NEPAL’S THREE STAR CLUB PLAYS TAIWAN POWER COMPANY SATURDAY IN AFC PRESIDENT’S CUP Kathmandu, 11 May: Nepal’s Three Star Club Saturday plays Taiwan Power Cower Company Saturday at Dashrath Rangashala in the AFC President’s Cup Group A match. Hosts have collected four points with a draw and oe win. League champion Three Star Club, leading the taloe, can qualify for the final with a draw Saturday. A team each from Bangladesh and Mongolia are participating in the tournament. nnnn. FURTHER DETAILS ON INCONCLUSIVE ALL-PARTY MEET Kathmandu, 11 May: All-party meeting held between the government and the political parties represented in the dissolved Constituent Assembly (CA), concluded that the CA election should be held within November adopting the flexibility in the election related laws and actsm RSS reports.. During the meeting called by Interim Election Council Chairman, Khil Raj Regmi, at Singha Durbar, the leaders who participated in the meeting have said some of the issues raised by CPN-Maoist and Madhesi Janadhikar Forum Nepal regarding the inclusiveness, and sharing of seats on the basis of votes received by the political parties in the election, among others, should be addressed and that the fringe political parties which currently have objections to the process should be brought into confidence. Discussion in the meeting mainly centered on the laws and acts regarding the elections. The participating leaders talked to journalists after the meeting and said today's meeting was very positive to hold the election in time though discussion on varieties of opinions were made. Chairman of the Unified CPN (Maoist), Pushpa Kamal Dahal, said some of the issues such as inclusiveness and provision of threshold of votes raised by agitating political parties are possible to address and that the meeting suggested for holding talks with the parties that have boycotted today's meeting and create a positive environment for the election. He said the government should declare the date for Constituent Assembly elections within a week and move ahead in the election process even if a couple of political parties objected to include them in the process. Similarly, Vice-president of the Nepali Congress Ram Chandra Paudel, said the proposal brought by the Election Commission (EC) on the basis of its past experiences and traditions to include in the election laws were proper but some political parties have recommended amendment on them. Many political parties have expressed concern on holding free and fair election and suggested not to declare date for the election until the environment for the free and fair election was ensured. Likewise, Minister for Information and Communications and Spokesperson of the government, Madhav Prasad Poudel said the meeting has provided very important suggestions in the context of moving ahead forging environment for the election. The meeting mainly holds discussion on the points proposed by the EC in the ordinance and that some of the participants recommended some changes while others supported it. Minister Paudel said, "The government would issue ordinance within a week as far as it was possible and declare the date for election preparing rough draft regarding the Constituency Delineation Commission." Around three dozen political parties represented in the meeting while the government had invited around five dozen of them. Some agitating fringe political parties including the CPN-Maoist and Madhesi Janadhikar Party Nepal did not attend the meeting. RSS nnnn GOVT.TENURE CAN BE EXTENDED TO ENCOMASS PARTIES Kathmandu, 11 May: UCPN-Maoist spokesperson Agni Sapkota Friday said that the Cabinet could be extended for bringing in the agitating political parties for Constituent Assembly (CA) elections, Gorkhapatra reports.. Speaking at a press meet programme organized by the Revolutionary Journalist Association, Nepalgunj here, he said that both the government and the High-Level Political Committee (HLPC) could be extended if consensus could be forged with the disgruntled political parties. “The HLPC and the endorsed ordinances can not be scrapped at any cost,” said Sapkota, reiterating that there was no possibility to dissolve the current government as well. He said that the CPN-Maoist, Federal Socialist Party and Madhesi Janadhikar Forum Nepal could be adjusted within the existing HLPC. Urging the agitating political parties to take part in CA election if they realized its importance to the country, he however expressed concern over the banal activities of the government and the HLPC rather than creating favourable election environment. “It appears that the current government is more engaged in transfer of civil servants and in delivering speeches rather than concentrating its focus on the election,” he said, and asked the government to complete the preparation to announce the date for CA election at the earliest. Sapkota asked the Interim Election Council to carry out preparation to hold CA election within November and to respect the all party decision as it was consensus of majority was pillar of democracy. Stating that the appointment of Lokman Singh Karki as the chief commissioner of the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) was recommended on the agreement of four major parties, he said that those against Karki’s appointment were also against the democracy. Nnnn FINANCE MINISTRY DISSATISFIED WITH LOW EXPENDIYURE Kathmandu, 11 May: Finance Secretary Shanta Raj Subedi Friday expressed his dissatisfaction over the low capital expenditure during the first nine months of the current fiscal year, The Rising Nepal reports... Addressing a meeting held to discuss the priority projects under various ministries, Subedi said that despite government’s reiterated commitment, the government’s expenditures in such programmes were still low. The meeting discussed progress of priority one, two and three projects, their present status, status of capital expenditures and problems faced by the projects. Secretaries of the Ministries of Physical Planning, Works and Transport Management, Urban Development, Irrigation, Health and Population, Peace and Reconstruction were present at the meeting. Out of the projects under the ministries, the Ministry of Physical Planning, Works and Transport Management had 26 per cent capital expenditure, 27 per cent of Ministry of Urban Development, 40 per cent of Ministry of Irrigation, 32 per cent of Ministry of Health and Population. These five ministries have a share of around 71 per cent of the total capital budget of the government. Secretary Subedi also stated that the low expenditure would hinder people’s aspirations and stagnate economic growth. Stating that low capital expenditure would invite problems in economy of the country, he urged all to expedite the development programmes. “Low capital expenditure impacts employment generation, creates liquidity crunch, and will have negative impact on revenue mobilization,” he said. nnnn