PRESIDENT CONVENES ALL-PARTY MEET Kathmandu, 17 Feb.: President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav has convened an an all-party meeting Monday. Parties in dissolved constituent assembly have been invited to discuss a controversial election government led by Chief Justice Khil Raj Regmi. nnnn REPAIR ON KOSHI EMBANKMENT HALTED Kathmandu, 17 Feb.:Repair works at the eastern embankment of Koshi river in Sunsari have been halted after engineers appointed by the Bihar state government of India went on strike from February 6, Abadesh Kumar Jha writes in The Kathmandu Post from Inaruwa.. The agitating engineers have halted their works to exert pressure on the Bihar government to address their 11-point demand. In absence of the engineers’ technical assistance, all works at the Koshi embankment have been put on hold. The chief engineer and his colleagues have not visited the site and their office due to their ongoing strike, a project overseer said. Twenty-four projects were initiated for embankment safety from February 1. The agreement was to complete these projects by next three months. The engineers’ strike has affected these undertakings. Nepali technicians said the embankment could face flood risk during the monsoon if the safety works are not completed in time. They said the water level in the river will rise significantly with the onset of rainy season, and in case the safety works are not completed before the time, they will have to come up with other emergency measures to avert disaster. On 18 August 2008, swelling Koshi waters washed away the eastern embankment at Paschim Kusaha, causing a devastating flood in Nepal and India. Thousands of people were rendered homeless. nnnn