CONVICTED OFFICIAL ON THE RUN ARRESTED Kathmandu, 10 Oct.: Dr. Yogendra Thakur, convicted three years ago by the supreme court and on the run was arrested by Central Investigation Bureau (CBI)of Nepal Police from his hideout in Thimi Tuesday. He was fined Rs.3.82 million for financial irregularities when he was district education officer in Dhanusha and sentenced four four-year prison term. nnnn. PRESIDENT WON’T SWEAR-IN NEW MINISTERS Kathmandu, 10 Oct.: President Ram Baran Yadav will not administer the oath of office and secrecy to any new ministers if caretaker Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai proposes expansion of the Cabinet, President’s aides said on Tuesday, The Kathmandu Post reports. The response from Shital Niwash comes in the wake of the “government’s preparation to reshuffle the Cabinet”. The President administers the oath of office to ministers, while the state ministers are sworn-in by the PM himself, as per the Interim Constitution. “The Interim Constitution has already relieved the current government of its responsibilities. Baburam Bhattarai is in the seat of the prime minister awaiting replacement,” said a President’s aide. He opined that PM Bhattarai would be taking advantage of the absence of legislature that can hold the executive accountable if he expands the Cabinet. PM’s preparation to reshuffle and expand the Cabinet has perceived as his attempt to show that the government is discharging its duties in a full-fledged manner. The aide, who wishes not to be named, said appointment of new ministers from a caretaker government would be like an eighth wonder. The President will have no option than putting the unconstitutional request on hold, he added. Last week, the Federal Democratic Republican Alliance headed by UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal had agreed to reshuffle the Cabinet. UCPN (Maoist) Spokesperson Agni Sapkota said the induction of new ministers would strengthen the government’s performance. Ruling parties have argued that there is a compulsion for the prime minister to reshuffle and extend the Cabinet if deal between parties is to be delayed. They argue that the performance of the government has been affected with prime minister alone looking after portfolios of several ministries including that of Defence and Commerce, and Supplies. Nnnn WORK AT CIAA COMES TO A HALT Kathmandu, 10 Oct.: As Secretary Bhagwati Kumar Kafle, the acting Chief Commissioner of the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority, retired on Tuesday, speculations about his successor at the anti-graft body are rife, Bhadra Sharma writes in The Kathmandu Post. .Informed sources told the Post that possible names for the CIAA post include Finance Secretary Krishna Hari Banskota, Secretary at the Prime Ministers’ Office Jaya Mukunda Khanal, Home Secretary Navin Ghimire and Urban Development Secretary Kishor Thapa. Government sources said Banskota is most likely to get the better of the others in the race. Chief Secretary Lilamani Poudel had asked Kafle to suggest names for his successor and the outgoing CIAA official reportedly suggested appointing either Ghimire or Banskota. The CIAA is without the chief commissioner and commissioners for the past six years. During his tenure, Kafle dragged around 34 senior police officials, including three former police chiefs, to court in the Sudan Armoured Personnel Carrier scam. The CIAA under Kafle had also filed cases against four lawmakers for misusing their diplomatic passports and tried to check corruption in the local level by dragging to court those involved in deforestation and misuse of local body funds. Kafle, however, faced severe criticism from all quarters for not taking up serious corruption cases involving sitting ministers and powerful party leaders. Around 400 corruption complaints have been lodged at the CIAA against ministers, including Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar, Health Minister Rajendra Mahato and Physical Planning Minister Hridayesh Tripathi. Similarly, several complaints filed against Maoist leaders and combatants on the misuse of funds allocated for PLA combatants were also left untouched. Maoist combatants are claiming that around Rs 10 billion allocated to them by the government was misused. In his recent remarks, Kafle had said that the CIAA delayed investigations into the PLA fund issue after the Maoist party formed an internal panel to look into the alleged corruption. 12 secy posts vacant Irrigation Secretary Brinda Hada, Secretary at the President’s Office Baman Neupane, PMO Secretary Tana Gautam, Women, Children and Social Welfare Secretary Balananda Poudel and Industry Secretary Umakanta Jha also retired on Tuesday. Secretary duo Neupane and Jha had already resigned, while the Cabinet approved their resignations recently. With this, the post of 12 secretaries are vacant now. A post went vacant after the government appointed Secretary Lilami Poudel as the Chief Secretary in August. Similarly, five positions are vacant after secretaries Abanindra Kumar Shrestha, Shankar Koirala, Sushil Jung Bahadur Rana, Trilochan Uprety and Shyam Mainali either went into retirement or resigned, expressing dissatisfaction over Poudel’s appointment as the Chief Secretary. The government is now preparing to appoint acting secretaries as the law allows the government to promote secretaries only twice a year—in mid-July (Ashad) and mid-January (Poush). Nnnn GAS CONSUMER CARD CREATES CONTROVERSY Kathmandu, 10 Oct.: Nepal Gas Dealers’ Union has expressed dissatisfaction over government’s decision to delegate the authority to distribute consumer cards to Gas Dealers Federation of Nepal, The Himalayan Times reports. Government, last April, had decided to appoint the federation as a facilitating agency for the Liquefied Petroleum Gas card distribution process. The union has blamed that the federation has been involved in corruption in the name of card distribution. Nepal Oil Corporation should distribute consumer cards instead of either the federation or the union, union said, adding federation has been enjoying political protection. Government has accepted the syndicate system of the federation by providing it a job that should have been carried out by the government itself, said president of the union Birendra Pradhananga. However, the federation has claimed that it has already distributed cards to more than 300,000 consumers. A total of 12,000 consumers throughout the country, and at least 2,700 in Kathmandu valley are affiliated to the federation, according to it. nnnn GOVT. SLAMS UN RIGHTS REPORT Kathmandu, 10 Oct.: The government today questioned the Nepal Conflict Report published by OHCHR in Geneva on Monday, terming it as a unilateral document prepared without consent from the government of Nepal, The Himalayan Times reports. The Geneva-based UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on Monday unveiled the 233-page report documenting and analysing human rights violations that occurred during the decade-long insurgency with the addition of an archive of about 33,000 case-documents. Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) today [Tuesday] issued a strong statement condemning and questioning the intent behind the report, which made strong calls to book the perpetrators of serious violations — both from the state and the insurgents’ side during the conflict. “As the report has been prepared without prior government consent and consultations with stakeholders, the process itself is not compatible with general international practice,” MoFA said in the statement. “Therefore, the legitimacy of the report itself is called into question.” “The OHCHR has not prepared this report as per the cooperation modality with the Government. Therefore, the Government of Nepal has strong reservations on the process and content of the report and does not own the report,” the statement continued. A top diplomatic source told THT that the government was going to write to the United Nations and the OHCHR Headquarters in Geneva, discarding the credibility of the document within a couple of days — in an extended version. MoFA took this step today after it failed to convince OHCHR Headquarters in Geneva and European envoys based in Kathmandu not to bring out the document into public domain. Deputy PM and Foreign Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha had urged envoys of the UK, France, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, Denmark, UNDP and EU chiefs in Nepal for their support on not releasing the document. The minister had argued that the ‘unilateral’ release of the document would undermine the achievements made in the integration fronts and the government’s effort to set up transitional justice mechanism. Likewise, Shankar Das Bairagi, Permanent Representative of Nepal to the UN in Geneva had also conveyed the government’s concern to the OHCHR Headquarter. “The Government of Nepal considers the publication of the report at such a time as out of context and as such it has no relevance,” reads the statement. “The report, published in such a backdrop, does not contain any positive aspects of the achievements made so far in Nepal’s peace process and constitution writing.” MoFA said the proposed Ordinance for the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation and Enforced Disappearance Commission is meant to address the concerns of wartime victims and their families and to impart justice to them. Analysts and human rights defenders, however, attributed the government’s denouncement of the report to the ruling UCPN-Maoist party’s fear that their top leaders might also be dragged into national or international jurisdiction of criminal investigation in future. Your blogger adds:“….the legitimacy of the report itself is under question,” said a press statement issued by the foreign ministry said. “The report does not contain any positive aspects of the achievements made so far in the peace and constitution drafting process,” the statement said. “It, in no way, denies justice to the victims and their families.” Nnnn MEDIA GOOGLE Chief Justice Khil Raj Regmi today said the court does not have any interest in whether or not political parties want to reinstate the dissolved Constituent Assembly (CA). He suggested that the parties decide on their own. (Report in The Himalayan Times. 10 Oct.) nnnn ________________________________________