MINIMUM WAGE FOR LABOURERS FIXED AT RS.8000 PER MONTH Kathmandu, 28 May: Minimum wage for laboiures has been fixed at Rs,8,000 per month. A meeting of employers, government and made union representatives fixed the rate—am crease of Rs.800 per month. Raises are reviewed once every two years. nnnn POWER HIKE PLAN DRAWS FLAK Kathmandu, 28 May: The Nepal Electricity Authority’s decision to propose a power tariff hike has drawn flak from the public. Yesterday’s NEA board meeting held under Minister for Energy Umakant Jha had decided to propose a 20 per cent tariff increment citing the accumulated loss to the state-owned power utility, The Himalayan Times reports. . The board has forwarded its decision to the Electricity Tariff Fixation Commission for endorsement. According to one NEA board member, the board decided to hike electricity tariff to increase Power Purchase Agreement rate with independent power producers and also to show an improved balanced sheet to attract foreign investments in proposed NEA projects. The private power producers have been pressing the NEA and the government to increase NEA’s purchase rate. But the power utility has failed to do so due to its low income rate. Talking to this daily, managing director of the state-owned power monopoly, Rameshwor Yadav, said the board made the decision on account of dearness and market inflation and for reducing NEA’s accumulated loss, which is around Rs 27 billion. NEA had increased the tariff by 20 per cent a year ago and it had also drawn flak then. The country’s power utility does not monitor irregularities and electricity leakage up to 29 per cent, but keeps hiking the tariff rate adding burden to the consumers. The NEA has burdened the customers going against the provision of Electricity Tariff Fixation Rules, 2050 (1994), said consumer rights activist Jyoti Baniya, adding that the rule provisions only five per cent tariff increment in a year. “Load shedding coupled with tariff hike is unbearable and a sort of anarchy. But no attempt has been made to monitor the NEA,” added Baniya. Nnnnn BODY OF GERMAN FOUND IN REMOTE RUKM Kathmandu, 28 May: : Police said that local police found a decomposing body of a German national in remote village of Rukum district on Sunday, ,The Himalayan Times writes.. After the Area Police Office, Ranmaikot received an informationt that a body was seen buried in snow at Arwigata of Ranmaikot-3, a team of police was dispatched to the site yesterday afternoon. They found a German passport (No. 714409571) from the decomposing body, and identified the deceased as Mario Menichetti. nnnn SPANIARD KILLED ON DHAULAGIRI Kathmandu, 28 May: A Spanish climber, who spent three nights without food, water and little oxygen in freezing weather after a fall on the world’s seventh highest peak in the Himalayas, has died, AP reports from Madrid. Juanjo Garra’s family said he died on Dhaulagiri after rescue attempts failed to bring him down to an altitude where helicopters could land. The Garra family said ‘Juanjo stays in heaven’ on the climber’s personal blog and Twitter account today. According to the family, Garra and a Sherpa fell on their descent from Dhaulagiri’s 8,167-metre summit and the 49-year-old Spaniard was unable to walk after that. Family spokesman Miquel Angel Corts says the Sherpa had remained beside Garra to the end. Corts said Garra’s body wouldn’t be recovered.