CLUB OF FORMER FINANCE MINISTERS PROPOSED TO REMOVE BUDGET OBSTACLES Kathmandu, 29 Sept.: Government has formed forming a club of former finance ministers to form a common approach to development and policies. Finance Minister Barsha Man Pun proposed forming such a club Friday as government has proposed only a partial budget for the current fiscal year 2012/13 amid opposition obstruction. Maoists surrounded the podium, snatched a briefcase with the budget as it was being delivered by UML Finance Minister Surendra Pandey with UCPN Maoist in opposition. mnnn NEA TO PURCHASE SOLAR POWER FROM KUKL Kathmandu,, 29 Sept.; Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) is to purchase solar power from Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited (KUKL) for which a power purchase agreement signed Friday. The KUKL is installing a solar power plant in Sundarighat, Lalitpur with a capacity to produce 6,18,000KW electricity or 6,18, 000 units per year. NEA will purchase power at Rs 5.10 per unit. The plant is being set up with Japanese assistance to ensure uninterrupted power to various water plants. Surplus electricity is being sold to NEA. nnnn ETHNIC PARTY 4 OCT. Kathmandu, 29 Sept.: An ethnic party will be laynched 4 October. Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities General Secretary Aang Kaji Sherpa said this in Butwal Friday. Five UML dissidents who earlier threatened to launch an ethnic partyretrned to the foldl thi s week. Nnnn DETAILS OF PM, PRESIDENT SPEAK Kathmandu, 29 Sept.: : President Ram Baran Yadav today asked Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai to forge political consensus at the earliest among the political parties on the ordinances to find way out of political and constitutional deadlock facing the country, The Himalayan Times reports.. President Yadav told the PM unambiguously went the latter went to meet him at the Sital Niwas. When the prime minister requested him to give his nod on the ordinances as recommended by the government some two weeks back, the President suggested him to forge consensus first. “Even though the President thanked the PM for his efforts to almost conclude the peace pro-cess,” Rajendra Dahal, Press Advisor to the President told THT. The President and PM held meeting to discuss on the contemporary issues for almost an hour from 6 pm. The meeting between the PM and President assumes significance as the Head of the State has invited political leaders to discuss on the way out of the political impasse on Sunday. The President has kept on hold the three ordinances on Commission on the Inquiry of the Disappeared and Truth and Reconciliation Ordinance, Education (fourth amendment) Ordinance and Civil Service (third amendment) Ordinance since a month; although, the Head of the State has recommended to invoke Article 158 for the vital appointments including the Supreme Court Justices and chiefs and commissioners of various constitutional bodies. During the meeting the President urged the PM to seek solution to the political deadlock at the earliest. “They discussed on peace process and ordinances,” Dahal added. Yadav to mount pressure on parties KATHMANDU: President Ram Baran Yadav has been planning to change his tune to put pressure on the political parties to settle the ongoing political and constitutional deadlock facing the country for the last three and a half months. Sources of the office of the President said that the Head of the State would put pressure on the leaders while meeting with him on Sunday. “As the government and the leaders could nothing even after his series-wise calls therefore he might put serious pressure on the leaders during the meeting,” a source at the Office of the President told The Himalayan Times. He also added that the President felt might express his strong displeasure on the role played by political parties for failing to forge consensus. “He is very much worried about the political uncertainty in the country,” he said. Another source also added that President Yadav might call on the parties to form a consensus government to bail out the country from the current deadlock. During the meeting, he would meet leaders of 19 parties. nnnn UML STUDY BLAMES LEADERS FOR CURRENT FAILURE Kathmandu, 29 Sept.: A CPN-UML team formed to prepare a white paper on four-year work of the Constituent Assembly (CA) has accused top leaders from major political parties of not working sincerely toward constitution writing during the time when the CA was functioning until May 27., Tirtha L. Bhusal writes in Republica. The top leaders from the major political parties, according to the white paper, were quite indifferent to their job of writing new constitution so much so that most them were among the 92 CA members who never participated in deliberations over thematic reports in the full CA meetings. "None of the top leaders contributed to create national debate on contents and disputed issues of new constitution by participating in the deliberations in CA meetings," read the document. "CA was the best platform to guide the overall course of the statute drafting in the true sense." The noted leaders not to participate during the deliberations in the full CA meetings included Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Jhalanath Khanal, Madhav Kumar Nepal, Sher Bahadur Deuba, Narayanman Bijukchhe, Mahantha Thakur, Bijay Kumar Gachchhadar, Krishna Bahadur Mahara, Sharat Singh Bhandari, Balkrishna Khand, Sashank Koirala, Shekhar Koirala, Surendra Pandey, Dinanath Sharma, Indra Bahadur Gurung and Top Bahadur Rayamajhi. Though they participated in discussions at their respective thematic committees, they didn´t speak in the CA meetings. CPN-UML in June formed a taskforce headed by party Secretary Shankar Pokharel with a mandate to prepare a white paper on the four-year work of the CA. The party has said it will formally make public the report only after holding deliberations in its central committee meeting soon. The taskforce laid the blame for CA dissolution squarely on the UCPN (Maoist) leaders and it claimed that the ruling Madhes-based parties helped the former rebel leaders in doing so. It has accused the UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Dahal of trying to fish in the murky water, during the crucial last days of the CA, by inciting Madhesi, ethnic and indigenous communities to take to the street and counter the forces who stood against the ethnicity-based federal model. The taskforce also blamed Dahal of misusing the lawmakers´ collection of signatures and memorandums submitted to him in his capacity of the head of the subcommittee formed to settle the unresolved disputes in constitution writing by trying to create divisions in other political parties. The taskforce also criticized the UML leadership for their failure to play an effective and leading role in constitution writing as well as parliamentary businesses during the four-year tenure of the 601-member House. "The party´s [UML] top leaders were equally entrusted with key roles in the legislative business of the House but it is unfortunate that their presence at the meetings didn´t even meet the legal requirements," said the document. According to the white paper, the UML´s parliamentary party convened 55 meetings. Of them, only one fourth of the meetings were convened to discuss issues related to constitution writing whereas they discussed about government and parliamentary affairs in rest of the meetings. It has strongly criticized the party leaders for failing to effectively coordinate and guide the lawmakers at the time when crucial issues were discussed in the CA as well as in the parliamentary meetings. UML leaders stood divided in crucial CA deliberations such as on determining the system of governance and state restructuring. While some of the lawmakers from the party stood in favor of parliamentary system as proposed by Nepali Congress, other members firmly insisted in favor of directly-elected prime ministerial system. Similarly, on state restructuring, a number of UML leaders lobbied in favor of preferential political rights, some others strongly opposed the proposal. The taskforce said it was the party leadership´s failure to keep the party unity intact on such thorny issues. It said that the party´s role in the CA always remained very ineffective due to lack of clear instruction from the party leadership in crucial issues both in constitution writing as well as parliamentary businesses. According to the whitepaper, the coordination side in the party was so poor and ineffective that UML lawmakers were often confused when they needed to raise their hands at the time of endorsing bills in the House meetings. "The lawmakers sometimes felt humiliated because they would wait until the top leaders in the front row raised their hands for or against any bill and other members would do so accordingly," stated the document. Nnnn ________________________________________ NC ESTABLISHMENT DISPLEADED AS TOP LEADERS OPT FOR CA ELECTION Kathmandu, 29 Sept.: Nepali Congress leaders have expressed their dissatisfaction over the lack of institutional decision in the party on crucial political issues. , The Kathmandu Post wriites. NC leaders are unhappy mainly with the leadership's decision to go for second Constituent Assembly (CA) without sufficient discussion inside the party. An informal meeting of top leaders held at Party President Sushil Koirala's residence some days ago had decided to go for fresh election. However, NC has not yet taken any formal decision on elections in the Central Working Committee. A number of NC leaders say party leadership made a mistake by agreeing to go for fresh CA elections during talks with other political forces on September 19. The party's CWC meeting has been deferred indefinitely. They say the agreement about going for election without agreement on formation of a national unity government and procedures of holding polls implies that PM Bhattarai's decision-- minutes before the CA dissolution--to hold fresh election on November 22 was right. NC had termed the November 22 election unconstitutional and blamed the PM for the CA demise. “There should have been a package deal among parties on issues like formation of a national unity government and amendment to the Interim Constitution and electoral laws before taking decision on CA polls,” said NC leader Purna Bahadur Khadka. Due to a 'flawed understanding' among parties, leaders said, though there has been agreement about holding CA election there has not been any progress in that direction. PM Bhattarai has refused to step down while the opposition parties, including the NC and the CPN-UML, are preparing to hit the streets to unseat the PM. “The September 19 agreement among parties created new problems and widened chasm among parties,” said another NC leader. The NC has demanded immediate resignation of PM Bhattarai to pave the way for the formation of a national unity government for holding CA elections. nnnn EXAMS PUT ON HOLD Kathmandu, 29 Sept.:The Institute of Medicine under the Tribhuvan University has put on hold the entrance exams for Bachelors of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS), Bachelors of Dental Science, Bachelors of Nursing and Bachelors of Pharmacy scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, The Himlayan Times report. This comes in response to last Monday’s Supreme Court order that directed the IoM to adhere to the principles of inclusiveness while enrolling students. The IoM is yet to work out new dates for the tests. According to the TU, around 11,000 students are preparing for the exams. In response to a writ for inclusiveness, which Niraj Kumar Shah and his friends had filed, the apex court has summoned IoM officials on October 1 for clarification. Narayan Khanal, legal adviser to the TU, said they had to defer the exams in response to the court order. He said they can reschedule the exams only after October 1. Though the SC had issued a similar order last year as well, the IoM had failed to implement the same. Khanal said, “The TU had allocated quota for Medicine students eight years ago in keeping with a decision of the Ministry of Education. The institute withdrew the decision after the Supreme Court ordered that the decision should be implemented by formulating necessary laws.” He pointed that the recent order of the Supreme Court is against its earlier order. blurb: “The exam postponement is in response to a Supreme Court order that has directed the Institute of Medicine to adhere to principles of inclusiveness while enrolling students” Nnnn INDIAN FIRM SUTLEJ GETS ARUN-III CONTRACT Kathmandu, 29 Sept : The government has finally decided to award the 900 MW Arun III Hydropower Project to the Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd (SJVN), India´s state-owned power producer, after the company demonstrated financial capability to bring in Rs 82.5 billion for the development of the project, Bhoj Raj.Poudel writes in Republica. A meeting of the Investment Board (IB) on Friday took the decision, approving the investment of the SJVN, a senior official of the board informed Republica. The board chaired by the prime minister has been empowered to implement mega infrastructure projects and hydropower projects such as Arun III and 750 MW West Seti. Arun III is a run-of-the-river project based in Sankhuwasava district and SJVN was selected to prepare its detailed project report (DPR) and develop the project through a global bidding in 2008. “The final approval means it can now start the necessary construction works,” the source added. SJVN has demonstrated how it would invest Rs 81 billion as fixed capital and Rs 1.5 billion for variable cost. It has also outlined its plan for laying transmission lines to connect the project with the national grid. The board meeting also approved the environment impact assessment (EIA) report of the 900 MW Upper Karnali Hydropower Project submitted by GMR, another Indian power developer. “The board has decided to ask the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology (MoEST) to speed up the process of approving EIA report of GMR,” the source revealed. During the meeting, Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai expressed his concern over the board´s failure to launch any concrete plan to kickstart the Nepal Investment Year 2012/13 campaign announced by the government to bring in US$ 1 billion in foreign investment. The prime minister also directed the Ministry of Finance to arrange budget necessary for the board to launch the campaign. Though constrained by the one-third budget, Finance Minister Barsha Man Pun, who was also present at the meeting committed that he would try his best to manage the budget for the board. Reconfirming Friday´s decisions and directives, a PMO source said that the board meeting also took decisions on forming a study team to manage Ratna Mandir in Pokhara in order to use it for revenue generation purpose and hiring new staffs for IB office within three months, among other things. A three-member committee comprising board´s CEO Radesh Pant, and joint secretaries from the finance minister and the prime minister´s office has been formed for hiring staff in the board within three months,” the source said. Nnnn ________________________________________ ' CHINA HINTS ACTION WILL BE TAKEN AGAINST DISGRACED LEADER Kathmandu,, 29 Sept : Disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai will "face justice" for litany of crimes including abuse of power, bribes and improper sexual relations with multiple partners, state media said on Friday, AFP reports from Beijing.. The report by the official Xinhua news agency indicated Chinese authorities were ready to come down hard on the one-time rising political star whose involvement in a salacious scandal has shocked China and cast doubt on a coming leadership transition. Bo "made serious errors and he bears the major responsibility" for the scandal that saw his wife convicted of murdering British businessman Neil Heywood, Xinhua said. In a simultaneous announcement, Xinhua said the Communist Party had set November 8 as the date for a pivotal party congress that will confirm the country´s leaders for the next 10 years. Both Bo´s fate and the date of the congress have been the subject of intense speculation over whether the scandal would unsettle the highly choreographed leadership change. Bo, the party boss of the southwestern metropolis of Chongqing, had been seen as a candidate for promotion to the party´s top echelons, but murder allegations against his wife Gu Kailai brought him down earlier this year. He was removed from his post and analysts said the affair exposed deep divisions within the Communist Party as he retains a large following among left-leaning party members. Gu was convicted in August of poisoning British businessman Neil Heywood after a multi-million dollar business deal went sour. The case torpedoed Bo´s ambitions of elevation to the nine-member Politburo Standing Committee, the elite group of Communist leaders who run China. Nnnn