NATIONAL WOMEN’S FOOTBALL TEAM LEAVES FOR SRI LANKA TUESDAY Kathmandu, 4 Sept : Nepali national women´s football team leaves for Sri Lanka Tuesday to participate in the Second Women´s SAFF Championship in Colombo from 7 to 16 September 7 to 16. Nepali was runner-up in the first edition of the tournament. India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and host Sri Lanka are also participating in the competition although SAARC has eight members. nnnn RECORD CORRUPTION CHARGES REGISTERED AT CIAA IN 2011/12 Kathmandu, 4 Sept. The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) received a record number of corruption cases in fiscal year 2011/12 compared to previous years, according to officials of the sole constitutional body fighting corruption in the Country, Bhadra Sharma writes in The Kathmandu Post.. Of the total 7,000 corruption complaints registered at the CIAA in 2011/12, 110 cases were settled and subsequently filed at the Special Court (SC), whereas 67 plaints were filed in court in the previous fiscal year. The number of corruption cases lodged at the CIAA broke the commission’s two-decade long history. “We received more corruption complaints in the last fiscal year, which is the highest till date,” said CIAA Spokesperson Ishwori Paudyal. Statistics contained in the CIAA’s 2011/12 report show that the anti-graft body, headless for the last five years, has been receiving an increasing number of complaints. Of the total 7,000 complaints, the CIAA run by around 100 staff resolved a few cases on its own and took 110 plaints to the SC. Like previous years, many cases remained unsettled in the last fiscal year. In fiscal year 2010/11, 6,145 corruption cases were filed at the CIAA and the anti-graft body registered 67 of them at the court. CIAA officials said corruption cases are increasing due to government’s failure to ensure good governance in the transition period and growing public faith in the anti-graft body. “The state of good governance in the country is at a low ebbs,” said Paudyal. In the last fiscal year, the CIAA dragged former lawmaker Naradmuni Rana to court for his alleged involvement in misusing his diplomatic passport. Former lawmakers Bishwonath Prasad Yadav, Gayatri Sah and Shiva Pujan Yadav were also taken to court for misusing red passports and former lawmaker DB Karki was caught while receiving bribe. The arrest of Nagendra Yadav, the then personal assistant of former State Minister for Forest and Soil Conservation Laxman Mahato for bribery and corruption cases against Pitambar Pokharel of the Inland Revenue Office for misusing Rs 30 million and against 41 civil servants as well as members of the All Party Mechanism (APM) in Bara are some of the major achievements of the CIAA in last fiscal year. The CIAA, however, could not investigate the complaints related to amassing disproportionate properties by sitting ministers, politicians, top police officials and bureaucrats owing to several reasons. nnnn: UCPN MAOIST STILL BANKS ON FORMER FIGHTERS Kathmandu, 4 Sept.: A little more than 13,000 Maoist PLA combatants, after living in cantonments for about five years, were discharged earlier this year. While returning home, they had expressed different views regarding their future — some wanted to lead a complete civilian life, others wished to serve the party in their respective Capacities, The Himalayan Times writes. But on April 27, the Unified CPN-Maoist huddled the former fighters together and formed a group — Ex-PLA Association of Nepal — under the leadership of former commander Nanda Kishor Pun. The objective of the outfit was said to be keeping the former combatants’ spirit high and recognising their historical contribution. The move, however, has stoked fears whether the UCPN-M was planning to keep its ‘militant organisation’ intact. While inaugurating EPAN in Khanna Garment in Lalitpur, UCPN-Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal had said the association was formed with the view of keeping them organised and that the former fighters, disqualified combatants and Young Communist League members would have a greater role to play in the next elections. Now what Maoist leader Sonam Sathi says might give other parties something to ponder. Sonam, who is busy preparing the party’s statute these days, told THT that certain number of ex-PLA members will take part in the party’s national convention scheduled for January. “The party, however, is yet to decide the number of former fighters taking part in the convention,” said Sathi. But critics, who are already wary of the UCPN-M move of huddling the former fighters together, say by allowing the former fighters to participate in the party’s convention, it ‘wants to give recognition to them’, while other parties fear that EPAN could be given the form of ‘a military organisation’ to use it as a bargaining chip whenever the party felt the need. Military expert Indrajit Rai says the real intention of the UCPN-M was to keep the military format of the PLA intact so as to use it to garner votes in the elections. Rai says the ex-PLA members have yet to shun ‘their military attitude and have been involved in illegal activities’ and therefore they ‘could unleash terror among the people’. However, EPAN coordinator Nanda Kishor Pun claims that the ex-fighters will have their representation in the convention as party members and not as combatants. According to Sonam, some 6,000 former fighters have been transferred to YCL — UCPN-M’s most controversial youth organisation for its military structure and the activities it carried out. According to EPAN, it will have four layers — central committee, state committee, district committee and the village committee. EPAN gives membership to former members of party’s militia which was formed by the Maoists to wage the decade-long ‘people’s war’. Nnnn VDC SECRETARIES IGNORE GOVT. ORDER TO RETURN TO VILLAGES Kathmandu, 4 Sept.: In spite of the orders of the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development (MoFALD) to village development committee secretaries to report to their respective offices within a week about half of them remained absent, The Himalayan Times reports. About 20 per cent of the secretaries at the VDCs were found absent from their assigned places due to either their negligence or lack of working environment, insecurity and extortion. According to the MoFALD, some 600 posts of VDCs secretaries are still lying vacant. Some two weeks ago, the MoFALD ordered the VDC secretaries to return to their respective places within a week. “However, 50 per cent of them are yet to return to their respective assigned places,” said Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya, spokesperson for the MoFALD. There are 3,915 VDCs in 75 districts across the country. The government allocates a budget ranging from Rs 1.5 million to Rs 3 million to each of the VDCs every year. The VDCs have been running with a non-gazetted employee of the civil service for the past 11 years after the political parties failed to make consensus to hold the local body elections. At least 47 representatives were elected in each VDC to run them. One secretary has been working for five VDCs in some districts and they have been bearing the brunt when one person is sometimes involved in five criminal gangs for extortion. Incidents of extortions and ransom are increasing in eastern hilly districts, Tarai and even in mid hills. On the other hand, people are unwillingly forced to visit the VDC secretaries in the district headquarters for registering personal incidents such as birth, marriage, death and migration, besides getting recommendation letters for citizenship and passports. “We are seriously holding discussions about the issue of sending the VDC secretaries to their offices,” said Thapaliya, adding, “We will decide on what kind of measures will be taken to solve the problem within three days.” Of the possible measures that are likely to be taken, Thapaliya said, “We can take action or recommend for ensuring better security to the VDC secretaries.” According to the VDC Secretaries Welfare-Rights Protection Centre, a total of 18 VDC secretaries were killed during the 10-year Maoist armed conflict, before the 12-point Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA) in 2005. However, eight VDC secretaries were killed in the last six years after the agreement was signed. It is reported that the VDC secretaries are involved in the misuse of development funds allocated for the VDCs. The representatives of political parties have forced them to embezzle the government coffer. The MoFALD assigned the secretaries to run the VDCs after the direction of the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority to reduce misuse of funds in the involvement of political parties about a year ago. Nnnn SENIOR ALLY OF PRESIDENT HU DEMOTED AHEAD OF PARTY RESHUFFLE Kathmandu, 4 Sept.: China’s once-in-a-decade leadership transition has been hit by reports of fresh scandal, with a senior ally of President Hu Jintao being demoted after sources said the ally’s son was involved in a deadly crash involving a luxury sports car, Reuters reports from Beijing.. The car — a Ferrari according to some sources — crashed in Beijing on March 18 in an embarrassment for the ruling Communist Party, sensitive to perceptions that children of top party officials live rich, privileged lifestyles completely out of touch with the masses, the sources said. The country has already been rocked by the biggest political scandal in two decades — the sacking of Bo Xilai, an ambitious senior politician whose wife recently received a suspended death sentence for the murder of a British businessman in a case that also involved a mix of money and power. The car crash, the details of which are still shrouded in mystery, reportedly involved the son of Ling Jihua, 55, who state media said was dropped at the weekend as head of the party’s General Office of the Central Committee. It is a powerful post, similar to cabinet secretary in Westminster-style governments. Ling is very close to Hu. Ling could not be reached for comment on the matter. He had been eyeing a promotion to the Politburo — the party’s policy-making council — and to become head of the party’s Organisation Department, which oversees the appointment and dismissal of senior officials, sources said. “The central leadership decided that the scandal over the incident was too serious to allow Ling Jihua to be promoted, and Hu Jintao really couldn’t resist,” a retired party official said. Sources close to the leadership said three young people were in the car at the time of the crash, including the ally’s son, aged in his 20s. At least one of the trio died in the crash, they added, but the victims’ identities were unclear. They did not know the son’s full name. One source and a journalist who once worked for a party publication said the son had died in the crash, and the source added that the son’s death certificate had been changed to disguise his identity. The South China Morning Post first reported this alleged cover-up today, saying the son’s surname had been changed to Jia”, which has the same pronunciation as the word “fake” in Chinese. The newspaper gave the son’s real name as Ling Gu. A second source with ties to China’s leadership said the son had not died in the crash. The newspaper said two women, one aged in her 20s and the other in her 30s, were seriously injured. The Beijing city government and police have declined to comment on the accident. nnnn