UPDATE NEPAL TO PLAY AFGHANISTAN IN ACC U-19 ELITE CUP Kathmandu, 8 May Nepal bowled out Malaysia for just 69 runs in 22.4 overs in the ACC U-19 Elite Cup in Kuala Lumpur Wednesday to win the match by seven wickets. Nepal scored 70 runs. Nepal won all its four encounters in he tournament. Nnnn PAKISTANI ARRESTED WITH COUNTERFEIT INDIAN CURRENCY NOTES .Kathmandu, 8 May: Pakistani national Shaikh Muhammad Fukran, 48, was arrested with counterfeit Indian currency notes at Tribhuvan International Airport Tuesday after alighting from Qatar onboard a Qatar Airline flight.. He was carrying Rs. 9.5 million in counterfeit Indian currency notes, published reports said. Two Nepalis-- Nurullah Miya of Naya Bazaar and Rafi Ahmad, 50, of Balaju were also nabbed by police. nnnn UML CENTRAL COMMITTEE MEETS Kathmandu, 8 May: UML central committee begins a crucial central committee meeting Wednesday to discuss election strategy and othrr issues immediately after preparatory meetings of the politburo, standing committee and the secretariat. The central committee will discuss a political report of Chairman Jhalanath Khanal while discussing party appointments and other Related issues. The appointment of Lokman Singh Karki first supported and later opposed bythe party will also figure in the meeting. Nnnn UML TO MOBILIZE LOWERBODIES FOR ELECTIONS Kathmandu, 8 May: A secretariat meeting of the CPN-UML held here Today [Tuesday] decided to send its central representatives to all 240 electoral constituencies in order to mobilise lower level bodies of the party, gauge the public mood and power balance in all electoral districts, The Himalayan Times reports.. UML leader Pradip Gyawali said the new campaign will begin on May 17 for a month. The party will conduct an orientation programme for representatives before they reach the political battle grounds. Gyawali said the party will formulate its election strategies after receiving feedback from representatives. “These representatives will find out what people on the ground feel about our party, what grudges they have against our party and what we need to do to win people’s confidence,” Gyawali said, adding that the party would also resolve contradictions in the local bodies, if any. The UML is doing ground work to prepare its election slogans. Asked what the party’s slogans would be, Gyawali said, they would focus on protecting the new political achievements. The UML leader maintained that readiness on the part of Nepali Congress to go for socialism and republicanism and the Unified CPN-M’s transition from an armed outfit to a democratic outfit vindicated the policies of people’s multi party democracy adopted by the UML. “The country has finally adopted our political line but we have not had the chance to lead the country. We will tell people to give us the leadership for implementing the right policies that we have adopted,” Gyawali added. He said his party’s focus in Madhes would be on the proletariat class. “Madhesi parties have served the interests of the elite class of the southern plains. They want to rise to power in the name of Madhesis. We will be raising this issue in the Madhes,” he said. The UML leaders said the party will champion the cause of multi-ethnic federal units in the hills. The next Central Committee meeting of the UML is scheduled for tomorrow. Party Chairman Jhala Nath Khanal will present a political paper at the meeting. Likewise, various wings of the party will also present their papers, said Gyawali. Nnnn NEPAL HOPES TO GRADUATE FROM LDC GROUP BY 2022 Kathmandu, 8 May: The National Planning Commission (NPC) has revised its targetted time frame of the country’s planned graduation to a developed country from the current status of Least Developed Country (LDC) by eight years to 2022, Kuvera Chalise writes in The Himalayan Times. . “Though the current Three Year Interim Plan (2010-13) has envisioned to graduate Nepal to a developed country in the next two decades, we could graduate by 2022,” according to the chairman of the Election Council Khil Raj Regmi, who is also the chair of the planning commission. A country falls under a Least Developed Country (LDC), if it has less than $905 three-year average GNI per capita (poverty) — as a country will graduate, if it exceeds $1,086 — lowest indicators of socioeconomic indicators including nutrition, health, education and adult literacy along with the lowest Human Development Index ratings, and economic vulnerability based on instability of agricultural production, exports of goods and services, economic importance of non-traditional activities, merchandise export concentration and handicap of economic smallness, according to the Committee for Development Policy of the UN Economic and Social Council that reviews the LDC criteria every three years. According to Central Bureau of Statistics, the GNI per capital is projected at $721 — some $ 365 less to graduate — for the current fiscal year, whereas Nepal has also been improving in some of the human development indicators under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in recent years. Since the LDC category was started, only three countries have graduated to developing country status. The first country to graduate from LDC status was Botswana in 1994 followed by Cape Verde in 2007. Maldives became the third country to graduate to developing country status on January 1, 2011. Currently, there are 14 countries from Asia and Pacific, apart from 34 from Africa, under the LDC group that Nepal is leading in the UN. Apart from Nepal, Afghanistan, Bhutan and Bangladesh are other LDCs in SAARC. As NPC is vacant currently, only the officiating members — finance minister, chief secretary, finance secretary and the secretary of NPC including chairman — were present in today’s meeting that also decided to complete the homework for the third Three Year Interim Plan (2013-16) that will come into effect after mid-July as the current second Three Year Interim Plan will come to an end by mid-July. NPC has remained vacant since April 22, after vice chair Deependra Bahadur Kshetry and three members resigned following the High Level Political Committee’s decision to call back the appointees of the then Dr Baburam Bhattarai-led government. In the absence of the vice chair and other members, it will be a Herculean task for NPC to prepare the strategy let alone finalise the draft of the third Three Year Interim Plan (2013-16), though the meeting also decided to work on it. The planning commission has to call the meeting of Nepal Development Council to finalise the draft, which, if not finalised by the end of this month, could lead to a plan holiday. Development partners have been waiting for the final draft of the third Three Year Interim Plan to align their programmes, according to the government’s advice, as without the alignment, the donors’ assistance — that have helped improve human development indicators — will be derailed. However, the government’s delay in appointment is pushing country towards plan holiday. Earlier, finance minister Shankar Koirala had — after pressure from development partners — promised to appoint vice chair and members in the commission soon to expedite preparation of strategies and finalise the draft to avoid a plan holiday. nnnn