HUSBAND SUSPECTED OF SHOOTING DEAD WIFE IN BHAKTAPUR kathmandu, 27 Aug.: Rajesh Deula, 38, is suspected of shooting dead his wife Shova, 38, Monday and has gone missing in Bhaktapur. ropolitan City-11, has allegedly gunned down his own wife Shova received head injuries. Police have reached the scene of the crime and have started investigation. A bullet was recovered from their room. Shova worked as a sweeper at Patan Museum. nnnn ATTEMPT TO DEVELOP MEDIUM SCALE ENTERPRISES IN SOUTH ASIA Kathmandu, 27 Aug.: Representatives from Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan will neet 27,.28 August in the capital to promote trade related activities in South Asia. FNCCI will coordinate the meeting. Representatives attending the meeting will attempt to find a common ground to ddevelop medium enterprises. nnnn DEUBA AGAIN TAKES A SWIPT AT KOIRALA IN CONTINUING NC DISUPTE Kathmandu, 27 Aug,:Expressing dissatisfaction over his the party president’s working style, the dissent Nepali Congress group led by Sher Bahadur Deuba has said that Congress should change its strategy and come up with a “concrete position” to end the current political and constitutional deadlock, Kamal Dev Bhattarai writes in The Kathmandu Post. The Deuba faction said that calling for Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai’s resignation would only prolong the tenure of the government and would not solve any problems faced by the country. It maintains that the party should instead come up with a clear plan to bring the country into a constitutional track. “Along with the PM’s resignation, the party should give priority to issues related to the drafting a new constitution,” said NC leader Prakash Saran Mahat, who is close to Deuba. Team Deuba is preparing to raise this issue at the party’s Central Working Committee (CWC) meet, which has been postponed until August 30. NC President Sushil Koirala is of the view that the party will discuss fresh Constituent Assembly (CA) elections or its revival only after the PM’s resignation. However, the Deuba faction said that such “reactive politics” would only prolong the crisis as there is no possibility of removing PM Bhattarai at the present moment. “There should be issue-based negotiations with the Maoist party instead of sticking to resignation,” said another leader close to Deuba. A recent meeting of the Deuba faction prepared a “concrete” three-option proposal on national politics. The first is to forge consensus on contentious issues of a new constitution and then reviving the CA for a short while to endorse it, to which NC Vice-chairman Ram Chandra Poudel is backing. The UCPN (Maoist) has said that it is ready to revive the CA if disputed issues are settled. However, a conference of NC district presidents recently had advised the party to go for fresh parliamentary elections. The second option to ending the deadlock, according to the Deuba faction, is to prepare a draft of the new constitution and endorsing it through a referendum. The faction stated that as chances of agreement among parties on contentious issues are quite low, a referendum is the best alternative. The third option that the Deuba camp is proposing is CA’s revival for a short period to make amends to the Interim Constitution and electoral laws for the holding of fresh elections. It claims that even if the country goes to new CA elections, the CA must first be revived. As the Koirala faction is in favour of parliamentary elections, Team Deuba has said that the party should give up the agenda of new CA elections. The CWC meet, deferred due to Koirala’s schedule, is likely to witness a fierce debate between the rival factions. A political paper presented by another leader Krishna Prasad Sitaula has failed to impress party leaders. Nnnn GOOD AUTUMN TOURIST SEASON EXPECTED Kathmandu, 27 Aug.: International airlines serving Nepal are seeing a surge in inbound bookings. Almost every flight into Kathmandu is 90 percent booked for October and November while 75 percent of the seats have been booked for September, said travel agents, Sangram Parsai writes in The Kathmandu Post.. They added that the rush for tickets may also encourage carriers to hike fares. Tickets are expected to be 20-25 percent dearer this autumn. “As Nepali travellers have a habit of making their reservations at the last hour, they will have to pay more,” said Bhola Bikram Thapa, managing director of President Travels and Tours. “There is a large number of Nepalis in different parts of the world who will be returning home for the festival season, but they are yet to make reservations.” He added that getting a ticket on some routes may be very difficult during the peak season no matter how much travellers are prepared to pay. The September-November period is the high season for airlines as this is when most foreign tourists visit Nepal and migrant Nepali workers and students return home to celebrate the holiday season with their families. Travel agents said that the Kuala Lumpur-Kathmandu sector has become a very busy route. Nepal Airlines, Air Asia, Biman Bangladesh, Jet Airways and Thai Airways are some of the carriers serving the sector. Malaysian Airlines and Nepali private carrier BB Airways plan to fly on this route by September. The increased number of carriers and resulting competition is expected to start a fare war. “All the carriers flying the Kuala Lumpur-Kathmandu route report full inbound bookings from the last week of September,” said Shyam Raj Thapaliya, managing director of Osho World Travel Nepal. Meanwhile, the London-Kathmandu route has emerged as the busiest sector after Kuala Lumpur with bookings surpassing 95 percent for October. Qatar Airways’ London-Kathmandu flights are almost packed from Sept 10 while bookings for October have crossed 95 percent. Oman Air and Gulf Air have bookings of more than 80 percent. Similarly, inbound flights from other European destinations are almost sold out for October. Flights to and from the US are fully booked from Sept 10 onwards. Inbound from China too has been good. Three Chinese carriers, Air China, China Southern and China Eastern, have modest bookings for September but are sold out for October. Indian carriers Air India, Jet Airways, Indigo and Spice Jet are full after Sept 22. Similarly, Hong Kong-Kathmandu flights are fully booked from mid-September to mid-October while Bangkok-Kathmandu flights are fully booked for October and November. The rush for tickets has prompted a number of airlines to increase their frequency. According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, Gulf Air, Air Asia X, Dragon Air and China Eastern have applied to raise their frequency from September. Among them, Air Asia has been permitted to increase the frequency of its Kuala Lumpur flights to thrice weekly from twice weekly. Gulf Air has applied to increase the frequency of its 12 times weekly Bahrain service by two flights weekly from Sept 11. Dragon Air has applied to double its thrice weekly service to Hong Kong and China Eastern wants to upgrade to five weekly flights on the Kunming sector. nnnn TAAN URGES CONPULSORY GUIDE SYSTEM Kathmandu, 27 Aug.: The government is planning for a compulsory guide or porter system for individual trekkers in the Langtang region only, The Himalayan Times reports. Trekking agencies have requested the government for a compulsory guide or porter for individual trekkers in all the trekking routes. However, the government is planning to make a porter or guide compulsory only in the Langtang region. “To ensure the safety of individual trekkers we have been lobbying to appoint a guide or porter for each trekker,” said chief executive officer at Trekking Agencies’ Association of Nepal (TAAN) Gangaram Panta, adding, however, the government is planning for a compulsory guide or porter for individual trekkers only in the Langtang region. “We don’t want a ban on individual trekking. We want to ensure the security of trekkers and it is possible only if trekkers are accompanied by a porter or guide,” said Panta, adding that the government is yet to make its final decision and TAAN is waiting for a meeting with government officials. “We have suggested the Tourism Industry Department regarding the need of a porter for individual trekkers,” he said. “We don’t have any hidden interest and we cannot force the tourism ministry to follow our suggestion,” he further said. Due to a series of incidents in the Himalayan trekking route, trekking agencies have started lobbying for the need of a licensed porter for individual trekkers. “There have been many cases of disappearances, and a mandatory provision of a tourist guide will ensure the security of trekkers,” TAAN claims. According to TAAN, more than 90 per cent trekkers who go missing are individual trekkers and there is no information about the whereabouts of those trekkers due to the lack of a monitoring mechanism. Of the total tourist arrivals, about 35 per cent come for trekking. In 2011–2012, the trekking business earned total foreign currency worth $ 50 million, stated TAAN. A Trekking Information Management System (TIMS) card is issued to trekkers at $ 10 for an individual TIMS card, and $ 20 for group trekking that is for trekkers other than from the SAARC region. TIMS is a system developed by TAAN, and NTB is the authorised organisation for collecting taxes through it. However, the involvement of other players in distributing TIMS card and collecting taxes has created unnecessary problems. TAAN has also developed a software to ensure the security of tourists and check illegal operations. The software will make sure that tourists at different trekking routes are safe. Under the software, a trekker has to fill up a form with all the personal details and programmes throughout the stay, and the information will be recorded in the TIMS software. If any trekker goes missing, the software will help trace the whereabouts of the missing trekker. nnnn