ONLY WOMAN SECRETARY FILES CONTEMPT OF COURT CHARGE AGAINST PM Kathmandu, 31 Aug.: Secretary Brinda Hada Thursday filed a contempt of court charge against Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai charging the government je did not executed a court order. The apex court has issued an interim order not to transfer her from to the Office of the Prime Minister via the Office of the Auditor General . Hada said she was being disgracefully transferred before her retirement. A single bench of the supreme court issued an order to send her back to the energy ministry.untila finalverdict. She filed cases against the prime minister, chief secretary and irrigation minister. Nnnn MULTIPLE AGENCIES TO MONITOR COOPERATIVES Kathmandu, 31 Aug.: The government has planned to involve multiple agencies in monitoring cooperatives as the Department of Cooperatives (DoC) has been having a hard time doing it alone, Rajesh Khanal writes in The Kathmandu Post.. A draft of the cooperatives regulation prepared by the Ministry of Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation (MoCPA) has envisioned that a number of agencies including Nepal Rastra Bank and the Central Cooperatives Association will join forces with the DoC. “The current mechanism has not been effective due to the rising number of cooperatives and the limited human resources at DoC,” said MoCPA spokesperson Sudarshan Prasad Dhakal. The draft of the regulation will be submitted to the Cabinet by mid-September, he added. As per the proposed regulation, the ministry will coordinate the monitoring. Similarly, the task will be divided among the agencies on the basis of the turnover of the cooperatives. There are more than 25,000 cooperatives in Nepal, out of which more than 11,000 are savings and credit cooperatives. They hold deposits valued at Rs 127 billion while their investments amount to Rs 136 billion. According to the DoC, around 700 savings and credit cooperatives have an annual transaction in excess of Rs 50 million. Following their explosive growth, the DoC has been struggling to monitor them effectively with its limited resources. Currently, the department has been conducting monitoring with the help of two officials from the central bank. However, it has been able to check only around 100 cooperatives in the last two years. In the absence of an all-powerful regulatory body like the central bank to monitor cooperatives, there are fears that public deposits might be at risk with most of the cooperatives not following prudential financial norms. The proposed regulation has envisioned categorising cooperatives into four segments depending on their annual transaction. According to Dhakal, cooperatives with a yearly transaction of over Rs 250 million will be put under A category, and those with transactions in the range of Rs 50 million-Rs 250 million will be put under B category. Similarly, the C category will consist of cooperatives with an annual transaction of between Rs 10 million-Rs 50 million while the rest will be lumped together in category D. nnnn INDUSTRIAL SECURITY FORCE BEING SET UP Kathmandu, 3 Aug.: The Home Ministry has said that an organisational and management survey it is conducting to set up an Industrial Security Force is at the final Stages, The Kathmandu Post reports. A draft of the proposal regarding the Industrial Security Force has recommended that the Finance Ministry supervise the personnel for industrial security. “This will be a separate industrial security force,” said Home Ministry sources. As per the proposal, personnel from the Armed Police Force have been recommended for the force. “A total of 2,500 Armed Police Force personnel will be deployed for this force.” According to Home Secretary Navin Ghimire, the survey report will be sent to the Finance Ministry soon. The ministry had formed a committee comprising representatives from the Finance, Industry and Law ministries and other agencies to conduct the study. The security force, which was originally envisaged to be used at industrial zones, will now be deployed at customs offices too. “Due to weak security and inspection provision, there has been a huge loss in revenue collection,” said Lok Darshan Regmi, joint secretary at the Finance Ministry. In March 2010, the Cabinet decided to form an industrial security force to protect industrial units from local vandals and violent activities of trade unions and workers during strikes. The government moved to form the force after entrepreneurs asked for a separate security force for the industrial sector. Following the Cabinet’s decision, the budget announcement for the fiscal year 2010-11 mentioned that a security force would be set up for big factories. It had asked the Industry Ministry to establish police posts with five police personnel each at factories employing more than 500 workers. Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai had also asked the concerned authorities to provide a security force in his Immediate Relief Measure Package last year. Subsequently, many factories have asked the Industry Ministry to provide them the promised force. Kiran Shoe Manufacturers, Triveni Spinning Mills, Reliance Spinning Mills and Jagdamba Steels are among the factories that have asked the government for a security force. The Patan, Balaju and Bhaktapur industrial estates have also made similar requests. Industry Ministry spokesperson Yam Kumari Khatiwada said that the ministry had asked the Home Ministry to coordinate deployment of the security personnel in response to an increasing number of requests from industrial units. “This time, the Home Ministry has begun preparations to implement the programme,” she said. “After the preparations are complete, we will send the names of the companies that have asked for security personnel to the Home Ministry and ask other interested companies to apply.” Industrialist Manish Agrawal said that the government should form the force as soon as possible as the country’s industrial sector is suffering from a number of threats. “Even if it takes time, the government should plan the programme in a more organised way,” he said, adding that industrialists were ready to cooperate with the government. nnnn