SAHARA CLUB PLAYS MMC Kathmandu, 29 Jan.: Sahara Club plays MMC in the last quarterfinal of the Aaha Gold Cup in Pokhara Tuesday. Three Star Club[not RCT as reported] .was the third team to enter the semi-final Monday defeating RCT in a tiebreaker. Nnnn PROCEDURE RELATED TO 500MW PDA ENDORSED Kathmandu, 29 Jan: The Ministry of Energy has endorsed the Procedure Related to Hydro Electricity Development Agreement 2069, The Himalayan Times reports.. The procedure approved on January 23 and meant for projects below 500 MW aims to ensure clarity, transparency and proper management in dealing with survey licence holders and also to curb delays in the name of Project Development Agreement. The procedure has provisioned seven requirements for PDA, including processing fee deposit of 1500 US$ per MW in the government’s account as mentioned in the survey license for projects below 500 MW that are awarded without competition. Likewise, they have to submit copies of Power Purchase Agreement, Connection Agreement, letter of intent of financial institutions to invest in the project along with investors’ study and analysis report of the project’s feasibility study. Likewise, shareholders for equity investment have to declare 50 per cent of their property in the documents, according to the procedure. This is first time the government has issued the procedure to discourage the trend of holding projects for months citing the PDA, said MoE officials. MoE informed that the new guideline will deal with projects uniformly. It is believed that this provision will separate projects that need the PDA and those that do not. Besides the trend of delaying projects will be monitored . Most of the projects have chosen not to reach PPA with NEA and financial closure on grounds of the PDA. PDA is needed for projects that bring Foreign Direct Investment. However, multiple projects have been cheating the government for months and even years by reporting that their PDA is under way. PDA is a detailed project study that includes financial closure. Nnnn PRESIDENT CAN REINSTATECA SAYS JUSTICE SHARMA Kathmandu, 29 Jan.: A senior Supreme Court justice today said President Ram Baran Yadav can reinstate the dissolved Constituent Assembly to bail the country out of current constitutional and political crises, The Himalayan Times reports. . “If he feels that the CA was dissolved without completing its tenure, the President can reinstate it,” said Justice Damodar Prasad Sharma at a talk programme on ‘constitutional crisis and way forward’ organised by Constitutional Lawyers’ Forum in the Capital today. “The President can ask the Speaker to conduct the session; there is even no need of any proposal from the government for that,” added Sharma. The CA, which doubled as Parliament, was dissolved on May 27 as per an apex court verdict of November 25, 2011, in which a five-member bench — which included Justice Sharma himself — had given six more months to the constitution-drafting body to accomplish its task and had said failure to do so would lead to CA’s automatic dissolution. The bench had also suggested three alternatives, but neither the government nor Parliament pursued any of the suggestions. Sharma also underlined that the Head of the State can reinstate Parliament for the remaining time — implying 27 minutes which was suggested by constitutional law expert Chandra Kanta Gyawali — and proceed to find a suitable solution — fresh CA polls or any other option. Gyawali had suggested that the CA could be reinstated for at least 27 minutes because it was called dissolved by the government on May 27 at 11:33pm which was 27 minutes earlier than the time set by the apex court for its automatic dissolution. “The Speaker too can proceed with the needed action,” stated Sharma. Former Nepal Bar Association President Shambhu Thapa suggested to the apex court to take a bold decision to resolve the constitutional crisis. Senior advocate Bishwokanta Mainali, however, said there was no option left except going for fresh polls. nnnn