HUMAN SETTLEMENTS BEING REMOVED FROM KOSHI TAPPU Kathmandu, 22 June: Owing to increasing encroachment, authority at the Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve is set to remove the human settlements within the Reserve’s premise, The Rising Nepal reports from Inaruwa.. The Reserve administration informed all that it had issued notice to immediately stop all kind of construction and cultivation works inside the Reserve. All the huts, cattle-sheds and cultivations within the Reserve area would be removed soon, said the administration. Conservation officer Ashok Ram said that the Reserve would forcefully remove all the infrastructures and cultivations if the encroachers defy the orders. "The Reserve has decided to take action against the encroachers after they were found illegally occupying the lands from Badgama to Kamalpur, Saptari and the public lands on the western and southern areas of the Reserve," he said. The Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve has long been facing land encroachment from the people who usually set of huts especially for the purpose of raising their cattle. Some encroachers have even been found to illegally cultivating the lands within the Reserve’s premise. Ram said that the Reserve had no choice but to take actions against the encroachers as they were responsible for destroying lands and were potential threats to the floras and faunas found in the Reserve. With the implementation of Forest Encroachment Control Policy 2058 to discourage forest encroachment activities, the Reserve has time and again taken steps towards containing encroachment in the past. "Land encroachers have repeatedly denied the government’s notices to clear public lands in the past," said conservation officer Ram adding that the Reserve remained defiant to remove them at any cost this time. nnnn FEARS RIVAL MAOIST MAY CLASH Kathmandu, 22 June: Yhe Mohan Baidya-led hard-line faction announced separation from the UCPN (Maoist), the party cadres, who hitherto remained under one roof, are also preparing to part ways. This means finding a new office space, Ghanashyam Khadka write sin The Kathmandu Post from.Myagdi To rule by common sense, the establishment party stays put and the breakaway faction, Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist, moves out. However, a strange struggle has ensued over the tenancy of the Myagdi district office of the UCPN (Maoist). The office building at Birendrachowk in Beni is occupied by cadres of the breakaway faction, while the establishment side has been running party works from an apartment originally reserved to house party activists. The newly formed party is eager to leave the Beni office building and set up a new space elsewhere. The establishment side, however, is not so keen on the idea. It wants the breakaway faction to retain the office building. “Since we’ve parted ways, here is no point in running the office that actually belongs to the UCPN (Maoist). We’ll open our own party office,” said Lalu Kishan, secretary of the CPN-Maoist. Devraj Subedi of the UCPN (Maoist), meanwhile, argues they have no rights whatsoever over the Beni office saying they have been functioning from a separate office for the past seven months or so. “After our faction was marginalised in the district, we left the old office. We have no claim to it now,” he said. A source, meanwhile, claimed there is a different reason why the two sides are not so keen on engaging in a tug-of-war over the Beni office, and instead thrusting occupancy rights to each other. It is learnt that the district office of the UCPN (Maoist) at Beni has a longstanding debt of over Rs 8 million and after the recent break-up, the two sides are trying to get rid of the office building as well as the debt. Some of the UCPN (Maoist) members have been going about asking why they should pay up the debt incurred by the Baidya faction activists. The Baidya camp, on the other hand, has been claiming that the debt was incurred while building the party organisation, and that the establishment side is liable for the arrears. Nnnn EXTORTION DRIVE ON INCREASE IN TERAI Kathmandu, 22 June:Despite police authorities’ claim that underground outfits have been weakened in the Tarai districts, extortion drive is on the rise in Birgunj, Parsa, lately, Bhusan Yadav reports in The Kathmandu Ppost from Birgunj.. Various professionals, including industrialists and businessmen, are a terrified lot due to constant threats by various underground outfits operative in the district. Local businessmen complained that criminal activities are on the rise after Superintendent of Police Ramesh Kharel was transferred out of the district. “Businessmen are being threatened over telephone in the name of underground outfits for the past one month,” said an official at the Parsa Chamber of Commerce and Industries. He said local entrepreneurs have found it hard to continue their business activities due to the extortion drive. The VDC Secretaries’ Rights Protection Forum in the district said VDC secretaries have been victimised the most by the extortion drive. Educational institutions are also targeted by underground outfits. Police said Delhi Public School informed the District Police Office of threats last week. Meanwhile, police arrested Shashi Gupta on the charge of threatening Rajesh Shreevastav, proprietor of Bolbam Petrol Pump at Bypass Road, to cough up Rs 1 million. Gupta is an employee at the petrol pump. “We were regularly rung up for a week. All our family members were terrified,” said Shreevastav. Superintendent of Police Pitambar Adhikari said they are investigating call details between Shreevastav and the criminal. Police have arrested seven people on the charge of carrying out extortion drive in the past one month in the district. nnnn