. BUDGET UPDATE FINANCE MINISTER KOIRALA PRESENTS FINAL TRANCHE OF ANNUAL BUDGET. Kathmandu, 9 April: Finance Minister Shanker Koirala in the Khil Raj Regmi government empowered especially to conduct second constituent assembly Tuesday announced a deficit budget of Rs.404.82 billion for the remaining final three months of the current fiscal year 2012/13. The deficit will be met through foreign contribution and internal borrowing. Minister Koirala set aside Rs six billion for the the vote and Rs eight billion for the security Rs 279.01 billion was set aside for regular expenditure, Rs 66.13 billion for capital expenditure and Rs 59.67 billion for to pay debts. President Ram Baran Yadav approved three ordinances related to budget—Appropriation Ordinance 2069, Financial Ordinance 2069 and Ordinance to mobilize national debt on recommendation of the government. The government income, expenditure was announced over a telecast for the first time nnnn. • nnnn ________________________________________ . SAPTARI ADMINSTRATION INTERVENES TO STOP FASE Kathmandu, 9 April: The local administration has on Monday night interfered in a hunger strike launched by Chairman of the Nepal Sadbhawana Party (Gajendrabadi), Bikas Tiwari, RSS reports from Saptari. The local administration interfered in the hunger strike after Tiwari continued it even after the local administration claimed that his demands were addressed. Tiwari started the hunger strike for the past 12 days against corruption. A team of police had taken Tiwari under control from the hunger strike site at 10:00 pm on Monday and taken to Dharan for treatment. A clash took place between police and locals at Bhardaha while the locals were trying to snatch away Tiwari from police. Chief District Officer of Saptari, Hariraj Panta, urged Tiwari to withdraw the hunger strike as the District Development Committee, Public Health office, other offices including Rajbiraj Municipality have been making public the income and expenditure of every three months, Information Officers have been appointed in every government offices and action against those involved in irregularities has been taken. However, Tiwari continued the hunger strike saying everything told by Panta is false and is firm that he would not hold talks until any representative from the ministry comes. Police have not allowed Tiwari to make contact with anyone. Tiwari launched the hunger strike from March 28 putting forth 10-point demands including action against corrupt employees and recovering of advance payments received by employees of the District Development Committee, Saptari. Nnnn MORE E;ECTION BRIEFINGS FOR AMBASSADORS Kathmandu, 9 April: KATHMANDU, APR 09 - The Election Commission held an interaction with the heads of diplomatic mission s and international development partner s in Nepal on Tuesday and shared information about the preparations made so far for the Constituent Assembly elections. On the occasion, the EC also garnered views from the diplomatic community about the election. Chief Election Commissioner Neel Kanth Uprety informed the diplomats about formulations of laws, update of the voters' list, arrangement of voters' education and electoral materials and the atmosphere for free and fair election. He also spoke about the competence of the Election Commission for the coming elections. In response, the invited diplomats said they were eager to extend help from their respective sides to the election. Also, they suggested the EC to make the voter registration inclusive by involving women and marginalized communities, and work in unison with the home ministry to ensure security. Moreover, Chief Election Commissioner Upreti said the EC was planning to continue voter registration, by seeking cooperation from the government and political parties. RSS nnnn