NC DISTRICT PRESIDENTS MEET 30 JULY IN BAHARABISHE Kathmandu, 16 July: NC rescheduled district presidents will meet in Baharabisge for two days from 30 July, the party district secretary Krishna Prasad Neupane said. Besides 75 dirict presidents, 80 central committee members are attending the meeting. Youth leader Gagan Thapa said the meeting will nominate its candidate for prime minister as the main opposition has been demanding resignation of Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai. Nnnn SHAUNE SHANGHKRANTI BEING OBSERVED MONDAY Kathmandu, 16 July: Shaune Shangkranti is being observed Monday. Farmers celebrate the day as the end of the paddy transplanting season. nnnn MOSQUITOES THAT SPREAD DENGUE FOUND IN VALLEY Kathmandu, 16 July: Kathmandu District Public Health Office (DPHO) has identified traces of mosquitoes within Kathmandu Valley, that carry the dreaded dengue disease, The Himalayan Times writes. . Ten thousand households in seven core areas of Kathmandu — Jadibuti, Bouddha, Kalanki, Old Buspark, Lagan, Gongabu Buspark and Shankamul areas — were inspected during a four-day campaign to search for the Aedes Aegypti type mosquito in Kathmandu. The office recorded some eggs, larvae and mosquitoes, DPHO chief Mahendra Prasad Shrestha said. This is the first ever campaign that has been launched to find whether the mosquito that carries the dengue virus exists in Kathmandu, that is, whether it is indigenous or referral from other places. “The densely populated capital is vulnerable to dengue and traces of mosquitoes causing the disease are found in congested areas,” said Shrestha. He also alerted people to protect themselves from mosquitoes. About 50 Female Community Health Volunteers (FCHVs) have been assigned to figure out the mosquito with assistance from entomologists from Hetuada based Vector borne disease Training and Research Centre, he informed. According to Geeta Acharya, vector control inspector at DPHO , the study was carried out after some dengue cases were recorded in Kathmandu. During the campaign, volunteers visited households to search and destroy the egg, larvae and mosquitoes that pose the dengue threat. These mosquitoes can cause trouble in cities and urban areas as they breed in water collected in artificial containers such as plastic cups, used tyres, broken bottles, flower pots and even drinking water tanks. They are also found near air coolers and refrigerators, informed the inspector. The threat posed by Aedes mosquitoes is much greater than other mosquitoes. Unlike regular mosquitoes that breed in filthy water, it grows even in clean water and bites during daytime, she said. “Primary investigation has found eggs and mosquito that could cause dengue in some places,” said Acharya, adding that they will publish the detailed report within 15 days. Some symptoms of the disease are high fever, severe headache and pain in the joints, muscles, behind the eyes, nausea, rash and vomiting. Dengue mortality rate is high and only ten per cent of dengue patients have dengue shock syndrome. Dengue was first discovered in 2004 in Chitwan district and the country recorded an outbreak in 2006 in nine districts. Epidemiology and Disease Control Division recorded five deaths due to dengue in 2010. Nnnn ________________________________________ SIX HOTELS INSIDE CHITWAN NATIONAL PARK SHUT DOWN MONDAY Kathmandu, 16 July: Six hotels inside the Chitwan National Park (CNP) including Tiger Tops is shutting down from Monday following the expiry of the lease agreement, Samiksha Koirala writes in Republica.. Despite continuous pressure from stakeholders, the government remained firm in its decision not to extend the deadline of mid-July, 2012. Ram Prasad Lamsal, spokesperson at Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation said, “The final deadline has expired and the agreement has not been renewed which means none of the hotels can continue their operation.” He said as per the exit plan, entrepreneurs will be able to relocate their property by mid-December, 2012. Six hotels which were operating inside the park includes more than four-decade old Tiger Tops along with Safari Narayani, Chitwan Jungle Lodge, Machan Wildlife Resort, Island Jungle Resort and Temple Tigers. Gaida Wildlife Camp shut down operation in 2009 following labor unrest. However, according to an official at MOCTCA tourism entrepreneurs had met Tourism Minister Post Bahadur Bogati on Sunday. “At the meeting Minister Bogati had promised the entrepreneurs to assist them to extend the agreement,” the official said that there was still a chance that MoCTCA could forward the proposal of extension to the Forest Ministry. However, Forest Ministry is determined not to renew the lease agreement in any case. Lamsal said, “ We will neither renew the agreement nor allow any new party to operate inside the CNP.” In 2009, similar deadline was extended by the government considering Nepal Tourism Year (NTY) 2011. The hotels which were shut for seven months had resumed the operation after that. General Manager of Tiger Tops Yadav Bantawa said, “Since we failed to renew the agreement we will be closing down the operation.” He said as it was monsoon, most of the resorts had few or no guests at all. “Those who have few guests will be relocating them to other hotels from Monday,” he added. The entrepreneurs claimed they had invested around Rs 2 billion in the six resorts and were paying Rs 200 million as royalty to the government. The resorts were charging as much as $350 per person, 10 times higher than the resorts outside the park. Conservationist had asked the government not to allow the operation of the hotels inside the CNP claiming it was degrading the natural habitat of wild animals as well as the environment. Nnnn ________________________________________ NOTARY CONCIL ASKED TO ALLOW LBMC TO CONTINUE TRANSLATIONS Kathmandu, 16 July: In view of the hassles faced by thousands of service seekers, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) and Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs have separately requested Notary Public Council to reconsider its previous decision to direct Law Books Management Committee (LBMC) to stop translation of official government documents, Republica reports. According to sources, the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs sent a letter to Attorney General Mukti Pradhan, who heads the Notary Public Council, three days ago demanding that the LBMC be allowed to continue with the translation of official government documents. Likewise, the MoFA on Sunday sent a separate letter to Attorney General, expressing reservation over the unilateral decision of the Notary Public Council to direct LBMC to stop translation works from July 10 without making credible arrangement to do the job. The MoFA has apprised the Attorney General of the problems of thousands of service seekers as documents translated by the Notaries are not recognized by diplomatic missions without MoFA´s authentication - something existing legal provisions do not allow. The ministry said thousands of service seekers face problems as its takes time to inform Kathmandu-based diplomatic missions, Nepal´s diplomatic missions abroad and various institutions about the new arrangement of notary public. The ministry, likewise, has said that it would not be an appropriate idea to direct the autonomous government body to stop translation works without making an arrangement of credible mechanism to take up the responsibility of translation works. Those aspiring to go abroad for further studies, work and other purposes need to submit translations of documents such as citizenship certificates, birth, marriage and death registrations if foreign diplomatic missions required. LBMC has been translating official government documents for the past 48 years and the foreign ministry authenticated them as per existing law. Talking to Republica, Attorney General Mukti Pradhan said the directive was made as per the provisions set in the Notary Public Act 2063 BS. He said that the government will make necessary arrangement to resume the stalled work and address the problem faced by service seekers. Nnnn ________________________________________ GOVT. FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE FOR NRB. RBB TO EXPAND CAPITAL BASE TO Kathmandu, 16 July: The government has decided to step in and pump funds to help with the restructuring of two state-owned commercial banks, The Himalayan Times reports. The cabinet meeting held today has approved financial assistance for the recapitalisation of Rastriya Banijya Bank (RBB) and Nepal Bank Ltd (NBL). It has approved the injection of Rs 4.32 billion to RBB. Likewise, it has given a green signal to the government for the purchase of rights shares worth Rs 1.37 billion of NBL’s upcoming rights issue. The budget of the current fiscal year had announced that banks and financial institutions in which the government was involved in would be restructured with necessary capitalisation. Both the commercial banks are in need of capital injection to make their net worth positive along with increasing their paid up capital to Rs two billion as directed by Nepal Rastra Bank. NBL has already started its recapitalisation plan and will issue rights shares to existing shareholders at 1:9.5 ratio. According to NBL's plan of increasing its paid up capital to Rs four billion, the bank has planned to raise funds worth Rs 3.62 billion by issuing rights shares to existing shareholders. The government is the largest stakeholder in the bank with 41 per cent ownership. The other public shareholders of the bank were positive about the rights issue. Moreover, the bank has decided to sell its assets and raise about Rs two billion and capitalise profits worth Rs one billion. NBL’s capital fund is negative by Rs 4.2 billion. RBB on the other hand was pursuing a merger with another state-owned financial institution –– NIDC Development Bank. The fully state owned bank’s reserve was negative by about Rs 9.8 billion as of the third quarter of this fiscal year. The bank was also planning to recover bad loans, sell non-banking assets and divest stakes in many profitable ventures such as Nepal Investment Bank thus generating about Rs four billion. But it still needed financial support from the government to get back on its feet. Both the banks went through almost a decade-long Financial Sector Restructuring Programme since 2002, which improved their performance but their core capital remained negative. A comprehensive audit of the banks in 1999, had discovered that the banks were on the verge of insolvency due to a large number of willful defaulters thus the need for the restructuring programme. There was fear that the failure of these two largest banks in the Nepali financial sector would bring about a systemic failure in the market. nnnn