HIGH-LEVEL NEPAL-CHINA TALKS MONDAY Kathmandu, 13 Aug.: Nepal China foreign secretary level 9th meet of the Nepal-China consultative mechanism begins in the capital Monday. The Mechanism was formed in April 1966 and meets every four years. The meeting will review bilateral ties in its entirety—political, trade, commerce, security and related issues.. Nnnn PMO FORMS 9 TASK FORCES Kathmandu, 13 Aug.:The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has formed nine task forces headed by secretaries to initiate administrative reforms, check dillydallying in public offices and monitor markets effectively, Anil Giri writes in The Kathmandu Post.. The panels have been given various mandates and report to Chief Secretary Lilamani Poudel within a week. One of the taskforce is headed by Chief Officer of National Vigilance Center, Sureshman Shrestha. He has been tasked to look into the problems existing in public offices like Immigration, Land Revenue, Foreign Employment, Company Registrar and District Administration where the public seek government services on daily basis. "The taskforce has been given the mandate to find out how these offices can be turned into public friendly, how to tame corruption and how to provide services to the public without dillydallying, among other things," said Poudel. Expressing concern over the growing road casualties, another panel is led by Secretary at Public Procurement Office, Dhan Bahadur Tamang. He will report on the causes behind the increasing road accidents and will find a way-out to decrease them. The taskforce headed by Secretary at Ministry of Supply and Commerce, Lalmani Joshi will look into skyrocketing prices of essential commodities will muster market monitoring as festivals are approaching fast, resumption of essential commodities in view of the forthcoming festivals. Similarly, the panel led by Secretary at General Administration, Durga Nidhi Sharma, will work on the postings of civil servants so as to set up a transfer parameter and make it more practical in the days ahead. To better manage the trade unions and use their services for administrative reforms, the taskforce under Secretary at National Planning Commission, Yubraj Bhusal, will swing into action. There are complaints that trade unions associated with various political parties, have been intervening in transfer, administrative reforms and other initiatives. In the same vein, the committee headed by Secretary at Water and Energy Commission, Bishow Prakash Pundit, has been directed to implement and execute the much-talked about good governance across the country. The panel will look into how to implement Good Governance Act and how to make the bureaucracy result-oriented, public friendly and responsible. It has also been mandated to see whether it is possible to ban secretaries' movement, mostly killing time attending conferences and other unnecessary meetings. "By cutting unwanted participation in conferences, meetings or assemblies, people can feel a huge relief. If we can bring in a change, we can deliver more," said Poudel. Likewise, the taskforce under Secretary at Auditor General Office, Pratap Kumar Pathak, will try to find out whether it is feasible to unveil performance based job contracts (PBJC) and incentive based performance at the rank and file of the bureaucracy. "Some offices like PMO, Peace Ministry, and Finance Ministry are giving incentives to their staffs, which is termed unequal in many cases. The Pathak-led panel will look into court verdicts and will explore possibilities whether it can be extended to the district level," said Poudel. Establishment of good practices and protocol at government offices, changing eating habits, haphazard distribution of food packets in the meeting are the assignments of the panel led by Home Secretary, Navin Ghimire. nnnn SUSHIL KOIRALA DUBS HIS MAOIST COUNTERPART A LIAR Kathmandu, 13 Aug.: Nepali Congress (NC) President Sushil Koirala on Sunday alleged that UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal is a big fat liar, Bimal Khatiwada writes in The Kathmandu Post.. “He is good at making everyone happy with his sweet talks when everyone is around but speaks something else elsewhere,” said Koirala expressing his disgust at Maoist Chairman Dahal. “One day everyone will know how big a liar he really is.” Addressing an award distribution ceremony organised by Chitwan chapter of Press Union here in the district, the NC president remarked that even the international community has realised that Dahal is not trustworthy. The NC president, who might have been furious by Dahal’s refusal to accept NC-led government without forging a deal on ethnic federalism, remarked that Dahal has not been given the contract to form the new government. “Has Prachanda [Dahal] taken the responsibility of all the parties about forming the government?” he questioned the Maoist leader. “How can he talk in such an irresponsible manner?” Koirala went on to say that his party NC has implemented all the agreements unlike the Maoists, who he said, have always shown reluctance to implement the agreement. “We have urged Dahal several times to return the land and properties seized by the Maoists during conflict,” said Koirala. “They [Maoists] say, they have disbanded the YCL, but never return the seized property.” He called on the Maoists to return the capture land and properties. In a different context, the NC president claimed that the current government would not be able to hold the election. “The Maoists leaders themselves have admitted the impossibility of conducting the election,” said Koirala, “How could they still deceive the people in the name of elections?” nnnn