CAPITAL’S ,MINIMUM TEMPERATURE 14 DEGREES CELSIUS SUNDAY MORNING Kathmandu, 14 Oct.: Chilly mornings have set in The minimum temperature in the capital Sunday was 14 degrees Celsius and erccccuryis expected to rise of 28degrees Celsius in the afternoon. Nnnn PLA COUPLE NOW NA OFFICERS Kathmandu, 14 Oct.: Former Maoist combatants Ram Bahadur Lama and Bimala Panta have many things to cherish together. Coming from different castes, they not only fought shoulder to shoulder in many a guerrilla action against the state during the decade-long insurgency but also ended up tying the knot the Maoist ´janabadi´ way, Kiran Pun writes in Republica.. The saga of their heaven-made partnership didn´t end there, but took yet another unprecedented turn when both of them were selected for officer-level integration in the Nepal Army. Aside from this joyful couple, there are other interesting aspects about the 71 ex-PLA personnel who were selected for inclusion in the Nepal Army at officer level. Basudev and Madhav Ghimire are the only sibling from the former Maoist army to be selected for induction into the NA as officers. The two, however, decided against the integration of Basudev´s wife in the national army and persuade her to opt for voluntary retirement. Basudev Ghimire a.k.a. Pawel, a former PLA division vice-commander, has been recommended by the party for the rank of lieutenant-colonel, the second-highest position to be given to former Maoist commanders. Both Ram Bahadur a.k.a. Bibek and Bimala a.k.a. Birangana have been recommended for the rank of major in the national army. Ram Bahadur joined the insurgency two years after it was launched in 1996. However, he was arrested a year later and spent three years in jail Similarly, a brigade vice-commander in dissolved PLA, is the seniormost among four women selected for officer-level integration into the NA. Bimala, along with her elder and youngest sisters, were involved in the Maoist insurgency from its initial phase. When Republica contacted her for her comment, she didn´t hide her displeasure with the Maoist leadership for handling the integration process, which many former combatants considered a ´humiliating surrender.´ “I never imagined that the party would compromise to such an extent and the people´s war would end in this manner. I never thought I would be in the Nepal Army one day as an officer,” Bimala told Reublica by phone. However, she also sounded upbeat about her future and said she will apply her battlefield experience to advance her career in the NA. The Ghimire brothers, who are from Pyuthan, joined the Maoist party in the initial period of the insurgency. “While joining the PLA, I had imagined that one day I would be in the national army. I now feel proud,” said Basudev by phone. nnnn ________________________________________ THOSE WORKING FOR POVERTY ALLEVIATION MUST KEEP US IN LOOP Kathmandu, 14 Oct : Officials looking over affairs related to poverty at the Ministry of Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation (MoCPA) grumble a lot these days. They spend most of their working hours, even tea breaks, griping about what the government should have done for things to take off at the ministry, Rupak D. Sharma writes in Republica.. These conversations make them tensed at times; and at times they feel sorry for taxpayers whose hard-earned money is being spent on what they said was “worthless” things. But the fact that these officials seethe all day long, almost every working day, also indicates that they have loads of free time at their disposal. And that is because the ministry does not have line-up of programs to keep them busy. Like the MoCPA, most of the ministries in the country currently do not have many projects to implement because the government has not been able to come up with a full budget due to resistance from opposition parties. This has barred these government agencies from spending more than one-third of the amount consumed last fiscal year. The MoCPA probably would have been happy had it obtained funds proportional to what other ministries are getting. But formed only late last fiscal year with very few projects under its wings, it is getting miniscule amount. “The fund we have received so far is just enough to cover administrative costs and staff expenses. Whatever is left gets spent on holding few symposiums, and draft laws and bylaws,” a high-ranking official of the ministry told Republica on condition of anonymity. But lack of budget is not the only issue the ministry officials gripe about all day long. They are more angry with the government for not making a serious push to give recognition to the ministry. The MoCPA was established so that affairs related to cooperatives, which have expanded rapidly in the country, and poverty alleviation, which is the overarching goal of every government, could be dealt with separately. Since works related to cooperatives are merely transferred from the agriculture ministry, officials responsible for the cooperative affairs did not have much to complain. But since a ministry to look exclusively into poverty-related issues was formed for the first time, there is still confusion on roles and responsibilities of the new government body. “Rather than clearing the confusion, it seems the government itself has forgotten the objectives behind establishing such a ministry,” the official said, wearing a dejected expression on his face. As an apex body on poverty alleviation, the ministry has the mandate to form policies on poverty reduction, regulate all parties that are implementing programs on poverty alleviation and monitor the implementation of these programs. “But so far none of those implementing the projects on poverty alleviation have reported to us. As a result, we neither have data on ongoing projects nor on parties handling them,” the official said. Since poverty is a cross-cutting issue, almost every ministry in the country is overseeing implementation of one or more projects on poverty alleviation. Then there are INGOs that often incorporate at least one program on poverty reduction in their list of agendas. Add to that hundreds of NGOs that claim to run projects aimed at addressing issues related to poverty. These numbers add up to hundreds of projects which have a single goal of reducing poverty in the country. “Despite this we´re not kept in the loop,” the official said. For instance, the official continued, programs being handled by the Youth Self-employment and Small Entrepreneurs Fund are related to poverty reduction. “But the fund never informs the ministry about its works,” the official complained. “The case is same with many other projects.” To set things right, the government must issue a stern instruction to all concerned to report their activities to the MoCPA, according to the official. “This does not mean we are asking the government to involve ministry officials in all poverty-related projects. All we are asking for is a creation of system that allows us to track what is happening in the area of poverty reduction,” the official said. “If this problem is not immediately addressed, the ministry will gradually lose its relevance and we will be left with no teeth to regulate the sector and monitor projects. Eventually, this will leave staff with low morale, affecting overall work at the ministry.” Nnnn ________________________________________ MEDIA GOOGLE “As the Maoist party has never been serious about consensus, it has ever been elusive and there are no signs of it being achieved within the expected deadline.: (NC leader Arjun Narsnigh KC, The Himalayan Times, 13 Oct.) “The party leadership is divided and it does not have a clear stance and thought on national issues. The NC leaders are running after the assurances tempted by Maoists. So, the party is gradually losing both its direction and purpose.” (NC leader KB Gurung, The Himalayan Times, 14 Oct.) nnnn