INDO-NEPAL SECURITY TALKS WEDNESDAY Kathmandu, 13 March: Two-day Indo-Nepal home secretary level talks in the Nepalese capital Wednesday. Cross-border crime, security and other issues will be reviewed. Nepali side will be led by Home Secretary Nabin Ghimere.and Indian side by his counterpart RK Singh. Talks are held alternately in Kathmandu and New Delhi. nnnn PARTIES IN DISSOLVED ASSEMBLY GET ELECTION ADVANTAGE WITHOUT SURETY OF VOTE Kathmandu, 13 March: A draft prepared by the parties , which seeks to remove constitutional hurdles in holding fresh Constituent Assembly (CA) elections in June, has allowed political parties represented in the erstwhile Constituent Assembly to register with the Election Commission (EC) without producing the required 10,000 voters’ signatures, Bhadra Sharma writes in The Kathmandu Post.. Legally, all political parties interested in contesting the polls need to be re-registered with the EC prior to the elections. The 2007 Interim Constitution has a provision requiring the support and signatures of at least 10,000 voters before party registration, exempting those parties represented in the Legislature-Parliament of 2006. “...political parties represented in the CA need not submit signatures of 10,000 supporters before registering their party for the upcoming CA elections,” reads point number 16 of the proposed draft. If the draft is endorsed without amendment, parties represented in the old CA will be registered with ease, but new ones will need to produce the required number of signatures. Following various splits in major parties , the number of the parties looking to contest the elections has shot up to 33 from the earlier 25. The draft has also proposed holding fresh CA polls by mid-June and granting voting rights to those who attain the age of 18 years by mid-April 2012. However, EC officials expressed displeasure with the age bar for the voting rights, arguing that the provision will bar a significant number of voters from exercising their franchise. “While we are going to hold polls in June 2013, it will not be wise to grant voting rights to those who reached 18 years by April 2012,” said a senior EC official. The election-related provisions in the draft, according to EC officials, were drafted without consulting them. According to the draft, however, no changes have been made to election constituencies. The draft further states that the term of the next CA will be five years, after which, it will automatically transform into the Legislature-Parliament. Nepal’s historic CA, which was elected in 2008, was dissolved after it failed to take unanimous positions on key issues of the constitution—federalism, forms of governance and identity politics—along with a harsh debate among parties on whether to transform the CA into a legislature. Nnnn FLOW OF NEPALI CAREGIVERS TO ISRAEL BEGINS THROUGH GOVT. CHANNEL Kathmandu, 13 March: The government has started sending 300 workers as caregivers to Israel through government-to-government channel, The Kathmandu Post writes.On the recommendation of Labour Secretary Suresh Man Shrestha, a Cabinet meeting on Monday had appointed director general of the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) as government’s service officer to oversee the overall recruitment process. The department is preparing to set up a separate section and develop a mechanism for free and fair recruitment. Israel, which had stopped recruiting Nepali caregivers citing increasing cases of fraud, is reopening its labour market for Nepali workers after Nepal agreed to send job-seekers through state-to-state channel. Israel had halted accepting Nepali workers after the recruiting agents based in Nepal and Israel reportedly charged exorbitant fees. Workers used to pay as high as Rs 1 million to go to the Middle East. According to government officials, Israel is ready to accept over 1,000 Nepali caregivers a year if the new state-to-state mechanism works miracles. Although Nepal has been sending workers to South Korea through state-to-state mechanism, this is the first time the same process is going to be replicated in Israel’s case. Israel is considered to be one of the most sought-after labour destination for Nepali women due to worker-friendly laws, good wages and work security. Nnnn SUSHIL KOIRLA NC CANDIDATE FOR PM IN ELECTIONS SAYS GAGAN THAPA Kathmandu, 13 March: Nepali Congress youth leader Gagan Thapa Tuesday said the party would appoint its president Sushil Koirala by its own strength without seeking favour from anyone, The Rising Nepal reports from Damak.. Speaking with journalists here, Thapa said the party already forwarded Koirala's name as the prime ministerial candidate. “NC will face the upcoming election by projecting Koirala as the next prime minister. It will definitely get a victory in the election. After that, Koirala will be elected the prime minister,” he opined. Thapa accused UCPN-Maoist of obstructing the constitution writing and trying to write it in the shadow of arms. He pointed out the need of turning NC as a bigger party in the upcoming election and guaranteeing the constitution. Thapa said appointing chief justice as the prime minister would be harmful. He warned the political parties would be weaker if such a practice materialized. The NC leader said this practice would also weaken the judiciary. nnnn