GENERAL FINANCE LTD,. DECLARED CRISIS RIDDEN Kathmandu, 28 May: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) Monday declared General Finance Limited crisis-ridden, The central bank said the finance company failed to adopt prudent banking norms. The company’s financial situation deteriorated putting at risk deposits and public. nnnn BISHWABANDHU THAPA JOINING RPP0NEPAL Kathmandu, 28 May: Bishwababdhu Thapa and Nara Bahadur Buda, a UML supporter, are joining RPP-Nepal, Annaourna Post. Thee two leaders are joining the party led by Kamal Thapa Wednesday, according to Mohan Shrestha. Bishwabandhu Thapa played a leading role in recently unifying RPP and RJP. Nnnn RIFT BETWEEN SUSHIL KOIRALA, RAM CHANDRA PAUDEL IN NC Kathmandu, 28 May: As the Nepali Congress and the CPN (UML) mount pressure on Interim Election Government Chairman Khil Raj Regmi to resign from the post of chief justice, the NC seems sharply divided over the issue, Kamal Dev Bhattarai writes in The Kathmandu Post.. NC President Sushil Koirala is insisting on Regmi’s resignation saying that it would be helpful in bringing the poll-opposing parties in the election process and in maintaining the separation of powers between the executive and the judiciary. However, party Vice-president Ram Chandra Poudel opposes the position. As Koirala and Poudel express opposite views regarding Regmi’s resignation, the Sher Bahadur Deuba faction of the party has kept mum. The faction does not regard Regmi’s resignation as a big issue. “If there is consensus among the parties and if it helps bring the poll-opposing parties on board, Regmi may resign. Otherwise, there’s no point in forcing him to quit,” said NC leader Ramesh Rijal, who is close to Deuba. The rift in NC was evident during a meeting between Regmi and the High-level Political Committee on Sunday. Koirala formally demanded Regmi’s resignation while Poudel argued it was not necessary. “The agreement among the four parties is to hold an election under a government led by the chief justice so we should stick to the agreement,” said Poudel, adding that the parties should respect past pacts and concentrate on polls. Koirala wants to induct the CPN-Maoist and the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum-Nepal in the HLPC to bring them in the election process. But Poudel said the HLPC and the government should not wait for the parties that are against the poll plan. When the parties decided to form the chief justice-led government, the NC was a divided house. Top leaders Koirala, Poudel and Deuba were in favour of such a government, while 22 Central Working Committee members expressed their dissent. On March 13, the parties agreed to form the CJ-led government for holding new Constituent Assembly polls. The Supreme Court on March 18 ordered that Regmi be known as the chairman of Interim Election Government and not as the chief justice as long as he remains at the governing helm. Nnnn STUDENT UNION ELECTIONS UNCERTAIN WITH DISPUTES Kathmandu, 28 May: Disputes among various student unions close to major political parties have made the Free Student Union (FSU) election s scheduled for June 6 uncertainm The Kathmandu Post writes.. While the poll date is just 10 days away, the student unions are competing in shutting down colleges hampering the ongoing poll preparations. The All Nepal National Independent Student Union-Revolutionary (ANNISU-R), a student wing of the CPN-Maoist, and the CPN-UML-aligned All Nepal National Free Student Union have padlocked around two dozen colleges across the country demanding the cancellation of voting rights of students who were admitted ‘illegally’. The ANNISU-R has stated that it won’t let the election s to be held in colleges, including Ratna Rajya Campus, Tribhuvan University Central Campus, Saraswati Campus and Public Youth College, unless the TU scrapes the voting rights of students who were admitted en masse recently. Countering the demand, the UCPN (Maoist)-affiliated All Nepal National Independent Student Union (Revolutionary) locked the administration of over a dozen of colleges, including Shankar Dev, arguing that there will be no election s elsewhere if not in the TU Central Campus. “There is no meaning in holding election s in other colleges excluding the TU Central Campus,” said Himal Sharma, president of the CPN-M-aligned student union. As per the election schedule, the final list of voters, after the verification process, had to be published by 5 pm on Monday. However, the padlocked colleges failed to meet the deadline. According to Ganga Bahadur Thapa, chief of the Student Welfare Department at the TU, the university is preparing to extend the deadline for voter list publication by a couple of days . “But, it will be impossible to hold the election s on June 6 if the problem is not sorted out by Wednesday,” Thapa said. In an attempt to forge consensus, the TU administration has invited major student unions to attend a meeting on Tuesday. The FSU polls have been dragged in controversy after some student unions were found to be investing millions of rupees to enroll fake students. nnnn