NEPAL REPLACED BY BANGLADESH AS SOUTH ASIA’S LEADING SOCCER NATION Kathmandu, 5 July: Nepal has been replaced by Bangladesh as South Asia’s football nation in latest ranking by FIFA, the world’s soccer governing body. Nepal’s position slipped six places to 155 from 149. Bangladesh is ranked 151 by FIFA. World champion Span that just lifted the Euro Cup tops the world ranking. nnnn MAOIST CHIEF ATTEMPTS TO STRENGTHEN GRIP ON PARTY Kathmandu, 5 July: After the hard-line faction led by Mohan Baidya left to form a new party, UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who had long been positioning himself between Baidya and Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, is preparing to ensure his centrality in his party by preparing a document where he formally owns up the ongoing peace and constitution processes,Kamal Dev Bhattarai writes in The Kathmandu Post.. Dahal is currently busy preparing the political document by backing the line of peace and constitution originally championed in the party by Bhattarai. Leaders say the party's plenum that begins on July 16 will formally endorse the document and take the ownership of the peace and constitution processes. It will also try to justify that it is not a "revisionist agenda" as said by the newly-formed CPN-Maoist. Dahal's document, according to political commentator and former Maoist leader Mumaram Khanal, could be read as one of his strategic moves to consolidate his hold over the party. "Dahal now believes that he will gain more power by not mincing words in supporting the line of peace, which he hesitated earlier as he had to appease the hardliners." Dahal has also proposed centralising powers on the party chairman. He has hinted that the decision to adopt a collective leadership was a mistake and that led to the party to split. Following the 12-point understanding in 2005 with traditional parliamentary parties that led to the abolishment of the monarchy, the Maoist party saw a divergence of opinions. Baidya was for revising the 12-point understanding and the 2005 Chunwang meet decision to adopt competitive democracy, which Bhattarai firmly endorsed. Dahal, however, was treading the middle path to consolidate his power by appeasing both Bhattarai and Baidya. In his new document, Dahal states that the journey set by 12-point understanding is right and should be tagged along. “Dahal's political document says the party must take the leadership and ownership of the peace and constitution writing processes,” said Politburo member Haribol Gajurel. Another leader Agni Sapkota said the document stresses that the line taken by the Chunwang meet was fundamentally correct. Nnnn FERTILIZERS NOT COMING Kathmandu, 6 July: It’s definite. The government will not be able to import the planned 30,000 tonnes of diammonium phosphate (DAP) in time for this paddy planting season even as the country is in the grip of an acute fertilizer shortage, The Kathmandu Post reports. The Ministry of Agriculture and Development (MoAD) on Wednesday said that only 5,000 tonnes of DAP would be ordered from Indian Potash Limited (IPL) due to lack of funds. IPL has agreed to supply 11,000 tonnes out of the proposed import of 30,000 tonnes of DAP. “However, Agriculture Inputs Company (AIC), the state-owned fertilizer supplier, is unable to make payment for the allocated quota,” said MoAD spokesperson Hari Dahal. According to the MoAD, IPL will not be dispatching the fertilizers this time. It has assigned another company Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Limited (IFCO) to do the exporting. Ministry sources said that AIC has Rs 337 million in cash which is enough to pay for 5,000 tonnes of DAP. Around Rs 700 million is required to procure 11,000 tonnes of the soil fortifier. According to Dahal, the Finance Ministry has released Rs 230 million and the rest was arranged by the MoAD through a budgetary transfer. A meeting of the AIC management held on Tuesday decided to import DAP from IPL and reached an agreement to buy the fertilizer at the rate of IRs 40,300 per tonne. As per a Nepal-India treaty, India has agreed to sell 100,000 tonnes of chemical fertilizers (60,000 tonnes of urea and 40,000 tonnes of DAP) to Nepal annually at the international parity price (IPP). The procurement process stalled for more than three months amid charges that IPL had supplied underweight fertilizers. Subsequently, IPL said it would not sell DAP at the IPP and quoted the maximum retail price. Meanwhile, AIC said that the price of DAP had risen only marginally. “DAP costs around Rs 3,000 more per tonne,” said Shashi Raj Tuladhar, managing director of AIC. The company said it would require Rs 1.85 billion to purchase 30,000 tonnes of DAP, and that it would make payment as stocks are sold. “The funds released by the Finance and Agriculture ministries were the subsidy amounts,” Tuladhar said. The government is providing a subsidy of 40-45 percent on fertilizers to farmers. He added that AIC had ordered only 5,000 tonnes of DAP in the first batch and that it would order more after it was sold. AIC’s decision followed MoAD’s statement that the company did not require the ministry’s go-ahead to buy fertilizers from IPL. Meanwhile, the MoAD said that 5,000 tonnes of urea out of the planned 12,500 tonnes had arrived in the country. nnnn