MAHENRA LAL SHRESTHA NEW NEA CHIEF Kathmandu, 5 June: Mahendra Lal Shrestha was appointed acting chief. of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) by its board Monday.. Shrestha is the chief of NEA in the last seven month. Government had earlier experimented with a process to appoint chief of public enterprises through open competition. nnnn AIRASIA TO BEGIN NEPAL FLIGHTS 21 JUNE Kathmandu, 5 June; AirAsia will being four weekly flights between Katmandu and Malaysia from 21 June. AirAsia is a Mlaysian budget airline. Until now, Nepal Airlines Corporation (RNA) enjoys a monopoly on the sector. Nnnn JUSTICE STILL ELUSIVE FOR VICTIMS OF MOIST MADI BOMB BLAST Madi bus blast victims yet to see justice Kathmandu, 5 June: The extended family of Nava Prasad Ghimire had gathered at their home in Gopalnagar, Kalyanpur-8 of Madi Valley in Chitwan district for the wedding of his youngest son on June 1, 2005. Little did Nava Prasad, now 70, know that it would be his last happy family gathering. Six members of the family, returning from the celebrations, died in a passenger bus ambushed by the Maoists at the Bandarmudhe river on June 6. His son Bishnu Prasad, daughter Ganga Devi Lamsal, her husband Dinesh, their daughters Deepa and Deepika and Nava Prasad´s sister-in-law Bishnu Kala Khatiwada were among the 38 blast dead as were three Nepal Army personnel in civil dress. Nava Prasad´s two younger brothers were among over 70 injured in the ambush that involved the use of an improvised explosive device. The Maoists have acknowledged that the incident was a smear on their insurgency. Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal himself expressed his grief in his first public press conference in Kathmandu. But the party has not gone to Madi to formally apologize to victims. Dahal, Vice-chairman Baburam Bhattarai and General Secretary Ram Bahadur Thapa met the victims in neighboring Fulbari VDC in October, 2006 and assured them of a relief package. "Dahal told us that his party was not like the Nepali Congress or CPN-UML, that made false promises, and he would announce such a grand package for the victims that envious neighbours would curse their luck for not having any victims in their own family," said blast survivor Krishna Prasad Adhikari, who was among 20-22 victims present at the meeting, Prem Dhakal writes in Republica.. "The meeting itself was conducted in a fearsome environment with all media persons and rights activists thrown out of the room, guns placed on the table and gun-totting Maoist combatants standing guard," Adhikari recalls. Dahal became prime minister following the CA elections and Baburam Bhattarai is prime minister now, but the promised ´envy-inducing grand package´ has yet to come. "Nothing can make up for the loss of family but action against those involved in the blast and a sincere apology from the leadership would alleviate our suffering," said Nava Prasad, who was invited to the meeting with Dahal at Fulbari but refused to meet the murderers of his family. Adhikari, 41, survived the blast as he had offered his seat in the bus to an elderly person and climbed onto the roof, but his life has changed for the worse. He was injured in both legs and back, two ribs were broken and he started to walk again without crutches only in October, 2010 following surgery thanks to help from senior journalist Yubaraj Ghimire. He had to sell land and borrow to pay for his treatment. The erstwhile farmer now hires others to till his land and depends on charity to educate his children. "The government has provided around Rs 300,000 for each victim killed but has not given a penny for the wounded apart from primary treatment immediately after the indicent," Adhikari claimed. Justice also has eluded the victims. In a cabinet decision on June 12, 2006, the government withdrew over 300 cases filed under the Terrorism and Destructive Activities (Control and Prevention) Ordinance (TADO), and the government attorney in Chitwan last June withdrew the case filed by Chitwan police. "The victims would move the apex court against the decision to dismiss a case of such gravity in a bundle with over 300 others, without due consideration," said advocate Satish Mainali, who is close to the case. "We did not file a petition earlier because the apex court had been reserving such insurgency-era cases for a proposed Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). We will soon move the courts now that parliament has been dissolved and no TRC is forthcoming," Mainali added. He said the victims could go to international courts if the Supreme Court doesn´t provide justice. The victims claim that many Maoists involved in the blast including Anak Magar, Ram Bahadur Kumal and Chandika Paudel are in high-level party posts despite Maoists´ claims that action would be taken against them. "The three were not involved in the case but rather had opposed ambushing the bus. One combatant carried out the attack despite reservations by comrades and he has been expelled by the party following an internal inquiry," said UCPN (Maoist) Central Member Bikesh Shrestha, who handled party matters in Chitwan at the time of the incident. Nnnn ________________________________________ RIFT IN MPRF (D) AT BOILING POINT Kathmandu, 5 June 5: The internal rift in the ruling Madhesi People´s Rights Forum-Democratic (MPRF-D) led by Deputy Prime Minister Bijaya Kumar Gachchhadar has reached a climax with its senior leader Sharat Singh Bhandari coming down heavily against Gachchhadar on Monday, Gani Ansari writes in Republica. Party insiders told Republica that the conflict in the party is heading to a ´point of no return´ and Bhandari is likely to form a new party. But its unclear how many central committee members support Bhandari. Bhandari, in a tit for tat move, published a notice in major Nepali newspapers addressed to party Chairman Gachchhadar, instead of sending it to the party, clarifying why he breached the party line to oppose the declaration of the election of the Constituent Assembly and joined hands with other non-ruling parties against the government. Gachchhadar and Bhandari were close confidantes when they were in the Nepali Congress party until they joined the Madhesi People´s Rights Forum (MPRF) in 2008. They were also together when the MPRF split in 2009. But their relation started to cool after Bhandari was forced to resign from the post of Ministry for Defense early this year over his controversial remarks relating to territorial intigrity of the country. Also, Bhandari Monday moved the Supreme Court against Gachchhadar asking the court to bar Gachchhadar from expeling him from the party. He argued Gachchhadar can´t expel him under the existing party statute. Bhandari´s move came after the party´s disciplinary committee sought clarification from him by publishing a notice in newspapers on Friday, accusing him of breaching party´s official line and of being involved in activities against the party´s stated policies. "We are in wait and watch mood. Our future steps will depend on the kind of decision the party´s central committee will take on Tuesday," said leader Pramod Gupta, who is close to Bhandari. In the notice published in the major dailies Bhandari challenged the disciplinary committee to furnish proof, if any, of him breaching the party´s discipline. Bhandari also termed the allegations as "baseless, hypothetical and biased" with an intent to take action against him at any cost. Bhandari has stated that he participated in the ´Madhes Awareness Campaign´ as there was no initiative to begin the process of recruiting Madhesi youths in the Nepal Army. He argued that joining the campaign was in the line with a decision taken by the parliamentary party of MPRF-D on March 2 that the party would take stern step if the major agenda of Madhes were not addressed by April 12. Bhandari has also challenged the party leadership to prove he formed parallel body in any district and has accused MPRF-D Chairman Bijay Kumar Gachchhadar of violating the party statute and code of conduct. Saying that he has not formed alliance with any anti-federalist party, Bhandari said he just protested against the prime minister´s illegal step [to announce the November 22 election of the Constituent Assembly]. Bhandari has accused Gachchhadar of making the MPRF-D a private company and of taking unilateral decision against the spirit of collective leadership. "Mr. Chairman, Madhesi peoples have not forgotten your consent on 11-province model by betraying Madhesis. Should there be disciplinary action against you for such betraya and suicidal consents?" reads the clarification letter addressed to Gachchhadar. Bhandari has questioned on the ground of announcement of new CA election and said it was unilateral decision to agree to dissolution of the CA. nnnn ________________________________________ CONTROVERSY BREAKS OVER VISIT OF NORWEGIAN MINISTER Kathmandu, 5 June: Giving little regard to dos and don’ts of diplomatic etiquette, The Royal Norwegian Embassy in Kathmandu has announced, unilaterally, that its Minister for International Development Heikki Holmås ‘is on an official visit’ to Nepal, Lekhnath Pandey writes in The Himalayan Times.. Nepal as the host country, however, had not consented to Holmås’ visit. For visits by foreign dignitaries to become official, the governments of both — the host and guest — countries have to have proper prior communication. In Holmås’ case, there had been no official communication between the governments of Nepal and Norway to treat the visit as an official visit, maintain foreign ministry officials. “This is not a formal visit; the Norwegian minister has arrived in his personal capacity,” said Niranjan Man Singh Basnyat, Chief of Protocol at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Royal Norwegian Embassy in Kathmandu, however, has termed Holmås’ visit an official one and sent invitations to media for a press conference slated for tomorrow afternoon at Dwarika’s Hotel. “Mr Holmås is on a two-day official visit to Nepal, arriving on Monday (June) 4th and departing on Tuesday 5th of June,” reads the invitation letter. A highly placed official at MoFA told THT that the Norwegian side had asked to give the visit the official status. “But the government responded unenthusiastically and even conveyed to the embassy that this was not the ‘right time’ to receive high-profile dignitaries given the fluid political situation and that the visit could be a distraction at this point of time,” said the official. “Nevertheless, the Norwegian side, claiming that Mr Holmås was visiting Indonesia as well, insisted that his visit be ensured,” he added. “We okayed the visit but had said in clear terms that it will not be given official status.” Another MoFA official informed that no protocol officer has been assigned for whatever parleys Holmås will hold with Nepali stakeholders. In diplomacy, assigning a protocol officer during talks gives the official touch to visit. But what is rather more interesting is politicians of Nepal, including the prime minister, did not give two hoots about the diplomatic decorum the MoFA mandarins are talking about. Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai was very much available for Minister Holmås, who later called on Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Nepali Congress President Sushil Koirala and UML Chairman Jhala Nath Khanal. During the talks, Holmås is learnt to have asked how the Constituent Assembly was dissolved without promulgating the constitution. When asked, Kamala Bista, a representative of the Norwegian mission, admitted that the visit was not official but was quick to maintain that ‘the Norwegian side, however, viewed it as an official one’. Be that as it may, MoFA officials are asking: What does that mean? Nnnn ORDINANCE MUST FOR NATIONAL ID PROGRAMME Kathmandu, 5 June:: After almost a year of wrangling with the Ministry of Law and Justice over approval of the draft bill of National Identity (NID) Card, the National Identity Management Centre (NIDMC) has finally sent a proposal to the Cabinet for the NID Act, The Himalayan Times reports. The multimillion-dollar NID project aims to provide multipurpose biometric machine readable cards to all citizens in place of handwritten citizenship cards. According to a joint secretary at the Office of Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers, the government has to introduce an NID Act through an ordinance in the absence of the Parliament. NIDMC is confident that governments will bring an ordinance on NID Card as the project is on the government’s priority list. Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai himself had approved the NID draft bill on behalf of Minister for Law and Justice to further the process. According to NIDMC Executive Director Narendra Dahal, all other preparations for the issuance of NID cards are on the right track. The Canadian smart card consultant, hired with the assistance of the Asian Development Bank, has already submitted a detailed project report for the identity card project. The report recommends polycarbonated cards for the NID and suggests improving the quality of finger prints that the Election Commission has collected, noting that the prints are of low quality and do not meet the standard for biometric ID cards. An NID card is estimated to cost six to eight dollars. “After the detailed project report, the consultant is preparing bid documents for the project,” Dahal said. He anticipated that this process will take a long time to complete. Former Minister for Law and Justice Brijesh Kumar Gupta’s objection to the NID draft bill had also delayed the project. Gupta had repeatedly rejected the idea of the NID bill saying that a political consensus is a must to take the bill forward. The government had planned to issue 400,000 NID cards on the first lot within this fiscal. However, NIDMC plans to issue NID cards as part of a pilot project. Two years ago, the Cabinet had agreed to issue biometric machine readable cards to all citizens in a bid to replace handwritten citizenship certificates. However, Madhes-based regional parties have been objecting to the idea of NID card, demanding that issues of citizenship in the Tarai be sorted out first. nnnn