PM ASKS COLLEAGUESSS TO BE PREPARED TO QUIT GOVT. Kathmandu, 12 Feb.: Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai told ministers as a regular cabinet meeing Monday to be ready to to quit government, day to remain prepared to quit the government, miisterial sources said. The government has been is offive for 18 moths and in uder pressure from oppoisition to resign to mak e waay for an election government of national unity. Premier Bhattarai said this even as he resists pressures to quit. Nnnn NISTRY PREPARING SECURITY REFORMS Kathmandu, 12 Feb.: Given the country’s fragile security mechanisms, the Ministry of Home Affairs ( MoHA) is bracing for a series of security reforms in the organisational set-up and legal and policy changes, The Kathmandu Post reports.. The ministry is working on revamping its intelligence gathering mechanisms, hiring new sleuths and giving a new look to domestic as well as counter-intelligence. “There is serious homework to be done and soon, we will come up with the concrete ideas. But due to sensitivity of the matter, we cannot disclose preparation details,” said an official at the MoHA. Upon the initiation of the ministry, the Cabinet recently endorsed a guideline on the management of confiscated weapons and explosives. The ministry is also mulling over bringing the Metro Police Act, which is particularly focussed on the Kathmandu Valley and will be simultaneously replicated across all big cities in the country. Likewise, the ministry is also working on a Nepal Police Regulation and new policy on controlling hooligans. “We are working on bringing out a new internal security policy as well organising a regional security conference in Kathmandu. Several legal and institutional reforms have been made and we will soon make them public,” said Home Secretary Nabin Ghimire. Several steps have been taken to revamp and reform internal security mechanisms from strengthening the intelligence department and the policing system to addressing the security of VVIPs and VIPs. “We are currently working on the final touches by amending the VIPs Security Directive and Management Guidelines 2010. The new guidelines will strengthen the security of VIPs and other persons,” said Secretary Ghimire. Besides deploying security personnel, the new Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) will also inform VIPs of their responsibilities to stay secure. “It is their duty to secure themselves too. They should not be dependent on security personnel all the time,” said the MoHA official. The new VIPs security directive, which has yet to reach the Cabinet, has come with suggestions on how to ensure the security of VIPs at their workplace, office, residence and while on trips. The ministry had further formed a panel led by Joint-secretary Shanker Koirala to revise security arrangements for state VIPs following the murder of Supreme Court Justice Rana Bahadur Bam and the slapping of UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal by a Maoist cadre. The panel has already gathered inputs from four security organs, which will be implemented soon after a nod from the Cabinet. The new guidelines are claimed to be more comprehensive as they will assign jobs to different security agencies in a coordinated manner, said a senior MoHA official. The new policy will carve out responsibilities to four security agencies accordingly. “The security ring for VIPs will be sterner following the implementation of the guidelines,” said the official. Once the guidelines come into operation, the number of security personnel deployed for the security of VIPs will almost double. VIPs and other personnel will receive overt and covert security cover according to the security threat assessment. Nnnn GOVT. NOT TO NAC TO PURCHASE AIRBUS- Kathmandu, 12 Feb.: At a time when the parties are negotiating for an independent government led by the chief justice, the government on Monday gave the go-ahead to the Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) to revive its old agreement with Airbus to purchase aircraft, The Kathmandu Post reports. A Cabinet meeting on Monday took a decision to this effect. The Cabinet move follows the Supreme Court’s decision that the now-defunct Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC) order to the government to cancel the deal on Dec 28, 2009, was interference in NAC’s matters and the order does not hold any legality. “Against the backdrop that the government has already agreed to provide guarantee for the purchase of the aircraft, the Cabinet decided to remove all the barriers and directed the NAC to purchase two aircraft from Airbus,” said Ek Nath Dhakal, Minister for Cooperative. The Supreme Court (SC) had issued the verdict on April 24, 2012. “The PAC directives to stop the deal do not hold any legality and is an absolute interference on NAC,” the court decision stated. Following the SC decision, the Tourism Ministry had asked the government to remove all the legal hurdles obstructing the NAC form reviving the old deal signed with Airbus. “We (the Ministry) had asked the government to allow us to revive the deal with Airbus after the SC verdict,” said a top-level ministry official. On Oct 26, 2009, the NAC board had decided to purchase two aircraft from Airbus—an Airbus A320-200 (narrow body) and an A330-200 (wide body)—to expand its international fleet. However, with controversy surrounding the purchase process, the now-defunct PAC had directed the government to cancel the deal. Subsequently on May 25, 2010, the Ministry of Finance directed the Tourism Ministry to scrap the purchase process. “As of now, NAC and government officials were handicapped with the PAC decision,” the official said, adding that now all legal hurdles have been removed to get back into the old process. On August 1, 2012, the Cabinet had approved a proposal submitted by the ministry to allow the ailing airline to buy two jets. In November last year, an NAC team had invited Airbus officials to settle any possible legal hurdles due to past agreements to begin a fresh aircraft purchase process. However, the issue was not discussed extensively. Airbus has reiterated to supply jets to NAC under the same agreement signed three years ago, but has said the price quoted at the time will not remain the same. Airbus had quoted $41.28 million for an A320-200 (narrow body) aircraft and $92.84 million for A330-200 (wide body) aircraft on November 6, 2009. nnnn