has a total of 4,673.5 ropani land under its ownership, while the Pashupati Development Area Trust has 261 hectares land, on paper. “We are investigating the land belonging to the guthi,” said Govind Acharya, administrator at the guthi. “A total of 6,500 tenants working and living on the land owned by the guthi have to pay Rs 5.6 million annually. However, we are yet to ascertain the exact size of the land due to lack of records,” he said. “We are going to update it as per the laws.” The parliamentary Public Accounts Committee says there are records that about 300 of the 4,673.5 ropani land belonging to the guthi is lost. It has directed the Pashupati Area Development Trust to take steps to reclaim its property. Sushil Nahata, member-secretary of the trust, said authorities have lost track of about 1,200 to 1,500 ropani land belonging to the trust, despite possessing legal documents. “We have started expediting the search for land owned by the temple. We have found about 150 ropani land in Kathmandu Valley that belongs to the temple,” he said. The trust said that a seven-member probe committee headed by Secretary Sulochan Dangol has been looking into the case. “We are hopeful we will recover about half of the 1,500 ropani land after investigation,”said Nahata. “The land belonging to the heritage site is being misused by land mafia,” he claimed. There is no record of hundreds of ropani land belonging to Pashupatinath. “This issue is under the ambit of Guthi Sansthan,” said Acharya. “They are still in the dark with regard to the land donated by devotees. We are only looking into the land related to the guthi.” Land belonging to the temple, managed by Guthi Sansthan, has been transferred in the name of tenants, after a law was formulated about three decades ago. The pagoda-style temple, believed to be more than 2,000 years old, has been enlisted under the UNESCO World Heritage Site. The temple owns land in different districts including Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur. Three dozen court cases About three dozens cases related to Pashupatinath temple are pending in various courts of the country. About 30 cases are related to disputes over land and five others are concerned with controversy over rules and regulations. The cases are being heard at the Supreme Court, Appellate Courts and the District Courts, said Pashupati Area Development Trust. nnnn DHALKEBAR. MAZAFFARPUR TRANSMISSION LINE COMING UP Kathmandu, 17 May: The much delayed 400 kV transmission line project linking Dhalkebar in Nepal with Muzaffarpur in India is expected to move forward with the entry of Power Grid Corporation (PGC), India as a major shareholder in Power Transmission Company Nepal (PTCN), Ashok Thapa writes in The Kathmandu Post.. PTCN has been formed to construct a 40-km long transmission line on the Nepali side. Another company Cross Border Power Transmission Company (CPTC) has been formed to build a 100-km long transmission line on the India side. The entry of PGC has raised hopes that construction will start soon as the existing shareholders have not been able to put together the money required to build the power line. Initially, the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) and Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Limited (IL&FS) of India held a 50-50 stake in PTCN. The entry of PGC became possible after IL&FS sold most of its shares to the NEA and PGC. As per the new share structure, the NEA will have a 64 percent stake in CPTC while PGC will hold 26 percent and IL&FS 10 percent. “The NEA came to an understanding with the two shareholders a week ago with regard to the new share structure in the construction of the transmission line in Nepal,” said Ganesh Prashad Raj, general manager of the NEA’s Grid Development Department. “Lack of funds with the existing shareholders delayed construction of the transmission line.” He said that with the newly set up share structure, it would be easy to accelerate the construction works of the 40-km transmission line in Nepal. The estimated total cost of the 40-km long Nepali portion of the project is Rs 2.263 billion while the Indian portion will cost Rs 2.352 billion. The Indian government has provided Nepal a soft loan of Rs 13.2 million to build its portion of the power line. Though the project was initiated in 2006, no physical work has taken place so far. In November 2009, the NEA and Power Trading Corporation (PTC) signed a memorandum of understanding to construct a cross-border transmission line by forming two companies to conduct the project in the respective countries. Officials said that the NEA could finance the project as the World Bank and the Indian government had pledged soft loans to Nepal to implement the project on the Nepali side. The World Bank agreed to provide a loan package of US$ 99 million for design, supply, installation and commissioning of the Hetauda-Dhalkebar-Inaruwa 400 kV transmission line. Pushpa Raj Khadka, director of the NEA, said that the authority had submitted letters to both the investors to sign a shareholder agreement to construct the transmission line on the Nepali side. “Once the formal agreement is inked, construction of the 40 km lines in Nepali will start promptly,” he said. He also said that there has been much delay in the construction of the transmission line as the project being a joint venture needs to have mutual understanding in every single step. Besides, the lack of fund also had played major role in the delay. “As the project is based on mutual understanding and collaboration with the Indian government, the NEA alone can’t make decisions resulting in the project being delayed,” he said. Khadka added that there had been no work on the Indian side too. nnnn : MAOISTS MOVING TOWARDS POSSIBLE SPLIT Kathmandu, 17 May: Condemning Tuesday’s agreement struck by major political parties on contentious issues of the new constitution, the hardline faction of the Maoist party led by Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya is planning to organise protest programmes until May 27 and split the party after that, The Kathmandu Post reports. The faction has decided to organise different protest programmes across the country from May 23 to 27. According to leaders, they will protest in the streets and in the parliament until May 27, garner people’s support and formally split the party after the promulgation of the new constitution. The hardline faction said the new constitution will not meet the aspirations of the workers, dalits, peasants and other oppressed and marginalised communities. According to a leader, the Baidya group will protest in a meeting of the Constitutional Committee and in the Constituent Assembly (CA) the agreement forged by the major parties. According to a top leader, the faction will ignore the party’s directions during voting in the CA. The faction is holding consultations with various ethnic groups and communities to garner support. Of the 237 Maoist lawmakers in the CA, 75 are from the Baidya camp. nnnn FOCUS ON POWER DIVISION BETWEEN PRESIDENT, PM Kathmandu, 17 May: A day after the major political forces reached an understanding on resolving the thorny disputes in constitution writing, key leaders have focused their discussions on the issue of power sharing between the president and the prime minister and on clearly defining their jurisdictions under the new constitution, Tirtha L. Bhusal writes in Republica. A meeting of the dispute resolution subcommittee under the CA´s Constitutional Committee (CC) on Wednesday took stock of the power sharing issue after a taskforce cursorily reworked the list of 117 contentious points and presented a report to the subcommittee meeting, in line with a political agreement reached among top leaders. According to the leaders closely involved in the negotiations, leaders from across the parties have agreed to leave more or less intact the separate lists of powers described as the exclusive powers of the president and those of the prime minister, as earlier defined by the taskforce formed under the subcommittee. They said they are mulling over reducing the concurrent list of around 13 functions that were earlier envisioned to be carried out in consultation and coordination between president and prime minister. "Discussions are underway on how to further spell out the functions in the concurrent list so as to avoid conflict between the head of state and head of government," said UCPN (Maoist) leader Barshaman Pun, emerging from the meeting. The leaders decided not to keep the concurrent list long, as the greater the gray areas in the constitution the greater will be the chances of friction between the two power centers. The taskforce had earlier prepared a list of nine functions to be exercised exclusively by the president, a list of eight functions exclusively for the prime minister and a list of 13 functions in the concurrent list. Leaders on Wednesday agreed to transfer the power to form and head the cabinet from the concurrent list to the prime minister. Sources said, while trying to whittle down the concurrent list, the UCPN (Maoist) was for giving more powers to the president while the NC and CPN-UML were for giving these powers to the prime minister. They said the Maoists wanted the powers concerning defense and foreign affairs for the president. The concurrent list includes powers such as declaration of a state of emergency, issues related to international treaties and border security, mobilization of the army and dissolution of the federal government. The exclusive powers of the president include appointing a prime minister who secures a majority in parliament and appointing ambassadors. The exclusive powers of the prime minister include maintaining the rule of law, formulating policies and development programs, implementing and monitoring them, and running the public administration. The leaders, however, are one on accepting parliament as the mechanism for monitoring and controlling the powers of the president and those of the cabinet of ministers headed by the prime minister. "We discussed extensively the powers of president and prime minister and agreed in principle that parliament will be the body for controlling and monitoring the powers of president and prime minister," NC lawmaker Ramesh Lekhak, a taskforce member, told Republica. "We have also agreed that the prime minister will form the cabinet and head it." Leaders said they have agreed to limit the president to two terms. Though the parties have agreed to election of the president directly by the public, they are yet to decide how to elect the vice-president. Nnnn ________________________________________ 50 PERCENT CANCELLATION IN NEPAL-TIBET TOUR PACKAGE Kathmandu, 17 May: Tour operators selling packages of Kailash-Mansarovar and trekking packages of that region say as much as 50 percent bookings have been cancelled after the Chinese government imposed new provision for issuing permits to Tibet without prior notice, Republica reports. A recently published notice on Tibet Travel Permit (TTP) states in order to get TTP, a minimum group size should be five and they should be of same nationality. There are also restrictions on age limit which bars people above 65 to get the permit. And TPP must be obtained before applying for Chinese visa. An official of Association of Kailash Tour Operators of Nepal (AKTON) said the new Chinese decision which came with the beginning of the season for Kailash-Mansarovar tour, had caused the cancellation of around 50 percent. “More than 30 percent of the booking consist the group with less than five members and other 20 percent consist people above 65 years leaving our guests with no option than to cancel the booking,” the tour operator said. The cancellation of the packages not only cut down profits of tour operators but has also hit the tourism industry as the tourists coming under such package spend at least 4-5 days. According to operators, more than 100,000 tourists go to Tibet via Nepal. Most of the tourists traveling under 15-days Kailash-Mansarovar package are Indian pilgrims mostly above the age of 65. The package cost ranges from Rs 136,000 to Rs 240,000 depending on the mode of transportation. Mohan Lamsal of Makalu Adventure who is predicting the cancellation to cross 70 percent said, “Had we received the notice in advance we wouldn´t have taken the booking," Lamsal who is also general secretary of Trekking Agencies´ Association of Nepal (TAAN) said along with the tour packages the attraction of tourist was increasing in trekking package to Everest Advance Base Camp Trek from Tibet side. “More than 95 percent of such packages are sold by Nepali operators and such last minute notice is likely to ruin our impression leaving bad impact in tourism for future as well,” added he. Meanwhile, officials of AKTON, TAAN, Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents (NATA), Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), Nepal held meeting on Monday to discuss on the issue. Tourism entrepreneurs have also sought help from Nepal Tourism Board and Nepal-China Chamber of Commerce and Industry to help resolve the issue. Nnnn ________________________________________