NEPAL PLAYS CAMEROON IN NEHRU CUP IN NEW DELHI SUNDAY Kathmandu, 26 Aug.: Nepal plays Cameroon in its second outing in the Nehru Cup football tournament in New Delhi Sunday after losing to Maldives 2-1. Nepal is participating in the tournament or the first time. nnnn I 17 BOUND FOR MAURITIUS TURNED BACK FROM TIA Kathmandu, 26 Aug.: The Supervision and Action Recommendation Committee formed on Friday to curb anomalies related to foreign employment has turned backed 17 Nepali nationals bound to Mauritius from Tribhuvan International Airport, Saturday, Republica reports. The Committee had decided to send them back from the airport as they were found travelling to Mauritius without visa.“Though they are found to have received labor permits, all 17 did not possess visa for Mauritius" said Joint Secretary at Home Ministry Suresh Adhikari. The Nepali nationals were preparing to leave for Mauritius on Jet Airways.“They told us that Mauritius provides Nepalis with on arrival visa. But as we found the country did not have such provision for Nepali nationals, we decided to return them from the airport”" Adhikari further said. As the Committee enquired Department of Foreign Employment about the labor permits, officials there said the labor permits were issued on the basis of correspondences made by companies in Mauritius. The Committee has directed Department of Foreign Employment, Department of Immigration and concerned airlines to probe into the case and recommend actions, according to members of the committee. On Friday, the Committee had returned four Qatar bound Nepalese nationals as they did not posses proper documentations. A meeting organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) with representatives of concerned ministries and other stakeholders on Friday had formed Central Coordination Committee with Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Narayankaji Shrestha as chairman and Supervision and Actions Recommendations Committee headed by Joint Secretary Shanker Koirala to curb irregularities and malpractices in the foreign employment sector. The Supervision and Action Recommendation Committee has been given sweeping powers including sudden inspections of concerned offices, making recommendations for transfer and suspend government employees and taking immediate action against manpower agencies involved in unscrupulous practices. nnnn ________________________________________ VDC SECRETARIES GET WEEK’S ULTIMATUM TO RETURN TO WORK Kathmandu, 26 Aug 26: The government has strictly instructed Village Development Committee (VDC) secretaries to start working from their respective duty stations within a week, Tirtha L Bhusal writes in Republica.. Issuing a circular on Friday, the ministry of local development directed VDC secretaries to reach their duty stations within seven days. The government took the decision after the ministry´s study found that most of the VDC secretaries tended to live in the district headquarters and urban areas for weeks on end. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Narayankaji Shrestha, who also holds the local development portfolio, said the government would not only stop releasing salaries of the secretaries staying away from their offices but also take stringent action against them. "We issued the directives after a national survey conducted by the ministry showed most of the VDC secretaries staying away from far-flung VDCs on the pretext of security threat," Shrestha told Republica. "Our study showed that there is no serious security threat to civil servants." According to Shrestha, the ministry conducted the study in Siraha, Dhanusha and Mahottari, where VDC secretaries reportedly received more threats from various underground outfits. "But we found that the situation in the districts is not as serious as claimed by the VDC secretaries," he said. The ministry has already corresponded to all District Development Committees and other agencies overseeing government expenditures to stop releasing salaries of the VDC secretaries staying away from office. According to him, the trend of staying away from remote VDC offices has seriously affected service delivery and that the situation is worse in some Tarai districts. However, Damodar Rijal, chairman of the VDC Secretaries´ Interest Protection Center Nepal, said there is no point in issuing such instruction unless the government ensures security to the civil servants. He asserted that VDC secretaries were doing their best. "The government, instead, should think about the security of the secretaries who are giving continuing their duties despite repeated threats from various underground outfits," Rijal told Republica. He said the government should think about holding local elections instead of pressing the secretaries to stay in far-flung villages despite adverse situation. For the last 10 years the VDCs have no political representatives as the government has failed to hold local elections since 1997 and VDC secretaries are entrusted with the responsibility of overseeing local governance in the villages. In the absence of VDC secretaries, locals are compelled to visit the district headquarters to get their work done. Nnnn ________________________________________ TIFA MET BYOCT END Kathmandu, 26Aug.: The second joint council meeting of the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) with the US that has been postponed repeatedly since the start of this year, could take place by the end of October, The Himalayan Times reports.. “We are planning to hold the second joint council meeting of TIFA by the end of October as the US has sent feelers about holding the meeting soon,” said commerce and supplies secretary Lal Mani Joshi. Earlier, the meeting was expected to take place by September. The government and the private sector have been preparing an agenda for a long time but the meeting has not taken place. The first joint council meeting — that was held in Washington immediately after the TIFA was signed — had decided to hold the second meeting in Nepal in November. However, the meeting had been postponed for January 2012. The meeting was again postponed for March. The first meeting was held in Washington, where the US and Nepal discussed and reviewed various issues. US trade representative Ron Kirk, and then deputy prime minister and finance minister Bharat Mohan Adhikari had signed the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement on April 15, 2011 — to enhance trade and investment between the two countries — replacing the six-decade old bilateral trade and economic pact. Aimed at providing a forum for bilateral talks to enhance trade and investment, discussing specific trade issues, and promoting more comprehensive trade agreements between the two countries, the TIFA is expected to be a better platform. The TIFA meeting could be a better platform to discuss about the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) facility for textiles, said deputy assistant US Trade Representative for GSP and chair of the GSP sub committee of the Trade Policy Staff Committee William D Jackson. The framework agreement is also expected to help both the countries enter into a trade agreement besides the US-Nepal Council on Trade and Investment that will address a wide range of trade and investment issues like capacity building and technical assistance, intellectual property rights, workers’ rights, environmental protection, and removing barriers to bilateral trade. The council is a permanent body that will hold meetings regularly involving the private sector and civil society. The agreement is also expected to help Nepal not only attract US investment but also boost exports. Though Nepal does not have a trade deficit with the US, the gap is slowly closing. “Though the US has been providing Generalised System of Preferences facility for some 4,975 products, it has excluded most textile and apparel products that is one of the key exports of Nepal to the US,” said Garment Association of Nepal president Uday Raj Pandey, asking the trade representative’s help in providing GSP facility for Nepali textiles. Nnnn DHRUBA BAHADUR PRADHAN TALKS OF ENDING NOC CRISIS THROUGH TALKS Kathmandu, 26 Aug.: President of the Nepal Olympic Committee (NOC) Dhruba Bahadur Pradhan said he was open for all the possibilities — barring elections — to end the existing Olympic crisis, The Himalayan Times reports. “I don’t have any confusion on how to solve this issue,” said Pradhan, president of the internationally-recognised committee in Nepal. “The doors are open and I am ready to accept the government proposal to end the row once and for all,” he added. According to Pradhan, the National Sports Council (NSC) — the sports governing body in the country — had proposed him to incorporate one vice-president and four members from the Supreme Court reinstated committee led by Rukma Shumsher Rana. “I had accepted the proposal before going to London and I am ready to accept it today as well,” he said. “I will somehow incorporate the officials in my team and for that the government needs to do just two things. First the cabinet should decide to work only with the internationally-recognised NOC from now on and secondly dissolve the committee registered at the District Administration Office,” he said. “This is the problem started by the government and it is the duty of the government to solve it,” he said. Pradhan also said the government needed to amend a couple of clauses in the law as they coincide with the IOC charter. “If the current crisis is over and we get to work smoothly, the amendment process will take place in due course of time.” Asked about the Supreme Court’s decision to reinstate the Rana-led committee, Pradhan said the apex court had simply defined the minister-level decision made in 2002. “The cabinet can revoke the minister-level decision,” he said. The Rana faction came into existence after the Supreme Court reinstated the 2002 committee. Pradhan also urged the parallel faction to give suggestions if they had any. “But we cannot trust Rana as he is the one who took part in the 2007 elections and claimed his stake later on after going through democratic process,” said Pradhan. The NSC has called for fresh mandate with the participation of all the national sports associations but Pradhan ruled out the chances of elections. “Election is not possible at the moment. The international bodies (IOC and OCA) will never accept that,” he said. “We are trying to save the nation from being suspended as the international bodies will make the government kneel down if they get upper hand once and I don’t want that at any cost,” he added. Pradhan also said his committee had no intentions of fighting with the government and its decisions. “I will not seek anyone’s help in resolving the crisis and I am in no mood to have any kind of fight with anybody,” he clarified. “At the same time I also want to end the row for ever and believe that there should be only one NOC in the country,” he said. “I have kept all the doors open and I am ready to make compromises and sacrifices to solve the problem,” he said. nnnn