ETHNIC POLITICS TO BE DISCUSSED MONDAY Kathmandu, 16 Dec.: Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN) has conened a meeting Monday in the capital of 13 fringe political parties Monday even as Ashok Rai, a vice-chairman of UML quit the opposition party to form a political party pushing ethnic politics. Monday’s meeting called by Chairman of NEFIN Rajkumar Lekhi will also discuss cooperation in promoting ethnic politics. nnnn ." SUNDAY’S MINIMUM TEMPERATURE UN CAPITAL 7 DEGREES CELSIUS Kathmandu,16 Dec.: Sunday’s minimum temperature is expected to be 7 degrees Celsius in the capital. Mercury is expected to rise to 21 degrees Celsius in the afternoon. Nnnn FIRST NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE TAKESOFFIN DHANGADI Kathmandu, 16 Dec.: APF Saturday beat the Far-West Region 3-1 in the first women’s football league in Dhangadi. Nepal Police defeated the Mid-West Region 8-0. Chandra Bhandari scored five goals. Nnnn AFP IN SEMIFINALS OF NATIONAL CRICKET TOURNAMENT Kathmandu, 16 Dec.: APF Saturday defeated Region-IV (Bhairahawa) by 183 runs in the one day national cricket tournament. The victory was the third consecutive win for APF. Region-I (Biratnagar) defeated Region-VI (Baitadi) Saturday. and are out of the tournament. APF qualified for the semifinals from Group A. nnnn. MEDIA GOOGLE “I hear that he [prime minister] has sent money to repay the loan, but I have not received it yet. It was not possible for me to welcome him without taking a loan, We have no schools, hospital, electricity or any other facility here. We were so hopeful that his visit to this village would be a boon for us, but it has turned out to be futile.” (Bishnu Sada, a Mohottari Mushaharin whose house PM Bhattarai in his get-to-know the downtrodden monthly programme, Repiblica, 16 Dec.) "The Indian government had requested for air marshal citing that TIA is not secured enough, to which I had objected and also said that we would do our best to upgrade the security system. I had requested them to help with the technical aspect. However, there was no mention of any immigration offices of any sort.” (Former Home Minister Bhim Rawal of UML, The Kathmanu Post, 16 Dec.) Nnnn EFFORT TO REGULATE MEDICAL, LAB. SUPPLIES Kathmandu, 16 Dec.: In its bid to regulate medical equipment and laboratory supplies, the Ministry of Health and Population has formed an eight-member committee to formulate a policy, The Kathmandu Post writes.. In the lack of a policy on medical equipment and laboratory supplies that include chemicals and reagents, various flaws have been seen in the reports of patients on a daily basis. Various laboratories showing varying results of the same test are also rampant in the country. The committee, chaired by Dr Tirtha Raj Burlakoti, chief of the Curative Division at the ministry, has Dr Radha Raman Prasad, director general of the Department of Drug Administration (DDA); Dr Naresh Pratap KC, director of the Logistics Management Division; Komal Acharya, under-secretary and legal officer at the ministry; Dhiraj Thapaliya, president of Chemical and Medical Suppliers' Association Nepal; and a representative from the Policy Planning and International Cooperation division of the ministry as its members. The member secretary will be a senior drug administrator from the DDA. Dr Burlakoti said they have started a series of discussions for a policy that will strictly regulate and control the quality of medical and laboratory supplies. "We have been hearing complaints of substandard chemicals and reagents entering the country. We will scrutinise all medical equipment before they come in contact of patients," he said. The policy will also address the issue of surgical implants and various other apparatuses, said Burlakoti. According to Dr Prasad, although they are yet to decide on the regulatory body, he hinted that the DDA could be one. The DDA is the body authorised by the ministry to regulate medical drugs supplied in the market. He said plans were afoot to amend the Drugs Act and if they are assigned the responsibility of medical and laboratory supplies, it needs to be incorporated in the Act. The government estimates the annual import of medical and laboratory supplies to cost over Rs 15 billion. The National Public Health Laboratory, the central government lab, will fix the criteria and standards for the supply of HIV-testing kit and other blood-testing kit. "The government needs to add a medical devices wing to the DDA and assign it the job," said Thapaliya. nnnn NC PROPOSAL FOR OUTLET Kathmandu,16 Dec.: Nepali Congress has proposed that political forces simultaneously agree on amending the Interim Constitution, fulfiling vacant constitutional posts, fixing the date of the Constituent Assembly election and handing over the leadership of a unity government to the party, Kamal Dev Bhattarai,, Pranab Kharel write in The Kathmandu Post. NC negotiators have said that all of these issues should be completed on the same day. They maintain that once there is a broader pact among the parties, the Cabinet would endorse such a deal and forward it to the President. NC’s fresh proposal comes in the light of UCPN (Maoist)’s latest position that the Congress could be given the government leadership if the incumbent government is first allowed to make constitutional amendments, fix the poll date and make constitutional appointments. Informed sources say that the NC proposal has come as a meeting point for both the Congress and the Maoists. While the Maoists had said that the government handover would be possible only after the completion of the aforementioned tasks by the present government, the NC had remained adamant that change of guard was a pre-condition to a deal on several matters, including the holding of polls. “This is a win-win situation for both (NC and Maoists) as it would allow respective parties to have their concerns addressed,” said an NC leader privy to the development. Once the outstanding issues are resolved, the head of the state as per Article 158 would remove constitutional roadblocks on the Cabinet’s recommendation and would appoint NC candidate Sushil Koirala as prime minister, the NC leadership has proposed. Both Koirala and Sitaula in their separate talks with UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal put forth the proposal on Saturday. “There has been substantial progress on addressing the issues through a broader package deal among parties and chances of reaching the deal are high,” said NC General Secretary Krishna Prasad Sitaula. The Maoist party is “positive” on NC’s proposal. But differences remain between chairman Dahal and his deputy Bhattarai on whether the NC and UML should join the present government to give it the shape of a national consensus. Leaders close to PM Bhattarai argue that giving incumbent government the shape of a unity government by bringing the NC and UML on board is imperative. Dahal loyalists, on the other hand, maintain that the Maoist leadership in the unity government is not unavoidable, arguing that holding the elections is more important than any other issue. Earlier on Saturday morning, Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai told President Ram Baran Yadav that he was ready to resign if the parties agree on ensuring the CA polls in April-May. According to prime minister’s Political Advisor Devendra Poudel, there should be an agreement on the election date, contitutional appointments and the Interim Constitution before changing the government. “Consensus is elusive as opposition parties are insisting only on power sharing and have shown no interest in discussing contentious issues,” said Poudel. Parties are mulling over holding formal meeting on Monday, the deadline set by the President to form a consensus governemnt, if the ongoing informal negotiations bear fruit by Sunday evening. nnnn