TWO CONDITIONS FOR EXTENDING DEADLINE TO REGISTER PARTIES Kathmandu, 1 June: Election Commissioner Dolakh Bahadur Gurung said deadline for parties to participate in assembly elections can be extended if there’s national consensus and a request by government. . “Extension can be considered if there’s national consensus and request by the government, But under the present circumstances, there’s no need to extend the deadline” Gorkhapatra quoted Commissioner Gurung as saying The commission now is not in favour of extending the deadline. Several parties, including CPN Maoist, didn’t register for the vote by the Thursday deadline. Altogether 139 parties registered. nnnn ‘REALISTIC’ SALARY HIKE FOR CIVIL SERVANTS LIKELY kathmandu, 1 June:: Finance Minister Shankar Prasad Koirala Friday stated that the government was ready to revise the existing pay scale of all the government employees, The Rising Nepal reports.. Speaking at an interaction on upcoming budget organized by the civil servants at the Ministry of Finance today, Minister Koirala said that the government was ready to revise the salary of the government employees in its next fiscal budget. "I am ready to extend my support to you. Bring a realistic proposal that can be sustained by the country," he asked the government employees to give appropriate suggestion to the government. He asked the employees to foreword the government the proper ways to make the upcoming budget more pro-people. Finance Secretary Shanta Raj Subedi said that though there was no debate on increasing the pay scale of the government employees, there was problem with the mechanism to increase the salary. "There is no debate whether the salary should be increased. However, as the salary scale of more than 500,000 human resources rises along with the government staff, the revenue might not sustain it," he said. On the occasion, civil servants, however, demanded that the government should increase their pay scale by 100 per cent considering the present inflation rates. "The salary has remained the same for the past three years. It should be increased considering the family budget survey of the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB)," they said. They also asked the Finance Minister to make the civil servants feel the presence of their government by increasing their pay and perks. Nnnn NO NEED TO DOUBT ELECTIONS SAYS FORMER PM BHATTARAI Kathmandu, 1 June: UCPN-Maoist vice-chairman Dr. Baburam Bhattarai Friday said that the Constituent Assembly (CA) election would be held within November by all means, The Rising Nepal reports from Biratnagar. Speaking at a party joining ceremony held by UCPN-Maoist office here, he said that the CA election was necessary to promulgate new constitution that would ensure identity of all people of the society. “There is no need to doubt on the current government as it was formed by the consensus of main political parties,” said Dr. Bhattarai, reiterating that the CA polls would be held in November after it was postponed for mid-June. Sating that Nepali people wanted identity-based federalism and federalism with constitution as put forth by the UCPN-Maoist, he said that it was the necessity of the current time to institutionalize the identity-based federalism. The former Prime Minister said that the supporters of federalism should unite to ensure majority in CA election in order to make new identity-based federal republic of Nepal. “People’s constitution will be promulgated only if the pro-federalist political forces win two-third of total seats in the upcoming CA election,” he reiterated. Stating that the door of the UCPN-Maoist was always open to progressive individuals of all political parties, he claimed that many leaders and cadres of Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML were leaving their party to join UCPN-Maoist of late. Dr. Bhattarai welcomed more than 200 individuals including former district secretary and current mahasamiti member of Nepali Congress (NC) and Gyanendra Dhakal and central member of Rastriya Madhes Samajbadi Party Zakeer Hussain to his party on the occasion. nnnn