TOURISTS HELPING TO CONTAIN FIRE IN NAMCHE IN EVEREST REGION Kathmandu, 14 Jan.: Tourists who flock the Mount Everest region are helping security agencies and locals contain a fire that broke out at Namche Bazaar overnight in freezing winter. Efforts are ongoing to control the fire. Other details weren’t immediately available. oMORE ELEPHANTS DESTROY 11 HOUSES IN THORI, PARSA Kathmandu, 14 Jan.: Wild elephant wreaked havoc in remote Thori VDC of Parsa district last night [Sunday], RSS reports from Birgunj. An elephant by the name Govinde, which entered the village at 11:00 at night created terror in Ward No.1 of Thori thereby pulling down houses of 11 locals including Arjun Giri and Tara Thapa, said teacher Prem Lama. He said the elephant has been terrorising the village regularly for the past 15 days. The government has mobilized a three-member team led by Rhishi Dhakal for controlling the elephant in Thori. The team has been making every effort to control it, said team leader Dhakal. More than 30 houses have been destroyed by the elephant in Thori in fifteen days, said locals. One Ram Prasad Moktan had died from elephant attack three months ago. Similarly, elephant also terrorised villagers in Bagbanna VDC- 9 in Parsa last night. RSS Nnnn RECOMMENDATION TO SUSPEND 62 MAOISTS Kathmandu, 14 Jan.: A UCPN (Maoist) commission, formed to investigate alleged instances of corruption within the party, has recommended a three-month suspension for 62 leaders, including some Central Committee members, in addition to relieving them of party responsibility for denying the submission of property details, The Kathmandu Post writes.. The commission, headed by UCPN (M) leader Amik Sherchan, even found some of its own members engaged in corruption and recommended action against them. A Maoist leader, quoting the report, said dozen of leaders at the centre as well as the districts have engaged in corruption, going against the party’s ideals. Submitting its report to the party, Sherchan said many leaders and cadres were amassing mass property, which is against the party policy. Leaders recommended for suspension are Politburo and Central Committee members. Maoist leaders, however, declined to provide the names of those recommended for action. “Many denied filling up property forms while dozens provided false information about their property,” said a member of the commission. The report has found that dozens of leaders were involved in financial misappropriations after the party joined mainstream politics in 2005. However, the commission granted a clean chit to top leaders of the party, including party Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai. According to commission member Navaraj Subedi, they did not find any evidences of top leader’s involvement in the corruption. He said that Chairman Dahal and PM Bhattarai were not involved in any corruption despite a number of complaints against them. The report states that complaints and charges against top leaders have proved baseless and ‘an attempt to assassinate their character.’ A top Maoist leader, however, opined that the commission was just a formality to grant a clean chit to leaders and that party headquarters would not make the report public. During the UCPN (Maoist) ’s seventh plenum, combatants had alleged that former commanders had misused the money allocated to them by the government. A complaint lodged at party headquarters Paris Danda had even claimed that Dahal had a business connection with Ajaya Sumargi, a noted businessman considered to be close to him. The panel was formed during the party’s plenum after cadres obstructed the extended meeting demanding an investigation into corruption inside the party. It had requested all 248 Central Committee members to submit their property details. nnnn RESTRUCTURING PLAN FOR RBB Kathmandu, 14 Jan.: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has sought a convincing long-term business plan from Rastriya Banijya Bank (RBB), warning that the failure to do so would invite similar treatment to the state-owned bank that other private sector bank s should go through in the case their capital adequacy remains poor, Prithvi Man SHrestha writes in The Kathmandu Post. “We had treated the bank separately until last year as it was under the financial reform programme,” said Maha Prasad Adhikari, deputy governor of the NRB. “With the expiry of the reform programme, we have no other option but to take normal course of action.” He said that the central bank sought a government approved comprehensive business plan to prevent an NRB action against the country’s largest bank . There had been discussion on the issue at the high-level Financial Sector Coordination Committee headed by finance minister on Sunday. “There has been agreement that the RBB will submit its business plan to the Finance Ministry for approval. The central bank will then monitor activities based on that strategy,” said Adhikari. Despite progress in recapitalisation, the NRB is concerned about RBB’s low business expansion. “Its interest income has not been sufficient even to sustain its operating cost,” said Adhikari. The RBB is preparing a five-year strategic business plan following the central bank ’s demand. The RBB has drafted the plan which has aimed to double its both deposit and lending. The bank ’s lending currently stands at Rs 42 billion which it aims to raise by more than double to Rs 86 billion. Likewise, it aims to increase its deposits to Rs 146 billion from current Rs 87 billion and bring down non-performing loan from the current 7 percent down to 2 percent. The plan also includes expanding branches and sourcing bank ing job to certain agency on contract in areas where it cannot reach. According to RBB CEO Krishna Prasad Sharma, the bank would present the draft to the board next week for approval. He said that the bank would achieve increased business with the existing human resources—the bank currently employees 2,600. He also said that the bank was conducting due diligence to find out its actual status and carrying out audit of its system through external experts. The bank ’s financial health has improved following a recapitalisation plan under which the government has injected Rs 4.32 billion. The bank ’s capital has for the first time turned positive by Rs 500 million after the government allowed it to convert special drawing rights (SDR) worth Rs 3 billion into domestic currency. The RBB had gone into a tailspin due to huge loan defaults. In July 2003, a diagnostic review of its financial status had detected a negative net worth of Rs 22.39 billion, with its non-performing loans accounting above 60 percent of the total loans. Subsequently, the government implemented the Financial Sector Reform Programme at the RBB by hiring a foreign management team with assistance from the World Bank. Though the scheme failed to restore RBB to good health and privatise it as expected, it did help to drastically reduce the bank ’s non-performing loans. After the programme ended in December 2011, the government appointed a new CEO at RBB in January 2012 through open competition. nnnn