PRESIDENT HOLD POLITICAL DISCUSSIONS IN NEW DELHI WEDNESDAY Kathmandu, 26 Dec.:President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav holds political consultations with top Indian leaders in New Delhi Wednesday, including his counterpart Prabab Mukherjee Wednesday—the third day of his India visit. Dr. Yadav arrived in the Indian capital Tuesday evening from Baneras where Baneras Hindu University conferred on hin honourary doctorate of law title. Dr Yadav will hold consultations with Prime Minister Manmohan Sinsh, SONua Gandhi and other leaders. Nnnn CAPITAL’S MORNING TEMPERATURE 3 DEGREES CELSIUS Kathmandu, 26 Dec.: Morning temperature in the capital Wednesday is 3 degrees Celsius. Mercuryis exected to rise of 17 egrees in the afternoon. nnnn COLD WAVE KILLS SEVEN IN A WEEK IN MOHOTTARI Kathmandu, 26 Dec.:: Cold wave, which has made life difficult in many parts of the Tarai, has claimed killed seven people during the past one week in Mahottari district, police said, Santosh Singh writes in The Himalayan Times from Sarlahi.. In a bid to prevent more deaths, the District Administration Office (DAO) of Mahottari has also shut down all public schools from Tuesday. With a blanket of thick fog continuing to block the sun across the Tarai, over 600 public schools were closed in the district Tuesday. The latest victim of cold wave has been identified as Bishwanath Sah, 50, a resident of Jaleshwar Municipality-6 in Mahottari. According to police, Sah was shivering with cold hours before breathing his last. On Sunday morning, Mishri Yadav, 60, of Bhatauliya VDC-4, and Binod Chaudhari, of Aurahi VDC-3, had died of cold. Names of four of the seven dead have yet to be confirmed, according to the District Police Office of Mahottari. Earlier, three persons in Rautahat and one in Bara district had died of cold. On Monday, a meeting of the District Disaster Relief Committee of Mahottari, which is headed by Chief District Officer Madhusudan Burlakoti, had decided to shut all schools from the next day if there was no sunlight. “It appears that the cold wave will continue for more days more, so we decided to shut down all public schools till December 30,” said CDO Burlakoti. In another bid to save lives from cold wave, the Mahottari DAO has also made arrangement for campfires in several parts of Jaleshwar. CDO Burlakot, talking to Republica, has asked people, especially the elderly and children, to stay indoors in the morning and evening hours. DAO Sarlahi has also provided firewood to the local people, who are vulnerable to cold wave. People have not been able to see the sun for the last two days in Sarlahi as well. Nnnn PART OF SARDU WATHERSHED STILL PRIVATE PROTERTY Kathmandu, 26 Dec.: The efforts of Dharan Municipality, District Development Committee and Civil Society to bring some land of Sardu Watershed area, which was grabbed by a handful of persons three decades ago, under the ownership of the government has been thwarted by a Supreme Court (SC) order, Rohit Rai writes in Republica from Dharan.. The apex court recently rejected the appeal lodged by the Sunsari District Development Committee and Dharan Municipality at the office of Attorney General to review the SC´s earlier two decisions that upheld private ownership of the land. It has recently come to light that the review appeal was turned down by SC two months ago. However, locals are of the opinion that the SC decision will have a grave impact on the Sardu watershed area, which is the main source of drinking water for people living in Sunsari district. The inhabitants of Dharan municipality had started a campaign to save the watershed area from the possible human encroachment by forming a Watershed Protection Committee. But with the Supreme Court denying review, 36 bighas of land in the watershed area will now be in the possession of 15 landowners. "Our efforts of years have done down the drain," said former Vice Chairman of the Sunsari DDC Banshi Moktan. According to the locals, the sardu watershed area was announced in 1986 and the private owners of over 348 bighas of land in the area were duly compensated. However, due to technical mistake some of the land had still remained under the private ownership. The locals said land mafia took advantage of the situation and continued transactions of the land. Meanwhile, landowners have said that they are ready strike an agreement with the municipality and DDC for the sake of public cause. "We are ready to leave the land in the watershed area. However, we will retain the land situated in the north from the Bedetar road, which is not in the watershed area," said Jagat Rai, one of the landowners. Nnnn PLABS AFOOT TO SELL EMBARRIES IN LONDON,D BONN Kathamandu, 26 Dec.:26 Dec.: An inter-ministerial survey team is likely to head to the UK and Germany in mid-January to take inventory and recommend whether it will be feasible to sell the Nepalese embassy in London and the erstwhile mission based in Bonn, both of which are in dire need of renovation, The Himalayan Times reports.. Talking to this daily, a source at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said government officials are likely to fly to London on January 15, though some of them are yet to get visa from the United Kingdom. Earlier, the Cabinet, upon receiving a proposal from MoFA, had formed a survey team to take stock of property details of both the embassy buildings and land area for their sale in future. Ambassador of Nepal to the United Kingdom is the coordinator of the survey team, whereas ambassadors to Brussels and Germany, along with six joint-secretaries — one each from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Law, Ministry of Physical Planning and Works — are its members. “Tentatively, the team is scheduled to fly to London on January 15,” said the source, adding that the team will spend one week each in London and Bonn. Talking to THT, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Narayan Kaji Shrestha had earlier said selling the embassy building and premises in London was a “compulsion, rather than a desire”. “We are in a quandary whether to renovate the embassy buildings with investment of hundreds of millions or to sell it and open five embassies with the money,” he said. The embassy is located at Kensington Palace of London, which is prime property and highly valued in England. Shrestha said the team was not for selling the property, but to take details of the property we own, and recommend whether sale or renovation was the better option. Three months ago, a survey team deputed from the British Palace had written to the embassy of Nepal in London asking it to renovate the building as per the local standard, for which Nepal needs to invest over Rs 500 million. Nepal government had expressed inability to renovate the embassy building citing lack of fund, which was followed by a heated discussion at the Public Account Committee of the now dissolved Legislature Parliament, where it was debated whether it was wise to sell the property. PAC had then directed the government to renovate it instead of selling the property. A section of the Nepali media and intelligentsia had criticised the government’s move to sell the London embassy when there was neither a parliament nor a full-fledged government. nnnn