LOWEST ROAD ACCIDENTS IN DASAIN IN 6 YEARS MESSAGE FROM HIS MAJESTY BIR FORMER KING EXTENDS VIJAYA DASHAMI GREETINGS. Beloved Nepalese brothers and sisters, On the occasion of the festival of Vijaya Dashami, I extend best wishes to Nepalese, living abroad and at home, for their happiness, peace, prosperity and progress. Since time memoriam, this festival has been celebrated as a symbol of victory of good and divine power over evil and demonic elements. Its distinctive socio-cultural significance epitomizes our shared faith in our traditional norms and values. It reminds one that arrogance and pride are but fleeting and only momentary, but that the universal virtues of truth and righteousness endure and ultimately triumph. Drawing inspiration from this occasion, we Nepalese should ensure that, our nation’s independence is steadfastly safeguarded, while her natural and stunning beauty along with her harmonious social fabric painstakingly preserved. Whether we like it or not, a time has come to ponder upon the current state of our society. It is evident that the people of Nepal want to see their country remain independent, her nationalism strengthened, and that too in an environment of peace, happiness and tranquility. I take this opportunity to express my total commitment to achieving these common objectives. May Goddess Nawadurga Bhawani always inspire us all in our Endeavour to fulfill these aspirations. Jaya Nepal! nnnn Kathmandu, 27 Oct The Kathmandu Valley witnessed five road accident-related fatalities during the Dashain festival this year. This is the lowest accident figure during the festival in the last six years. It may be noted that the Metropolitan Traffic Police Division (MTPD) launched a campaign against drunk driving a few months ago, Republica reports. According to the figures provided by MTPD, 108 road accidents were recorded in the Valley between October 16 and October 26 in which eight people sustained serious injuries and four had minor injuries. "The action against drunk driving proved more effective during the festival as 2,059 drunk drivers were penalized in the last 12 days," MTPD spokesperson Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Pawan Giri said. Similarly, 15 drunk drivers of long-route public vehicles have been prosecuted under the public offence act, informed Giri. During the Dashain festival last year, police recorded the highest road accident figure during the festival since 2007, when the police began keeping accident records. In the total 184 road accidents recorded during Dashain in 2011, 14 people had died, 25 were seriously injured and 117 sustained minor injuries. Police attributed most of the accidents to drunk driving. MTPD had deployed around 1,100 traffic police in the Valley even during the public holidays to check overspeeding and other traffic rule violations. In 2010, nine persons were killed in 109 accidents, 18 persons sustained serious injuries and 105 received minor injuries. According to MTPD figures, 132 serious injuries and 602 minor injuries were recorded in the past six years. Nnnn ________________________________________ NEPAL, BANGLADESH TO SIGN AVOIDANCE OF DOUBLE TAXATION AGREEMENT Kathmandu, 27 Oct.: Nepal expects to sign a Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) with Bangladesh in November. A high-level Nepali team led by the director general of the Inland Revenue Department Tanka Mani Sharma is scheduled to leave for Bangladesh in the first week of November for talks on the pact, The Kathmandu Post reports.. The Ministry of Finance said that all the preparations for signing the DTAA had been completed, and that Nepal and Bangladesh would close the deal within a month. “The government’s efforts to sign the agreement with Bangladesh will bear results soon,” said Sharma, who will sign the accord on Nepal’s behalf. “However, the signing date has not been fixed yet.” The government had planned to sign the pact with Bangladesh last year, but it did not happen due to disagreement over a number of issues including tax waiver for Nepali students. The government has been pleading with the Bangladeshi government for the facility. “Such unsettled issues will be resolved during preliminary discussions with Bangladeshi officials, and once everything is cleared, we will sign the pact,” said a FinMin official. The two countries have been exchanging drafts of the DTAA for many years, and the Bangladeshi government had approved Nepal’s last draft sent some nine months ago. “The Bangladeshi government has been positive towards our request for a tax waiver for Nepali students, and it has called us for talks,” said Sharma. The Nepal government moved to sign a DTAA with Bangladesh considering the traditional trade ties between the two countries and potential for growth in the future. According to FinMin officials, this is the right time to sign the pact with Bangladesh given the large number of Nepali students studying there presently, the agreement to open a direct route connecting Phulbari-Banglaband and the interest shown by Bangladeshi investors recently to finance Nepal’s hydropower sector. Signing the DTAA will boost the confidence of traders in the two countries, they said. Once the DTAA is signed, investors and traders in Nepal and Bangladesh will be freed from paying taxes twice in the two countries. This agreement is thus believed to play a vital role in the promotion and safety of investment. Nepal has signed DTAAs with 10 countries so far. It renewed its DTAA agreement with India in November last year, replacing the one signed in 1987. Nnnn CIAA TO TAKE UP CORRUPTION CHARGE AGAINST SACLED MINISTER Kathmandi, 27 Oct.:The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has said it will take up a bribery case involving former Labour and Employment Minister Kumar Belbase, Bhadra Sharma writes in The Kathmandu Post. “There is no way we can overlook a bribery case against the minister. We will look into the case immediately after the new secretary takes charge,” said CIAA Spokesman Ishwori Paudyal. Belbase had on Saturday tendered his resignation after the media made public a video footage of him demanding bribes for registering foreign employment companies. The video showed Belbase demanding Rs 250,000 from each overseas employment agency to register them as foreign employment companies. The minister had reportedly called representatives of nine manpower companies at his office to negotiate the amount. A total of 59 manpower companies are seeking registration after the government tightened screws on such firms, citing ever increasing irregularities. According to Poudel, the investigation into the case has been delayed due to the Dashain holidays and the absence of the secretary, who is also the acting CIAA chief. Ganesh Raj Joshi was brought to the CIAA from the Ministry of Agriculture last week. He is on a Dashain vacation and is yet to assume office. The CIAA is facing widespread criticism for overlooking high-profile scandals even as the government has suspended ministers involved in them. In October last year, a bribery case involving the then Land Reforms and Management Minister Prabhu Sah was dismissed after he stepped down. Sah, who is accused of involvement in the murder of Birgunj-based Hindu Yuba Sangh president, Kashi Tiwari, in 2010 had bribed Rs 800,000 to the Tiwari family to keep their mouths shut. Nagendra Jha, the then Joint-secretary of the Ministry of Land Reforms and Management, was asked to bribe the victims’ family members. However, the case was never investigated, despite the anti-graft body’s commitment to look into it. Instead, Jha was transferred to the Department of Survey, a “lucrative” office of the ministry. The CIAA has also not prioritised a fake certificate case involving Nepal Airlines Corporation’s former Chairman Manrup Shahi. Shahi, who had claimed he had passed the SLC examinations, has only completed grade eight schooling. He quit after the CIAA started investigating his case. In some cases, the government has failed to say why exactly action has been taken against a certain minister or government official. For instance, the government sacked Sarita Giri as the Labour and Employment Minister for trying to register manpower companies against government plans, but the CIAA never took up the case and the govt never made public the shady deals involved in the scam. nnnn INDIAN FOREIGN MINISTER RESIGNS Kathmandu, 27 Oct.:: India´s veteran Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna announced his resignation Friday in a move that clears the way for a long-awaited reshuffle of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh´s beleaguered government, AFP reports from New Delhi. The gaffe-prone Krishna, whose political career stretches back nearly half a century, said he wanted to make way for a younger generation while a senior member of the main ruling Congress party said he would be playing a leading role in an upcoming election campaign in his traditional fiefdom of Karnataka. "I am a loyal party worker," the 80-year-old Krishna said in brief comments on the NDTV news channel. "I will continue to work for the Congress party. I am making way for younger people." The resignation takes effect immediately and a senior official in the prime minister´s office said Krishna has cancelled a scheduled visit to Laos, where he was to have accompanied Singh, who is also aged 80. Krishna was appointed foreign minister in 2009 after Singh was re-elected prime minister. It was his first position in cabinet after having held a host of senior positions in the state government of Karnataka since the 1960s. He served as chief minister of the southern state from 1999 to 2004. Polls in Karnataka are due to be held in May next year and the battle for control of one of India´s largest states is expected to be fierce. "He wants to go back to his home state and work for the Congress party," said a senior Congress leader in New Delhi. "He has a stronghold in state politics and the Congress can win the election if he works for the party in the state." Krishna hit the headlines in 2010 when he read out parts of the Portuguese foreign minister´s speech at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council in New York. His impact on foreign policy was seen by analysts as being marginal, with Singh and his senior advisers taking the lead on crucial issues such as relations with Pakistan. Widespread reports have said that Singh is on the verge of shuffling his ministerial team with Rahul Gandhi, son of the slain prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, widely tipped to be given a seat in cabinet. Singh´s coalition government lost its parliamentary majority last month after a key ally, the Trinamool Congress, quit over a series of economic reforms. Having secured the support of a regional party which does not sit in cabinet, the government is in no immediate danger of collapsing. However the reshuffle, which reports say could be as early as this weekend, is seen as an opportunity for Singh to bring in new blood and thus revive his party´s prospects in the countdown to national polls due in the spring 2014. Nnnn