MOHAN BAIDHAYA GROUP HOLDING NEWS CONFERENCE TUESDAY Kathmandu, 19 June: Mohan Baidhaya, leader of CPN (Maoist) Launched Monday evening after splitting of UCPN Maoist) of Chairman Prachanda and Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, will announce details of its plans and programmes at a news conference Tuesday. The conference is being held at the National Academdy building shortly after noon. The split has come after the announcement of elections for constituent assembly (CA) by government 22 November. Another ruling party MJFL of Deputy Prime Minister Bijaya Kumar Gachedhar also split before the vote with number games topple government of hold on to Singha Durbar now irrelevant with the automatic dissolution of parliament. Nnnn GROUP OF 22 APF POLICEMEN REPORT SICK Kathmandu, 19 June” Twenty-two Armed Police Force (APF) police fell such Sunday after dinner with symptoms of diarrhea. The group fell sick at Sanfebagar, Accham during the onset of monsoon. nnnn NC CENTRALCOMMITTEE MEETS TUESDAY Kathmandu, 19 June: Main opposition NC central committee meets Tuesday with request by establishment to senior leader and former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba to join the meet, Nabindra Raj Joshi said. Deuba has been boycotting meetings for nine months demanding adequate representation of party bodies. The invitation went to Deuba as his supporters were accommodated in three sister organizations of the party whichwilldiscuss Tuesday the current political crisis as well nnnn. GMR TO DEVELOP UPPER KARNALI AREA WITH RS. 1.44B INVESTMENT BEFORE CONSTRUCTION OF POWER PLANT Kathmandu, 19 June: GMR Group, the Indian developer of the Upper Karnali Project, will spend Rs 1.44 billion for the development of the project-affected area, the company disclosed at Daub, the project site in Dailekh district, Sunday, Khilendra Sejuwal writes in Republica from Sirkhet. A 30-bed hospital, a higher secondary school and a technical school will be constructed in the affected area. Assistance will be provided for infrastructure and for procuring medicines necessary for increasing access by locals from the affected area to health services. The company has also developed a five-tier criteria for priority in employment during the construction period. The company will give priority to people of badly-affected households, affected households, affected VDCs, affected districts and other Nepalis in descending order while providing jobs at the project. Assistant Manager at the company´s Surkhet Office Pradeep Nepal said the project´s environmental impact assessment report will be ready within two months and construction of the proposed facilities would start once the government approves the report. The company said that 46.85 hectares of private land has to be acquired for the project and 236 households will be affected. Fifty-five of the households will lose their homes while the others will lose their land. The project will affect people of Sattala, Sagoudi, Layata, Nepa, Naulekatwal and Khadkawada VDCs in Dailekh, Raniban, Bhairavsthan and Rahaf in Achham, and Pokharikanda, Salkot and Chhapre in Surkhet district. Nnnn ________________________________________ GOVT. DEMOTES NTV ACTIN ACTING GM Kathmandu, 19 June: The government has relieved Acting General Manager of Nepal Television Dipak Mani Dhital from his position over the coverage of the activities of agitating opposition parties by the state-owned channel, Republica reports. A cabinet meeting held at the official residence of Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, just before he flew to Brazil Monday afternoon, took a decision to this effect, according to Minister for Children, Women and Social Welfare Badri Neupane. The government had a few days ago sought clarification from Acting General Manager Dhital and Director Rajendra Dev Acharya about the live coverage of the protest rally organized by various 22 opposition parties on June 8 and the broadcast of news related to protests against the government´s move to bring ordinances without political consensus. Dhital and Acharya were even summoned by the prime minister to furnish clarifications. According to the source, Minister for Information and Communications Raj Kishor Yadav had initially objected to the decision to broadcast live the opposition rally but relented after the NTV management argued that the channel should exercise fairness given that it had earlier broadcast live an interaction of the ruling parties. Issuing a press statement, Federation of Nepalese Journalists, NTV Chapter, has denounced the cabinet´s decision. The chapter has also demanded that the government withdraw the decision to remove Dhital, arguing that any move to control independent and professional journalism erodes the credibility of state-owned channel. Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) also issued a separate statement urging the government to withdraw its decision. The statement sought to remind the government about FNJ´s stance that a democratic government should not run media. The government should create a conducive environment to run NTV in a free and fair manner without any external interferences, the statement said. Nnnn SHARAT SINGH BHANDARI SAYS COLLECTIVE LEADERSHIP WILL RUN NEW PARTY Kathmandu, 19 June: Sharat Singh Bhandari, who is all set to launch a new Madhesi party, said today his to-be-announced party would adopt statutory provisions to ensures collective leadership in true sense, mandatory retirement for party chief, probably after two terms, and inclusion of all communities of Madhes, including minority groups, The Himalayan Times reports. He said 1,000-12,000 local level supporters of the party from 26 Madhes and inner-Madhes districts would attend a gathering scheduled for June 27 where they would declare the name of the party and finalise a new flag. Bhandari was recently expelled from Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum-Democratic on charges of acting against party interests. He and his supporters have sought suggestions for the name of the party through facebook. Interacting with a group of journalists here today, Bhandari said declaration of his party would be different from others. “We believe in bottom-up approach. Our lower level cadres will have a decisive role in launching our party,” said Bhandari. Induction of youth, he said, would be the focus of his party. “Those who rely on known faces might be a loser because we have seen known faces moving from one party to another,” he said. Bhandari said the issue of Madhesi inclusion would remain unresolved unless representation of all communities of Madhes, particularly the minority groups, was resolved. He said his party would remain committed to identity-based federalism. “Federalism alone can ensure rights of all the marginalised communities. Resentment breeds revolt. We need to root out all kinds of disparities,” said Bhandari in response to a query. The Madhesi leader was of the view that the country’s overall development could take place only through overall development of Madhes and green revolution. “Harmonious relations among pradeshes will be necessary, or else they will not last long,” he said. He accused leaders of the United Democratic Madhesi Front and MJF-D of compromising on Madhes issues for the greed of power and positions. “The UDMF had to leave the government and come to Madhesi people when the four-point agreement was not implemented within the set deadline. But UDMF leaders continued to remain in power,” Bhandari said. He said he was encouraged by the people supporting him across Madhes. Bhandari claimed that many leaders from Tarai districts of Saptari, Siraha, Dhanusha, Mahottari, Sarlahi, Rauthat, Nawalparasi, Rupandehi and Kapilvastu have deserted Gachhadar-led MJF-D. ‘Doesn’t make a difference’ Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum-Democratic leader Ram Janam Chaudhari said on Monday that those joining Sharat Singh Bhandari, who was expelled from MJF-D recently, were not committed cadres of his party and that their exit would not harm the mother party at all. Chaudhary added that the United Democratic Madhesi Front did everything to implement the four-point agreement that they had signed with the Unified CPN-Maoist before joining the government. “If something has remained unimplemented, it is because of legal hurdles,” said Chaudhary. “We had said we could quit government if the peace process was not completed by mid-April,” Chaudhari clarified. Nnnn STATE DRUG FIRM TO PRODUCE CAPSULES, ORS ITEMS Kathmandu, 19 June: If everything goes as planned, Nepal Ausadhi Limited (NAL), the state-owned drug company, will be able to produce capsule and oral rehydration solution (ORS) items by mid-December. The tender had been called to renovate the building on May 27 under the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and the selection process will be completed by June 25, informed general manager, Navin Kumar Jha. The company will renovate its old building as per the new layout proposed to the Department of Drug Administration (DDA) on April 1 for producing tablet, capsule and ORS items. As per the new layout, the organisation will upgrade its existing tablet building and will use 11,000 sq ft out of total 40,000 sq ft for establishing the construction. The renovation of the building will be completed by mid-November, Jha informed. The company, which produced 118 types of medicines in the past, had stopped producing medicines for the last two years citing financial constraints. DDA had issued an order for not producing any drugs items until and unless the company met the GMP. “Although we have planned to produce tablet, capsule and ORS items in the first phase, we may only be able to produce capsule and ORS due to the financial strain,” added the general manager. As soon as these products come in the market, we will gear up to produce other medicines under World Health Organisation’s GMP, added Jha. With the completion of the building, we will approach DDA for a licence renewal of some other products, said Jha adding that DDA is positive toward renewal of licences. DDA had stopped renewing licences for the last two years. The Finance Ministry had provided five crore rupees to NAL, of which 40 per cent will be spent on administrative and staff salary and rest for the renovation of the building. The finance ministry has assured to provide another five crore for purchasing raw materials, he said. The company needs about 53 crore rupees for its full-fledged operation, Jha said. The firm established in 1972 is run by a handful number of experts while a large number of lower lever administrative employees have no technical knowledge. nnnn