ROAD FOR CONSENSUS URGED BY LEGAL PRACTIONERS Kathmandu, 8 Jan.: The legal practitioners have urged President Dr Ram Baran Yadav to end the unending series of deadline extension for the formation of a national unity government and suggested that the President should ask the political parties represented in the dissolved constituent assembly (CA) to table a roadmap for consensus, RSS reports. Legal practitioners Dr Bhimarjun Acharya, Dr Purna Man Shakya, Bipin Adhikari and Madhav Basnet, among others had reached the Shital Niwas today. Legal practitioner Dr Acharya said they suggested the President to give a collective responsibility to the political parties to forge consensus by ending the trend of only deadline extension. During the meeting held at the President's Office, Shital Niwas, President Dr Yadav had inquired about his roles and possible measures that he can implement to give an outlet to the country. Similarly, President Yadav had also inquired about the issue of CA revival, one of the proposals floated by the UCPN-Maoist to end the present political deadlock. On the occasion, the legal practitioners told the President that political consensus should be stressed as the President himself was not in a position to do anything nnnn DONATION DRIVE HITS HOTELIERS Kathmandu, 8 Jan.:: The donation drive launched by CPN-Maoist has made the hoteliers switch off their cell phones and skip their offices since a couple of weeks, Kuvera . Chalise writes in The Himalayan Times. tFor the last few weeks, Mohan Baidhya-led CPN-Maoist cadres have been terrorising the hoteliers through their donation drive for their national convention scheduled for January 9 in Kathmandu. The hoteliers have been in a difficult position after the CPN-Maoist — a break-away faction of UCPN-Maoist — has started asking them economic support and accommodation but they neither can go to police to file complaints nor can they deny donation and accommodation, the hotelier said, adding that the forceful donation drive has discouraged them. Though the letters have not stated specific amount, the CPN-Maoist cadres visit the hoteliers directly asking for donations and accommodation for their seventh national convention. "Since its a tourist season, we cannot make any show before the guests," another hotelier said. But a CPN-Maoist leader Ramdip Acharya refuted the claim of terrorising the hoteliers. "We have only asked for help," he said, adding that the big hotels have been asked to accommodate four-five of our friends and small ones have been requested to accommodate two-three, according to their capacity. However, the entrepreneurs have been asking the government to make the donation transparent nnnn OPPOSITION MULL OPTIONS TO BREAK IMPASSE Kathmandu, 8 Jan.: As major political parties failed to give any solution in ending the protracted deadlock despite rounds of talks for months, leaders of opposition parties, including Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML, have lately started to discuss about alternative plans on breaking the impasse, Thjira L. Bhusal writes in Republica.. Various leaders within the NC and UML argued that they shouldn´t remain indecisive for long as it would only benefit Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai. They admit that confusion reigns in both the parties as their leaders are in a fix. Groups of leaders within the NC and CPN-UML have lately argued that it is high time the opposition alliance led by the NC and CPN-UML came up with some alternative plans as Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai was benefiting from the opposition´s firm stance in favor of Sushil Koirala´s candidacy and their lack of alternative options. The NC and UML-led opposition alliance last month proposed Koirala as its common prime ministerial candidate. But the standoff between the opposition and ruling alliance deepened as the opposition demanded immediate exit of the prime minister while the ruling camp rejected Koirala´s candidacy outright. "Leaders have lately realized the need for an alternative plan. It is palpable in opposition parties but no one is ready to speak out within the NC and other parties as well," an NC leader told Republica preferring anonymity. Since Koirala´s candidacy was unanimously proposed by the NC´s Central Working Committee, it is unlikely that the same body will change the decision because Koirala commands majority in the party´s central body. Some leaders believe that the NC may choose to stand for revival of the dissolved Constituent Assembly (CA) instead of seeking yet another prime ministerial candidate because former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and party´s Vice-President Ram Chandra Paudel are still for seeking political solutions by reinstating the elected body. "The NC is still unanimous in favor of Koirala´s candidacy. If the party came to a conclusion that the chances of party president becoming prime minister is slim, the party is likely to go for CA revival instead of seeking another prime ministerial candidate," former NC lawmaker Ramesh Lekhak, who is believed to be close to Deuba, told Republica. While conceding that a sense of confusion is palpable in the opposition parties in the recent days, UML leaders said the onus is on the NC and Koirala. They said the UML and its leaders cannot take any decision since the party has already taken an institutional decision in favor of Koirala´s candidacy. A UML leader said his party can´t change its official decision because there is no any contextual change nor is there a logical ground to withdraw its support. UML´s youth leader Rajan Bhattarai said it is the NC that needed to clarify over various options discussed in the recent days. He said the NC should make it clear if the party still wants to give continuity to Koirala´s candidacy by convincing other parties about the relevance of his candidacy with strong grounds. "It is the NC that should look for alternatives. UML and other opposition parties can´t do it at first because they can´t break their promise," Bhattarai said. "And it is the NC that should make announcement if the opposition parties need to go for agitation to unseat the government." Nnnn INCEASE CAPITAL SPENDING SAYS MoF Kathmandu, 8 Jan.: As dismal capital spending casts a dark shadow on the country´s economy, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) on Monday called a meeting of top officials of two important ministries and instructed them to raise their capital spending to at least 25 percent of their respective annual budgetary allocations by mid-January 2012, Republica reports.. The MoF also asked them to come up with a clear spending plan so that the government could be assured that cent percent of capital budget allocated to them for development purposes will be spent by the end of 2012/13. The MoF issued the stern instructions to the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction (MoPR) and the Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation (MoFSC) after they continued to drag their feet to even get their top priority (P1) programs approved from the National Planning Commission. Officials of the MoPR, during the meeting, reported that the ministry´s capital spending so far remains dismally low at 5.69 percent of the annual allocation. The MoFSC too reported its capital spending at a meager 11.23 percent of its total annual capital budget. “Capital spending for this fiscal year is already low as we could not set aside even what we spent in 2011/12. And the nightmare for us and economy is that the trend suggests some of the important ministries might not even be able to spend this lowered capital allocations,” said Finance Secretary Shanta Raj Subedi. In order to assure a sharp turnaround in the situation, Subedi instructed the secretaries of the two ministries to significantly jack up their capital spending. “You must increase your capital spending to at least 25 percent (of annual allocations) by the first half of this fiscal year,” said Subedi. He also asked them to develop a clear spending plan and adhere to it so that they could be able to fully utilize development budget allocated to them. Addressing the secretaries, Finance Minister Barsha Man Pun informed them that dismal capital spending would slow consumption, thereby denting the overall economic growth outlook of the country. Dhruba Kumar Sharma, secretary of MoPR, and Krishna Chandra Pokharel, secretary of MoFSC, were present at the meeting. Nnnn NEPALI STUDENT MISSING IN UK Kathmandu, 8 Jan.: A Nepali student has gone missing from Elm Row, Edinburgh, in the United Kingdom since December 26, Lothian and Borders Police of Scotland said, Thee Kathmandu Post reports from London. Sanjaya Dhital, 22, from Kathmandu, who came to the country two years ago, was studying in Edinburgh's Telford College. Chairman of the Nepal Scotland Association Bhola Khanal said a search for the missing boy is ongoing, keeping in contact with the police. He said that he is in contact with Sanjaya's father, who is currently serving in a battlefield in Afghanistan. Sanjaya's friends said he told them that he had stress and wanted to return to Nepal. nnnn