PRACHANDA, KHANAL MEET Kathmandu, 11 Dec.: Maoist Chairman Prachanda and his UML counterpart Jhalanath Khanal held discussions Monday The two leaders head the country’s largest communist parties. Consultations were timed with UML’s central committee meet that began the same day The two top communist leaders discussed current issues and an end t a prolonged deadlock. The meeting came two ahead of a government threat to expand government of Baburam Bhattarai Wednesday if there was no breakthrough. Nnnn GOVT. FAILS TO ANNOUNCE MINIMUM SUPPORT PRICE FOR PADDY Kathmandu, 11 Dec.: The Ministry of Agriculture Develop-ment (MoAD) has failed to introduce the minimum support price (MSP) of paddy for this season. Despite the practice of announcing the MSP during the plantation or a month before harvest, the ministry is yet to unveil its plan, The Kathmandu Post writes.. MoAD spokesperson Prabhakar Pathak said that his ministry had sent its proposal to the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies for necessary assessment and approval to announce the MSF before sending it to the Cabinet, but the latter has not responded. Pathak, admitting that announcing the MSF for paddy has been delayed for this season, said it would not be effective even if it was announced now. Instead, the MoAD said that it was working to fix the MSP of wheat and other winter crops. “We [the ministry] failed to announce the MSP of paddy this season, but will do it regularly from the next year.” The MSP is the price at which the government procures paddy and it is also the minimum market rate. The government has moved to fix the MSP of paddy for the first time in almost one and a half decades. The government used to fix the MSP of paddy until 1996-97 but abandoned the practice due to inadequate storage space and infrastructure. The fixing of the MSP is in line with the recommendations of the government and the directives of Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai. The government move to reintroduce the MSP follows complaints that middlemen were determining the market rate. Last year, the government had used the rate of Rs 19 per kg to compute the value of the country’s paddy output. Meanwhile, the MoAD said that average price of mota (bigger) rice increased 5.2 percent this year. The average price of mota rice was Rs 1,980 per quintal last year, which now has increased to Rs 2,083 per quintal. Last year, price of the rice variety dropped 1 percent as against the previous year’s price. Similarly, maize price has increased 3.6 percent this year as against last year’s. According to the price list compiled by the MoAD, the average price of maize is Rs 2,255 per quintal. Maize price was at Rs 2,178 per quintal last year. Marketwise, price of mota rice is as high as Rs 4,000 per quintal in Kathmandu while Dhangadi and Bhairahawa have the lowest of Rs 1,650 per quintal price. In terms of maize price, Kathmandu and Pokhara have the highest—Rs 2,800 per quintal—while maize costs the lowest, at Rs 2,000 per quintal, in Narayangadh nnnn