THREE MEMBERS OF FAMILY KILLED IN BHAKTAPUR FIRE Kathmandu, 6 Jan.: At least three members of a family died of severe burn injuries after a massive fire engulfed their house at Taulachhe, Suryamadhi of Bhaktapur municipality-1 on Saturday night, RSS reports from Bhaktapur.. The fire that broke out at the home of Purna Bhakta Prajapati at around 12.00 last night killed three members of his family. The deceased were Purnabhakta's wife Laxmi Keshari Prajapati, 64, eldest daughter Pārbati Prajapati, 39 and another daughter Sajana Prajapati, 26. However, Purnabhakta and his youngest daughter Sirjana Prajapati narrowly escaped the fatal incident as they managed to run outside the home after knowing the inferno outbreak. Local eyewitnesses have said that mother Laxmi Kishori died in the fire incident while she was went to awake her two daughters on the fourth floor. The fire was taken under control at around 3.00 am with the mobilization of seven fire engines, civil police, armed police and locals. The fire also caused the loss of physical property worth more than two million rupees as fire raged valuables kept inside the home, said police. Nnnn MAOIST CHIEF THREATENS STIR WITHOUT CA REVIVAL Kathmandu, 6 Jan.:UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said that the country would witness a powerful movement for the revival of the Constituent Assembly if parties fail to seal a pact by Wednesday. The Maoist chief has warned that the nation’s politics would get polarised on the CA revival agenda provided consensus among parties remained elusive till that date, Anil Giri writes in The Kathmandu Post.. Dahal, who at one point was confident about the formation of a national unity government and later floated the idea of handing the government leadership to an independent people, is now less confident that a pact would be sealed within five days. “After a meeting with the President this morning, it is my conclusion that political complexity has taken a new turn. I do not see elections in April/May if there is no political pact by Wednesday,” Dahal said during an interaction with a select group of reporters at his residence in Lazimpat on Saturday. If the elections cannot take place in coming April/May, “national politics will be polarised, the parties will mobilise their strength for a new political set up,” Dahal said. “Public sentiment will, however, gradually shift towards the CA revival and a powerful agitation will take place to that effect. If elections cannot take place in Baishakh, there is no alternative to the CA revival.” Dahal also revealed that the major parties had agreed a seven-point pact during the run-up to the talks. “We had tentatively reached a seven-point agreement for holding the elections in next April/May, replacing the incumbent government in a dignified manner. But some hidden reason and some prestige issue derailed that consensus, inviting a serious political crisis instead.” According to Dahal, the package deal included holding the new CA elections on May 13 for 491 seats; formation of Truth and Reconciliation and Disappeared Commissions by political understanding; completion of the remaining tasks of PLA integration, including rank settlement; state restructuring based on identity and strength. Parties had also agreed to own up past agreements undertaken by the dissolved CA and make appointments to vacant constitutional bodies. The last point of the agreement was the amendment to the Interim Constitution. The task was assigned to solicitors representing major parties, including Law Secretary, to recommend suggestions to the President on the constitution amendment by removing constitutional hurdles. To complete these procedure, we had urged the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML to join the incumbent government for some days which would pave the way for Congress President Sushil Koirala to lead the election government, Dahal said. “As well as NC and UML, the President was positive to the idea. Later, I do not know how things changed gradually and turned totally negative.” Nnnn BANKS YET TO RECOVER 3 BILLION Kathmandu, 6 Jan.: Due to weak implementation of the verdict of the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT), 25 bank s and financial institutions (BFIs) are yet to recover loans worth Rs 13.09 billion from defaulters. The amount is related to 467 cases.Prithvi Man SHrestha writes in The Kathmandu Post.. DRT officials said the amount rose to such a high level due to accumulation of cases in which loans could not be recovered. The amount, however, may go up further as interests until the period of recovery should also be added as per the Act on Recovery of Debts of Bank and Financial Institutions, they said. Although the Act has stated that loan recovery officers should recover the amount and hand it over to BFIs concerned within a specified period fixed by the tribunal, loans have not been recovered for a long even after the DRT verdict. Loan recovery officer Indra Dhungana cited ‘multiple practical problems’ for the failure to recover bad loans. “In some cases, BFIs fail to show the property put up as collateral,” said Dhungana, adding, sometimes bank s themselves do not cooperate with the debt recovery officer, citing time constraints. As there are a huge number of cases, said the officer, the provision of a single loan recovery officer has also delayed recovery. “In other cases, loan defaulters move other courts with unrelated cases against loan recovery such as property and business transaction feud. And, the courts stay the auction of the collaterals, delaying the recovery,” Dhungana said. In a recent case, Ujjwol Kumar Karki of Bhuwaneshwori, Sindhuli, who purchased a piece of land owned by a loanee of NIDC Capital Market Govinda Prasad Shrestha at an auction made by the DRT, was not able to transfer the land in his name. The Kathmandu District Court had stopped the transfer of the land after Shrestha’s family members filed a case of property feud in the court. However, the same court ruled in favour of Karki a few days ago. In another case, Mahantha Prasad Kushwaha of Birgunj has not been able to use the land he purchased at a DRT auction. The land initially belonged to Rastriya Banijya Bank’s loanee Sumitra Kumar Devi. “People usually are reluctant to purchase property at DRT auction to avoid any possible court battle,” said Kiran Kumar Shrestha, acting general manager at Nepal Bank Limited (NBL). NBL has Rs 1.63 billion related to 120 cases to be recovered. DRT statistics show state-owned Rastriya Banijya Bank (RBB) has the highest amount to be recovered (Rs 5.03 billion related to 219 cases), followed by other state-owned bank s Agriculture Development Bank (Rs 3.96 billion) and NBL (1.63 billion). Among private sector bank s, Nepal Bangladesh Bank has the largest amount of Rs 804 million to be recovered. nnnn