NEPAL PLAYS SYRIA Kathmandu, 30 Aug.: Nepal plays Syria Thursday in the Nehru Cup football tournament in New Delhi. Both countries are out of the next phase. Nepal, playing for the first time in the tournament, lost to Maldives, Cameroon and played a goalless draw with host India. nnnn NT TEMINTES PACT WITH CHINA’S ZTE FOR 5.2 MILLION LINES Kathmandu, 30Aug.: : Nepal Telecom (NT) has terminated initial agreement with ZTE Corporation and issued Letter of Intent to Swedish telecom systems vendor Ericsson to supply and install equipment for 5.2 million GSM lines, Republica reports. The state-owned telecom operator has also seized ZTE´s bid bond of Rs 420 million after the Chinese telecom systems and equipment supplier kept on deferring the day for final agreement for delivery and installation of equipment for 5.2 GSM lines. According to NT officials, officials of ZTE were requesting the NT to raise contract amount saying that it was not in a position to execute the project at the previously agreed cost. Another Chinese vendor Huawei has already signed final agreement with NT. It has already started works to install 4.8 million GSM lines. Huawei had bagged the contract at around Rs 6.74 billion. ZTE had initially agreed to install 5.2 GSM lines at the price quoted by Huawei. “We have issued Letter of Intent the letter to Ericsson as it had quoted the third lowest bid for the project,” an NT official said. After Huawei bagged the contract for 4.8 GSM lines, NT had awarded contract for remaining lines to ZTE which had quoted the second lowest bid. According to the official, NT has given Ericsson a week to respond to its letter of intent. Although the rate quoted by Ericsson is more than double the rate quoted by Huawei, NT is planning to award the tender only if it agrees to execute the project in the rate quoted by Huawei. “If Ericsson cold-shouldered our call, we will ask Huawei to implement the second phase of the project as well,” the official said. “We will go for re-tender if none of the vendors showed interest in the project.” The first phase of project covers urban areas, including Kathmandu and Pokhara. The second phase requires the vendor to install and deliver the service in hilly and rural areas of the country. Although the first phase of the project will address the demand in urban areas, the uncertainty of the second phase is likely to hit rural areas. “We will not be in a position to deliver services in all parts of the country if the second phase of the project is delayed further,” the official added. If NT fails to complete the project in time, it might lose business in rural areas as private operators, including Hello Nepal, are already focusing on rural areas. nnnn FOOD ALARMINGLY ADULTERATED Kathmandu, 30 Aug.:Food adulteration has reached an ‘alarming’ level with 20.83 per cent food items sold in the market found to be adulterated or substandard. According to the Department of Food Technology and Quality Control (DFTQC), the adulteration rate increased by 1.5 per cent in fiscal year 2011-12. It was 19.3 per cent a year back. Food adulteration had reached 25 per cent in fiscal year 2006-07, and dropped to 15.6 per cent two years later. According to the department, food adulteration has been above 12 per cent in all the years since 2004-05. Major problems were seen in bottled water, milk, edible oils, besan (gram flour) and ghee last year, said director general at the department Jeevan Prabha Lama. “This is an ‘alarming’ level. We need to focus on monitoring the problem sector,” she said, adding that most of the widely consumed products are found to be substandard. The terms ‘adulteration’ and ‘substandard’ are used to explain a product mixed with other harmful products, and a product not meeting national standards, respectively. The government has set a standard for widely consumed products. Similarly, World Health Organisation, and Food and Agriculture Organisation also have reference standards widely used across the globe. Thirteen of the 14 besan samples were found to be substandard during a laboratory test, followed by bottled water at 65.8 per cent. Of the 79 samples of bottled water tested, 52 were substandard. “There were problems like high or low pH and coliform bacteria in the bottled water,” said senior food officer Promod Koirala. According to him, coliform bacteria causes diarrhoea, while an imbalance in pH level causes other problems including heart disease. Similarly, 53.5 per cent of the 86 branded milk and milk products tested were found to be adulterated or substandard. The milk had low fat and low SNF (Solid Not Fat). All three butter samples that were tested were found to be contaminated with coliform bacteria, and yogurt had low presence of milk solid. “It means milk items are unsafe,” he explained. High peroxide value (PV) was found in 19 of the 71 samples of edible oils tested at the national laboratory. High PV is bad to health, he said. Besan was found to be containing high alcoholic acidity because of the problems in storage. “It is also because of contamination of non-besan items,” Koirala said. Department files 200 cases The Department of Food Technology and Quality Control has filed about 200 cases against food companies, importers, suppliers, wholesalers and retailers. “We filed the cases at the District Administration Office,” said director general at the department Jeevan Prabha Lama. The Food Act has provided quasi-judicial rights to the chief district officer to hear the cases. Similarly, about 123 food adulteration cases are under the scanner of the department. The department will file a case only after completing the primary investigation, she added. nnnn GOVT. TO RESTRUCTURE CONSTITUTIONAL COUNCIL Kathmandu, 30 Aug.: The government has prepared an ordinance to change the existing structure of the Constitutional Council so that the body, which is headed by the prime minister, can make appointments to constitutional bodies even in the absence of the speaker of parliament and the opposition leader, Kiran .Chapagain writes in Republica. The speaker and the opposition leader are ex-officio members of the seven-member Constitutional Council (CC), as per Article 149 of the Interim Constitution. A knowledgeable government source told Republica that the move has been taken as there is neither a speaker nor an opposition leader in the country at present. "The speaker and the opposition leader will not be members under the proposed ordinance," said the source on condition of anonymity, adding, "The Constitutional Council cannot convene unless its structure is changed as there is now neither a speaker nor an opposition leader." The ordinance has been readied at a time when the government is preparing to recommend to the president to remove constitutional difficulties by invoking his constitutional powers and pave the way for appointments to the constitutional bodies. Invoking the constitutional powers of the president is the only alternative left for the government if the vacancies at constitutional bodies are to be filled in the absence of parliament. The existing constitutional provision requires appointees to constitutional bodies to face confirmation hearings in parliament, and so the absence of parliament has created a constitutional difficulty in making such appointments. While most of the constitutional bodies are now without their heads, the terms of many members at such bodies are expiring in the coming months. Another government source familiar with developments told Republica that this move cannot bear fruit unless the president agrees to remove the constitutional difficulties by exercising his powers. Article 158 of the Interim Constitution gives the head of state the power to take the necessary step if a difficulty arises in connection with implementation of the main law of the land. Besides the speaker and the opposition leader, the chief justice and three ministers designated by the prime minister are members of the prime minister headed-body. Automatic-promoted to be integrated in civil service Meanwhile, the government is proposing to integrate all civil servants who were promoted automatically after 2006 with those who were promoted or joined the civil service through the regular process. The proposal has been made with regard to the ordinance aimed at amending the Civil Service Act, according to a source at the Ministry of Law, Justice, Constituent Assembly and Parliamentary Affairs. The ordinance is one of four recommended by the cabinet early this week to the president for his approval. A government secretary told Republica that the government has taken the move as civil servants promoted under Clause 24 (D) have not been given responsibilities matching their positions. If the ordinance is approved by the president, the provision for automatic promotions will be omitted from the Act, said the secretary. In addition, the ordinance proposes promotion of civil servants on the basis of seniority and performance and has reserved a quota of 35 percent for such promotions. Government sources said that this will be the first time reservations are being made for promotions in the bureaucracy. ´The existing law also has provisions for promotion on the basis of seniority and performance but it has no reservations for promotions," said a source at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers. nnnn ________________________________________ WORKON OIL EXPLORATION TO START Kathmandu, 30 Aug.: The US-based BBB Champions Oil and its UAE partner Emirates Associated Business Group (EABG) are going to start oil and gas exploration in block 8 in Janakpur, block 9 in Rajbiraj, and block 10 in Biratnagar from December this Year, The Himalayan Times reports.. BBB Champions and EABG expects to spend over $ 10 million per block in their exploration phase in each of the three blocks to locate, identify and establish oil and gas production, both conventionally and unconventionally, said the president of BBB Champions Oil Michael D Mitcham here today. “If the combined efforts of exploration are successful, Nepal will become independent on energy,” Mitcham said, adding that it will also help raise the standard of living and contribute to the overall economy. The Department of Mines and Geology had awarded three petroleum exploration blocks to the US-based BBB Champions Oil and the Dubai-based Emirates Associated Business Group (EABG) on July 5 after a cabinet approval. The department had asked for bids for petroleum exploration in three blocks — 8, 9 and 10 — in January. The companies will have four years to complete the exploration work, according to the department. “They can also extend the term for four more years in two installments, if they fail to meet the deadline but their work progress has to be satisfactory,” it added. With the handing over of the three blocks, all the 10 blocks have been handed over to foreign companies for exploration. The government had already awarded two blocks — block 3 in Banke and block 5 in Chitwan — to Houston-based Texana Resources Company, and five blocks to a Scottish oil and gas company Cairn Energy. Similarly, Cairn also has a licence to explore five other blocks; block 1 in Dhangadi, block 2 in Karnali, block 4 in Lumbini, block 6 in Birgunj and block 7 in Malangawa. The Department of Mines and Geology has divided the Terai and Siwalik Hills into 10 exploration blocks of 5,000-sq-km each for oil and gas exploration. Nnnn REMAINS OF AIR INDIA BOEING THAT CRASHED IN ALPS WITH NEPALI EDUCATIONIST FOUND Kathmandu, 30 Aug.: A bag of Indian diplomatic mail is set to be delivered more than 46 years late after it was found on Mont Blanc in the French Alps, close to where an Air India plane crashed in January 1966, AFP reports from Grenoble. The jute bag, stamped "Diplomatic mail" and "Ministry of External Affairs", was recovered by mountain rescue worker Arnaud Christmann and his neighbour Jules Berger on August 21. "Some tourists came and told us they had seen something shining on the Bossons glacier," so he and his neighbour decided to go have a look, Christmann told AFP on Wednesday. "We found pieces of the cabin, a shoe, cables - it's a real dump up there!" The two men also came across a plane wheel and, 20 metres (yards) further on, the diplomatic bag that was "sitting as if someone had just placed it there." "We were hoping for diamonds or at least a few gold ingots. Instead we got some soaking wet mail and Indian newspapers," Christmann quipped. "It's not the sort of thing you find very often in the mountains -- the mail's going to arrive 46 years late." The Kangchenjunga, a Boeing 707 flying from Mumbai (Bombay) to New York, crashed on the southwest face of Mont Blanc, western Europe's highest mountain, on January 24, 1966 as it descended towards a scheduled stopover in Geneva, Switzerland. All 117 people on board died. The diplomatic bag was handed over to police in the town of Chamonix at the base of the mountain. The Indian embassy in Paris said Wednesday it had not been informed of the discovery but that officials would be looking into it with a view to recovering the bag. In September 2008, well-known climber Daniel Roche discovered Indian newspapers dated January 23, 1966 in the same area. Roche also came across part of an engine from the Malabar Princess, another Air India plane which had crashed in a virtually identical location in 1950. (Note:Founder Principal of Prof. Amrit Prasad Pradhan died in the crash.) nnnn