CHIEF JUSTICE REGMI STILL RELUCTANT TO TAKE UP JOB OF PM UPDATE Kathmandu, 20 Feb.: Chief Justice Khem Raj Regmi didn’t accept an offer Wednesday evening from four top leaders of the Big Three and Madeshbadi Morcha to take up leadership of an election government. A meeting between Regmi and the party leaders concluded at 9.30 late Wednesday night. nnnn RELATIVES OF PARAS SHAH FLY FOR BANGKOK TO BE WITH HIM Kathmandu, 20 Feb.:Five members of the former royal family flew Wednesday for Bangkok where former Crown Prince Paras Shah is under medical care at a hospital since Tuesday night following a heart attack. Sister Prerana Singh, cousins Dilasha Shahi and Pooja Shahi, and their husbands Dr. Rajiv Raj Shahi and Adarsha Bikram Rana flew for the Thai capital to be with Paras, aide Phaniraj Pathak said. Former Crown Princess Himani in in the capital looking after daughter Kritika who underwent surgery at a hospital for appendicitis Nnnn GOVT. TO RUN PHARMACIES AT HOSPITALS Kathmandu, 20 Feb.: The Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) is going to operate pharmacies itself at all the hospitals under it, RSS reports.. The Ministry says the preparation of policy to run pharmacies has reached the final phase. MoHP is to run pharmacies at the hospitals under it after public complaints were received against pharmacies selected through open competition by hospitals. Secretary at the Ministry, Dr. Praveen Mishra, said that the Ministry has directed hospitals to make necessary preparation to run pharmacies itself and not to call for new bids. Health services have been provided through more than 100 hospitals including central, zonal and district level hospitals under the Ministry. Pharmacies have been run at the premises of such hospitals and outside of hospital by private sector through open competition. Meanwhile, the Ministry has got permission from the cabinet to assign 330 specialist doctors to fulfill the vacant posts. Chief of the Medical Division at the Ministry, Prof. Dr. Tirtha Burlakoti said that works related to this would be forwarded soon. nnnn NC LEADERSHIP COMMITTED TO SEPARATION OF POWERS Kathmandu, 20 Feb.: Nepali Congress top leaders have expressed commitment to abiding by the principle of separation of powers and democratic norms and values while making any agreement of national interest, RSS reports.. They pledged not to sign any agreement that would be in violation of democracy and principle of separation of powers. "We could not go beyond the central committee´s meeting decision while seeking an outlet to the nation from the existing crisis", they said. Opening the seventh general convention of Nepal Teachers´ Association in the capital from Wednesday, the Congress leaders reiterated that fresh election to the Constituent Assembly was the first priority of the hour and an exit of the incumbent government was a must to ensure the election. Party President Sushil Koirala said the Congress was always committed to supremacy of democracy. A dispute arose over the matter of giving the leadership of an election government to Chief justice Khilaraj Regmi just because of the UCPN (Maoist), he said. The nation is in shambles following prolonged political and constitutional deadlock, Congress President Koirala said. Similarly, senior leader Sher Bahadur Deuba said finding a way out from the present crisis was the most important task of the day. He vowed to seek a solution to the problem, keeping the principle of separation of powers, judiciary, democracy and party´s decision in top priority. Likewise, party Vice President Ram Chandra Poudel said fresh CA election was the prime issue of the hour and removal of the incumbent government was necessary to address such issue. The Congress would never undermine the principle of separation of powers and democratic norms and values, he added. The general convention began under the slogan of ´Satisfied teacher, education, democracy and prosperous nation: our commitments´ will conclude on February 23, electing a new leadership for the Association. As many as 560 teachers across the country are taking part in the general convention. On the occasion, party President Koirala hnoured Association former presidents Keshab Prasad Bhattarai and Devendra Prasad Upadhyay and CNN Hero Anuradha Koirala. nnnn INDA STRIKE CRIPPLES NEW DELHI: Many Indian banks were closed and public transport disrupted on Wednesday because of a strike by trade unions protesting against high prices but the capital, New Delhi, and business centre, Mumbai, were mostly unaffected and financial markets were open, Reuters reports from New Delhi. Violence erupted in some places on the first day of a two-day strike as workers, angry about high fuel prices in particular, tried to keep vehicles off the roads. One union member was killed in the northern city of Ambala, media said. The strike comes as the beleaguered government prepares to present an austerity budget to parliament and as it weathers a corruption scandal in a big arms deal. Parliament begins its budget session on Thursday and the government is to present its expenditure plan for fiscal 2013/14 (April-March) next week. Several officials have told Reuters the government will slash a public spending target by up to 10 percent to avoid a sovereign credit downgrade, even though that will not go down well in a high inflation environment. The government is also on the back foot over accusations by Italian police that officials from defense group Finmeccanica paid bribes in a $750 million deal to sell India VIP helicopters manufactured by its Anglo-Italian subsidiary AgustaWestland. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is grappling with the worst economic slowdown in a decade and faces a general election early next year, had asked the unions to call off the strike, but they refused. "We want the government to take note of this," said Akhtar Hussain, vice-president of the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, or Indian Workers' Union. "They think they can turn a blind eye to our demands, but they must know that enough is enough. We need our demands to be met. The government needs to be more serious." In New Delhi and Mumbai, bus and suburban train services were running without disruption. Some taxis were off the roads but offices and schools were open. Elsewhere, however, public transport was not running, banks were closed and most shops and offices kept their shutters down. In Bhubaneswar, the capital of Odisha state in the east, protesters set fire to effigies of Singh and ruling Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi. Several trains were stranded at stations as protesters blocked railway tracks. In the western state of Gujarat, close to 8,000 state-owned buses were off the roads, officials said. Banking services were also disrupted as thousands of bank employees joined the strike. The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry said on Tuesday that the two-day strike was expected to cause an estimated loss of 150 billion-200 billion rupees ($2.8 billion-$3.8 billion), hurting sectors such as banking, insurance and transport. nnnn