BIRD FLU OUTBREAK IN CHITWAN Kathmandu, 3 April: Bird flu has broken out at a farm in Bharatpur, Chitwan. The epidemic outbreak has been confirmed by a laboratory at Tripureshwor in the capital. Culling of birds has started after official confirmation. nnnn CAPITAL’S WEDNESDAY MORNING TEMPERATURE 12 DEGREES CELSIUS Kathmandu, 3 April: Capitals Wednesday morning temperature was 12 degrees Celsius at seven. Mercury is expected to rise to 32 degrees Celsius in the afternoon. nnnn EC CONDITION FOR JUNE VOTE Kathmandu, 3 April: The Election Commission (EC) is preparing to submit a “ conditional work plan” to the government, laying out the remaining challenges in holding fresh Constituent Assembly (CA) elections in June, The Kathmandu Post reports. The plan, formulated by the EC secretariat, includes existing hurdles, poll preparations made so far and the time required for the elections. According to EC officials, the work plan will be submitted to the government once it promulgates the electoral laws forwarded on Monday. “The Commission will submit the work plan to the government whenever it formally asks us for it. But it is for the government to see whether it will announce the poll date,” said a member of the secretariat. The conditional work plan comes as the government is waiting for recommendations from the EC prior to the announcement of the poll date. A commissioner, however, told the Post that the EC will, within a couple of days, express its inability to hold the polls in June, given the time constraints. The election body, which has internally evaluated that chances for June polls are negligible, has sought a minimum of 95 days to prepare for elections after clearing the challenges. The government, which has appeared reluctant to announce the poll date, seeking a guarantee of holding it first, has been publicly stating that it would announce it on the basis of the EC’s recommendation. The work plan has pointed out obstructions to updating the voter roll, the lack of political consensus and the time limit as major challenges to elections in June. Voter registration may resume The stalled voter registration drive is likely to resume by April 15 with the mobilisation of 866 joint mobile teams across the country. The teams, comprising officials from the EC and the Home Ministry, will distribute citizenship certificates and subsequently update the digital voter list. “I hope the voter roll update will resume with the mobilisation of the citizenship distribution teams,” said Home Ministry Spokesperson Shankar Koirala. The EC, on Monday, had suspended updating the voter roll drive following obstructions by cadres of the Mohan Baidya-led CPN-Maoist across the country. nnnn NEPAL, INDIA TO DISCUSS SECURITY ISSUES Kathmandu, 3 April: Top government officials from Nepal and India are holding a crucial bilateral meeting next week to discuss security matters, Mahesh Acharya writes in The Kathmandu Post.from New Delhi A meeting of the joint-secretary level mechanism—Bilateral Consultative Group on Security Matters—is likely to dwell primarily on the resumption of arms supplies from India, sources close to the Nepal government said. The meet is scheduled to be held from April 9-10 in Bangalore. Supplies of lethal arms and ammunition have been suspended by New Delhi since 2005 following the royal takeover in Nepal. The matter of resumption of supplies used to dominate high level meetings in the past. But this issue always invited a controversy as the resumption of arms supplies was seen as the breach of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). The cross-party Special Committee which looks after the integration of former Maoist combatants has, however, recently removed the CPA hurdle, making it easier for the Nepal government to formally request the southern neighbour for the resumption of arms supplies. A Nepali delegation led by Joint-secretary Kali Prasad Pokhrel is scheduled to reach Bangalore on April 8 and return home on April 12. Akhilesh Mishra, head of the Northern Desk (Nepal and Bhutan) at the Ministry of External Affairs, will lead the Indian team. nnnn