NO DAMAGE IN BANEPA BOMBING Kathmandu, 3 Dec.; A pipe bomb explosion in Banepa Monday didn’t cause any damage. The bomb was hidden in a garbage dumping site. A pamphlet of Biswabhumi Sena Bishal Nepal was recovered The pamphlet warned against loot and division of the county in the name of of democracy and a republic nnnn HUSABAND KILLS WIFE FOLLOWING DISPUTE Kathmandu, 3 Dec.: Sanichari Khatun was battered to death by husband Shamat Miya overnight at Govindapur in Siraha following a domestic quarrel, Khatun died while being treated for injuries. nnnn. TOURIST ARRIVALS JUMP 11 PERCENT IN 11 MONTHS Kathmandu, 3 Dec.; Compared to the previous year period, tourist arrivals increased 11.5 percent in 11 month until November in 2012. Nepal Tourism Board said. Altogether 553,000 tourists visited Nepal in 11 months in 2012. Arrivals in November rose 2.2 percent with 59, 411 arrivals. But arrivals from China jumped 9.6 percent Arrivals from Europe and uSA also increased. Nnnn ANOTHER FINANCIAL INSTITUTION IN TROUBLE Kathmandu, 3 Dec.: After Crystal Finance, another financial institution promoted by the same group, Exim Multipurpose Cooperative, has landed in trouble due to unethical behaviour on the part of the promoters, Prithvi Man SHrestha writes in The Kathmandu Post.. Around 1,700 depositors have not been able to withdraw their money for the last year. The cooperative has deposits worth Rs 470 million, said the depositors. Crystal finance had landed in trouble due to a similar reason and the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has declared it crisis-ridden. Crystal Chairman Dibya Kumar Shrestha is currently behind bars. Shrestha’s brother Komal Kumar Shrestha is the vice-chairman of the board of directors of Exim, while former chief executive officer of Crystal Ram Prasad Hada is the chairman. Hada is currently on the run. Rewanta Bahadur Khatri, a porter from Yasam VDC-4, Okhaldhunga, has deposited Rs 450,000 — his earnings of 15 years — in Exim. “My mother is hospitalised at Patan Hospital, but I am finding it difficult to manage money for her treatment,” he said. “I am in dilemma whether to frequent the cooperative for my money or go for work.” He has not received his deposits since last July. Another depositor Gagan Pradhan from Jayabageshwori, Kathmandu, has deposits worth Rs 7 million stuck in the cooperative. His family has been depositing money in Exim for the last decade. “I have not received my deposits for the last year,” said Pradhan, complaining that every time he went to the cooperative office, they returned him promising to pay back his money the next day. Not only the general people, even Exim’s employees are not getting they deposits back. Keshri Maharjan is the assistant accountant at Exim, but she does not know how the deposits were used. Her family has deposited around Rs 3.5million in the cooperative for the last seven years. “We have not been able to withdraw our money for the last year and I have not received my salary for the last six months,” she said. Raj Narayan Maske, former peon of Nepal Bank Limited, deposited the amount he received after retiring at the cooperative in his wife’s account. “As the promoters were people I had known, I deposited here. But now I think all my earnings have gone in vein,” he said. He has deposits worth Rs 1.2 million in Exim. According to details unearthed by the depositors, Exim has lent just Rs 120 million, while its deposits stand at Rs 470 million. The cooperative should have had huge cash at hand if this figure is to be believed. But according to the Department of Cooperatives, promoters took most of the depositors’ money for themselves. “That’s why we have already written to the police to take legal action against them on fraud charge,” said Krishna Sharma, an official at the Division Cooperative Office, Kathmandu, which looks after cooperatives based in Kathmandu. Depositors are making efforts on their own to recover their funds by forming a committee. They are requesting the loanees to pay their outstanding loans. They said their investigation showed even lonaees were fake. “In one of the cases, a supposed loanee paid his loans instantly after receiving the loan and even got the receipt. The money was then used by the promoters,” complained depositors who had gathered at Exim office on Sunday. Despite being a cooperative, it was run as a family business with both Komal Kumar Shrestha and his wife Sunita Shrestha representing on the board. Going against the Cooperative Act, vice-chairman of Exim’s board is also on the board of Patan Cooperative, according to depositors. Likewise, treasurer of Exim’s board Saroj Chandra Pradhan also represents in the board of Patan Cooperative. On the other hand, Chairman of Patan Cooperative Nirmala Hada is the wife of Exim Chairman Ram Prasad Hada. Given this connection, depositors had tried to recover about Rs 40 million deposited by Exim in Patan Cooperative, but to no avail. “We were told that Exim’s vice-chairman and treasurer have taken loans worth Rs 20 million each from Patan Cooperative and that the request could not be entertained,” said the depositors. A study carried out by the Department of Cooperative with support from the Nepal Rastra Bank among 133 cooperatives over the last three years also found such anomalies in the cooperative sector. Nnnn DRAFT OF AGRICULTURE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY READY Kathmandu, 3 Dec.:The government has readied a draft policy options report of the Agricultural Development Strategy (ADS) with targets to achieve a significant growth in land and labour productivity, contribution of agri business to gross domestic product (GDP) and agri-food exports, The Kathmandu Post writes.. The report is the third phase of the ADS project to prepare a long-term vision with a concrete action plan for the development of the agriculture sector. The government has sought inputs and feedbacks from stakeholders on the draft. The Ministry of Agriculture Development prepared the draft in coordination with a dozen of donor agencies, government agencies concerned and farmers’ coalition. According to the draft policy, it aims to increase land productivity to $5,000 per hector from the current $1,600 a hector. By improving governance, the draft targets to achieve 5 percent average annual growth in agriculture from the current 3 percent annualised growth. The new strategy will also increase the contribution of agri business in the GDP to 20 percent from current 10 percent. Currently, the overall agriculture sector contributes 35 percent to GDP. As per the report, ADS will help boost agriculture growth through four strategic components — improve governance, productivity, profitable commercialisation and competitiveness. “We are in the crucial phase of drafting the policy that will guide the agriculture development,” said Prabhakar Pathak, joint secretary at the ministry, addressing a press conference on the progress achieved so far on the ADS project. He said after receiving suggestions from all stakeholders, ADS will be ready by Mid-April next year for implementation with a clear road map. In the first phase of the ADS project, assessment was carried out reviewing the agricultural sector, its trends, the key constraints and the policy and institutional issues and gaps. A vision was formulated for the long-term agricultural sector development in the second phase. And in the final (fourth) phase, the government will make ready the ADS with a roadmap for a 20-year vision and 10-year planning horizon along with concrete action plans. Purushottam Mainali, deputy leader of ADS Technical Assistance Team, said the country failed to achieve good growth in agriculture despite possibilities due to the lack of a clear long-term vision. He said the sector with a better road map would have a huge contribution to the economic development with its increased competitiveness and commercialisation in farming. Prem Dangal of National Peasants’ Network, who is also a member of the ADS Steering Committee, said ADS would be supportive to farmers, ensuring their rights and making them self-reliant. “We are making ADS transparent and democratic and it will be in favour of farmers.” ADS will supersede the existing Agriculture Perspective Plan (APP) that is phasing out by 2015. APP was issued in 1995 as a 20-year vision and strategy for agriculture-led growth, but it had field to yield desired results. As per the ministry officials, APP failed to address issues related to food nutrition, climate change and food crisis, among others. nnnn