PRACHANDA TO PAY BAIL FOR YOUTH WHO SLAPPED HIM Kathmandu, 11 Dec.: Maoist Chairman Prachanda has agreed to furnish Rs,28,000 bail for Padam Kuwar who was jailed Monday after failure to furnish the amount. Kathmandu district court Monday asked Kuwar after being convicted under a Draconian public security act for slapping the Maoist boss at a tea recpetionhosted by the party ruling the government. Prachanda was slapped before foreign diplomats, party leaders and other personalities more than one month ago at Bhrikuti Mandap in a serious embarrassment. Prachanda intervened Tuesday after donations oured in to release Kinwar who is now being released Tesday. nnnn PRESIDENTIAL DEADLINE WILL BE MISSED THE THIRD TIME Kathmandu, 11 Dec.: The third presidential deadline asking parties to assemble a consensus government headed by a prime minister acceptable to all by Wednesday will be issued. Amid sweeping differences between arties to develop a new power sharing agreement, the deadline given by Dr.. Ram Baran Yadav will be missed in threettempts20 days. The president hasn’t indicated his next move amid speculation he may extend the deadline again. Prime Miniser Baburam Bhattarai has been emphasizing a vote must be conducted to ensure gains of a transition But NC central committee member Narahari Achayra said Monday people are being fooled by talk of a vote. “People are being fooled. The vote can’t be held,” he said. Twelve year-olds six years ate now eligible to vote and they haven’t been registered as yet. Election commission has asked parties has demanded government to amend eletioon laws by 30 December t hold national elections as differences between parties have hardened wth the opposition vowing to pull down government. Attention is concentrated only on pulling down the government. The president is concentrating his entire attempt to form and government and hold election s with the help of the ruling alliance and two opposition parties— NC and UML’s calls have been made for involvement of small parties as well. ‘The president is the head of a four-party consortiums only,” said RPP-Nepal Chairman Kamal Thjapa. Nnnn UML CENTRAL COMMITTEE MEET CONTIUES Kathmandu, 11 Dec.: UML central committee meeting which continues for the second day Tuesday will discuss proposals of Chairman Prachanda in a political report presented Monday. Differences on appointments to top bodies will he held along with a review of currnt political issues. Nnnn TUESDAY MORNING TEMEPRATURE IN CAPITAL 6 DEGREES CELSIUS Kathmandu, 11 Dec.; Capital’s temperature Tuesday morning was 6 degrees Celsius. The mercury is expected to rise 19 degrees Celsius in the afternoon. S NEPAL OUT OF CRICKET FOR BLIND Kathmandu, 11 Dec.: Nepal lost to Pakistan Monday in the T20 World Cup for the blind by 10 wickets in Bangalore. Pakistan won the toss and sent Nepal to bat ; Nepal scored 89/20 in 20 oveers Pakistan hit the required runs in 4.1 overs without losing a wicket. Nnnn RCP PLAYS JHAWALAKHEL IN FOOTBALL LEAGUE Kathmandu, 11 Dec.: RCT plays Jawalakhel Youth Club in the Martyrs’Memorial A Division League Championship in Dashrath Rangashala Tuesday, Three Star lays Himalayan Sherpa Club in another match. mmmm KHANAL, OLI RIVALRY SURFACES AGAIN IN UML Kathmandu, 11 Dec.: : The rivalry in the CPN-UML between two factions -- one led by Chairman Jhalanath Khanal and the other led by KP Sharma Oli -- resurfaced at the Central Committee meeting on Monday, although it had been patched up earlier this year, Thira L. Bhusal writes in Republica.. The division between the two factions became very clear at the meeting on Monday when several members close to Khanal strongly objected to the party´s decision to change work divisions among the party leaders while some other leaders, loyal to Oli, defended the standing committee decision. Some members, including Surendra Pandey, Ghanshyam Bhusal, Yogesh Bhattarai, Jeevan Ram Shrestha and Thakur Gaire, came down heavily on the party leadership for removing Arun Nepal as chief of the party´s Europe department and Rajendra Pandey as chief of the state affairs department. Bhim Rawal and Asta Laxmi Shakya replaced Nepal and Pandey respectively. But other leaders such as Karna Thapa and *Khagaraj Adhikari countered their arguments, saying there was no point objecting to a decision that had already been implemented. A meeting of the Standing Committee some months back had made changes in the work divisions. Oli managed a majority against Khanal in the party´s elite body, with support from other key leaders such as Madhav Kumar Nepal and General Secretary Ishwar Pokharel. "Many of us [Central Committee members] strongly objected to the changes made by the Standing Committee with regard to the work divisions of some leaders and today we demanded that the Central Committee correct the decision," Yogesh Bhattarai told Republica. "We had to object to the decision because some leaders are overloaded with responsibilities whereas some competent leaders remain deprived of any important role in the party." He argued that the work divisions made by the Standing Committee were "unbalanced" and not judicious in view also of competition mainly from the UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress and emerging regional political forces. Karna Thapa, who is loyal to Oli, described the other members´ objection as untimely and an attempt to sensationalize a non-issue. "There is no point demanding a reversal of the decision because it has already been implemented and these are not permanent work divisions either," Thapa told Republica. Adhikari had argued that there was no point questioning the legitimacy of a standing committee decision because the party has been working as per many decisions taken by the same body in the past. Until last year, the UML leadership and party rank and file were vertically divided into mainly two factions -- one led by Khanal and the other led by the two top leaders Madhav Kumar Nepal and KP Sharma Oli. The leadership managed to patch up the factional feuding after Khanal proposed to elevate Oli to third position in the party hierarchy and settle other intra-party disputes accordingly. Some party leaders believe that the "unity between the rival factions" did not last long as the Oli faction again tilted toward Nepal and Pokharel instead of remaining loyal to the deal reached with the Khanal faction. Before the "patch-up deal between the Khanal and Oli factions", the groups led by Oli and Nepal had stood united against the Khanal team for over two years. Neither the Khanal nor the Oli faction commands a majority on its own in the party committees without support from Nepal and Pokharel. The alliance among Khanal, Oli, Nepal and Pokharel becomes significant also because the party rank and file have already started planning for the next leadership to be elected from the party´s general convention to take place after one year. Nnnn NRB ESTABLISHING DIRECT BANKING RELATIONSHIP WTH CHINA Kathmandu, 11 Dec.: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) is soon sending a delegation comprising senior officials to China to hold preliminary talks on establishing formal banking relation with China for trade facilitation, opening of Chinese capital market for Nepal government investment and increasing flow of Chinese direct investment into the country, Rupak D. Sharma writes in Republica.. Although the date for the long overdue talks with the People´s Bank of China - China´s central bank - has not been fixed yet, a high-ranking central bank official told Republica that the delegation could be sent within a month. “It will probably be headed by an executive director of NRB,” the official said on condition of anonymity. Contrary to expectations of many, talks held at this level are not expected to yield anything significant at the moment. “Our focus is primarily on establishing contact with Chinese central bank officials so that it could pave way for talks to be held at even higher level,” the official said. One of core areas of talks, according to the official, will be establishing formal banking relation with China. Although Nepali and Chinese banks are currently working with each other and extending cross-border banking services to their respective clients, they are at informal level. But once central banks of the two countries formally enter into a relationship, modes of cross-border payment can be diversified, facilitating trade between the two nations. Currently, most of the payments to Chinese parties are being settled via bank draft and telegraphic transfer (TT). These modes of payment are considered highly risky as they are similar to making cash payment, which raises chances of Nepali traders being duped in case of receipt of faulty consignments. Although the official did not reveal other modes of payment that would be discussed, other NRB officials said Nepal is looking forward to pushing the Chinese central bank to promote Letter of Credit for trading, use of which has been nominal at the moment. “If Nepal can persuade the Chinese central bank to introduce a provision that would make it mandatory for Chinese banks to accept Letter of Credit for transactions above certain amount, Nepali traders can benefit a lot,” the source said. This is because, under LC transaction, banks work as guarantors for amount that has to be paid by traders and payments are released upon receipt of consignments. Trading via use of LC also provides ample time to importers to mobilize funds as only small portion of the total payment has to be paid upfront, while the rest can be paid once the delivery of the consignment is made. But to formally start such service, the government first needs to get Chinese permission to open a bank account in the country. The fund parked in the account will work as security for payments that have to be settled by Nepali banks. Since the amount sitting idle in the account does not give much return, Nepal government, during the talks, will also ask China to allow Nepal government to invest in Chinese securities market. “If we can invest in Chinese bonds and even stocks, we can maximize returns,” the official said. During the talks that will be held between senior central bank officials of both countries, the Nepali delegation will also raise the issue of promoting Chinese direct investment in Nepal. “We have heard Chinese investors are interested in investing in Nepal but are being held back due to regulatory and administrative obstacles,” the official said. “The team will listen to grievances of the Chinese side so that necessary amendments can be made to ease flow of Chinese investment into Nepal.” Nnnn