WIDOW WITH TWO SONS FOUND DEAD ALONG RIVER IN DOLAKHA Kathmandu, 26June: A widow along with two sons aged seven and three years were found dead Monday along Gopi khola in Namdu, Dolakha. Police are investing whether they were murdered. nnnn CAPITAL’S ROADS MUDDY WITH ONSET OF MONSOON Kathmandu, 26 June: Capital’s temperature on a cloudy morning Tuesday was 23 degrees Celsius. The monsoon has begun with the capital recording rain daily forth the last several days. The streets are muddy as government and municipal authorities try to complete restore expanded muddy roads as the annual monsoon as set in. nnnn ELECTION COST RS.10B Kathmandu, 26 June: The Election Commission (EC), which recently asked the government to amend the law and postpone the election date in order to make it more convenient to hold the fresh constituent assembly (CA) polls, has sought Rs 10 billion for the purpose. “We have received the EC´s demand for Rs 10 billion for holding the fresh CA elections,” confirmed Rajan Khanal, spokesperson at the Ministry of Finance (MoF). Though he did not elaborate, sources said the EC has estimated its requirements based on the assumption that the fresh election will be no different from the previous one in terms of logistics and other arrangements. Top MoF officials said that the EC demand has meant severe pressure on the ministry to arrange the additional funds. The National Planning Commission (NPC) that capped the size of the budget for 2012/13 at Rs 429.60 billion after calculating all the fund sources had not included the cost of elections. The ceiling was set after calculating the optimum amount of funds that the government could realistically mobilize in the new fiscal year from different sources including revenue, foreign loans and grants and domestic borrowing. “Despite the ceiling, funding demands from different ministries had totaled well over Rs 500 billion. After a series of tough negotiations, we had barely managed to bring the demands of a majority of ministries within the ceiling. Now the EC´s demand has compelled us to negotiate further cuts,” said a source. Officials from other ministries, aware of MoF´s quandry, have exerted pressure on it to increase the size of the budget over what the NPC has recommended, so that late-finalized programs could be continued. But MoF officials ruled out such a possibility. “We simply have no strong enough sources for that,” said the official. In order to manage the funds, MoF is preparing to knock on donor doors and explore yet again the possibilities of additional pledges. “We will approach them as soon as the political leadership has a clear picture how to go about it,” said the source. However, sources said even if the donors respond generously MoF would still need to arrange a few billion rupees from local sources, meaning it would further cut allocations for development projects. “It will be a tough task,” said the source. “We cannot lower allocations for national pride projects such as the fast-track and mid-hills highways and the Sikta irrigation project. This will in effective force us to say no to new projects,” he added. MoF was already struggling to manage adequate funds, mainly as it also needed to allocate a compulsory budget of around Rs 3.50 billion to settle the (second tranche) payment for rehabilitated UCPN (Maoist) combatants. Nnnn ________________________________________ 24 UML DISTRICT CHIEFS ASK DISSIDENTS TO TOE PARTY LINE Kathmandu, 26 June: Twenty-four district chiefs of CPN-UML on Monday warned the party´s dissident groups that any other course of action will have direct consequences for the party, people, country as well as themselves, Republica reports. They have jointly urged the party´s dissident groups to struggle to get their demands fulfilled from within the party in accordance with party discipline and policies. "We urge the leaders from dissident groups not to go against the party´s rules and procedures and not to take any step against party interest," stated a joint statement issued by the 24 district chiefs. They said there is no need to take confrontational course against the leadership as the party´s central committee has already come up with the party´s official position on state restructuring and the issue of identity. They said further improvements can be made to the proposal endorsed by the central committee. The district chiefs from ethnic, indigenous and Madhesi communities had gathered in Kathmandu some three weeks ago after party vice-chairman Ashok Rai and some other influential leaders from Madhesi, ethnic and indigenous communities boycotted party meetings and other events to press their demand for ethnicity-based federalism. During their stay in Kathmandu for three weeks, they played a mediating role between the dissident group and the party´s top leadership. Those involved in the campaign are Sherdhan Rai from Bhojpur, Parbhat Gurung from Dolakha, Rajendra Rai from Dhankuta and Yagyaraj Sunuwar from Okhaldhunga among others. "Under our pressure, the party convened a national conclave of party representatives and sought their feedbacks on delineation and naming of provinces and the central committee, subsequently, has now come up with a clear model of federalism with a commitment to delineating and naming provinces based on multiple-ethnic identities," read the statement. The district chiefs also appreciated the party leadership for undergoing self-criticism for its failure to come up with party´s official position on state restructuring in time and its failure to seek feedbacks on federalism from party representatives from across the country. "Also, the party has formed a taskforce for the purpose of reviewing the party activities and its role right from the CA election [in 2008] to the CA dissolution," they said. nnnn ________________________________________