NSU RESOLVES DIFFERENCES BETWEEN RIVAL FACTIONS Kathmandu, 11 Aug.: A dispute in the Nepal Student Union (NSU), the student wing of main opposition NC, has ended and details of an agreement between the establishment and rebel Sher Bahadur Deuba faction will be announced Sunday, youth leader Nabindra Raj Joshi said. Joshi negotiated the agreement between rival factions resolving differences Friday. A parallel general convention was announced by the Deuba faction pressing four demands following differences while the establishment called a convention inn the first week of January 2013. A new convention date will be announced.. Deuba had been boycotting party central committee meetings to show dissatisfaction while conducting group meetings of his own supporters to press demands for increased representatives in party bodies. nnnn STRIKE ENDS AT MANIPAL TEACHING HOSPITAL IN POKHARA Kathmandu, 11 Aug.: Agitating doctors at the Pokhara-based Manipal Teaching Hospital agreed to call off their strike after they reached an understanding with the hospital management on Friday evening, The Kathmandu Post reports from Pokhara. The doctors were on strike for the last 13 days, demanding a 20 percent salary raise. After long negotiations at the Kaski District Administration Office (DAO), the protesting doctors finally agreed to settle for a 15 percent hike. Dr Dipak Koirala, secretary of the Nepal Public Health Workers’ Association, announced the end of their protest and said the doctors will resume their duties. The strike enforced by the doctors had hit hundreds of people of western Nepal. Manipal is one of the biggest and the best hospitals in the region. Most of the people prefer Manipal as it offers better and wide-ranging health services on reasonable fees in comparison to other private hospitals. Many hospitals in western Nepal also refer their patients to Manipal. Due to the strike, many people were compelled to visit private hospitals and clinics, many of them run on the investment of the agitating doctors, where they were forced to cough up a big sum of money as medical fees. Manipal closure also left the other hospitals in Pokhara with an overflow of patients. As these hospitals were crowded, many people with serious illnesses were compelled to go to Kathmandu for treatment. The decision of the doctors at Manipal to go on a strike had drawn flak from various quarters. The agitating doctors were censured for depriving people of medical services. After an earlier round of talks between the doctors and the Manipal management ended inconclusively, the DAO had mobilised police personnel at the hospital to break the padlocks fastened by the agitating doctors. Notwithstanding the the DAO’s intervention, the doctors continued their protest. nnnn PM SUMMONS, WARNS DISGRUNTLES SECRETARIES Kathmandu, 11 Aug.:- Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai on Friday summoned five disgruntled secretaries, who have been protesting the appointment of Lilamani Poudel as the Chief Secretary, and warned them against being "unhelpful" in the Bureaucracy, Anil Giri writes in The Kathmandu Post. . Of the 13 in the race, five secretaries had resigned following Poudel's appointment on July 29, six others had been protesting the move. One of them was not in the race. The PM summoned five of the six disgruntled secretaries--Bhagawati Kumar Kafle (CIAA), Baman Neupane (President's Office), Brinda Hada (Irrigation) and Balananda Poudel (Women and Children)--in his office and asked them to accept Poudel's leadership. He also sought help from them in his efforts in bringing about administrative reforms, according to a secretary. The PM also expressed serious concerns over the secretaries' move to go to the media with their grievances. The PM's warning follows the six secretaries' move to boycott the first meeting chaired by the new Chief Secretary on Monday. "The move to boycott the meeting did not send a good message across," the PM told the secretaries, according to the secretary. "Such uncooperative behavior will not do any good to any of us," the PM told the secretaries. Another disgruntled secretary, Umakanta Jha (Industry), was not present in the meeting. The PM urged the secretaries to not repeat the "mistake", Secretary at the President's Office, Neupane, told the Post. Mainali's resignation rejected Meanwhile, the government is reluctant to accept the resignation of Shyam Prasad Mainali, who had put in his papers through a press conference at the office of the Public Service Commission on July 31. The Cabinet, however, approved the resignation of four other secretaries--Shanker Prasad Koirala, Abanindra Kumar Shrestha, Trilochan Uprety and Sushil Jung Rana--last week. The PMO has already handed over the letter of acceptance to the four secretaries. "I have not been informed if my resignation was rejected or accepted," Mainali told the Post. Sources said the government is planning to take action against Mainali for tendering his resignation through the media. nnnn