act in view of national security,” reads the statement. DEUBA HOLDING DISCCUSSIONS WITH SALMAN KHURSHID MONDAY Kathmandu, 1-Jne: Former Prime Minister and NC leader Sher Bahadur Deuba began discussions Sunday evening with Indian leadersin New Delhi immediately after beginning a five-day visit. He began discussions with Chairman of Nepal Solidarity Committee DP Adhikari. Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid is holding discussions with Deuba Monday. Indian Ambassador Jayant Prashad is in New Delhi coinciding with Deuba’s visit Nnnn CAPITAL’S MONDAY MORNING TEMPERATURE 22 DEGREES CELSIUS Kathmandu, 10 June: The capital’s Monday morning temperature at seven was 22 degrees Celsius. Mercury is expected to rise to 32 degrees on a rainy afternoon. Nnnn DONOR ASSISTANCE FOR ELECTION BEING CONSIDERED Kathmandu, 10 June: Keeping in view the assurances many countries have given for extending necessary support to the upcoming poll, the Election Commission (EC) has started consultations with concerned government ministries on the kind of support to be sought from the donor countries, Kosh Raj KOirala writes in Republica.. The EC held first round of consultation with the officials from Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) and Ministry of Finance (MoF) on Sunday over the assistances to be sought with different donor countries for the upcoming Constituent Assembly (CA) election. "We have decided to seek necessary support from each of the donor countries after identifying what support to ask for," said EC spokesman Bir Bahadur Rai. The EC will seek support with the concerned countries through diplomatic channels once things that EC will need to hold the poll are finalized through consultations among concerned government ministries. Officials present at Sunday´s meeting said they have decided to ask China to provide 40 various things and ask India to provide over 500 vehicles, ballot boxes, electronic voting machines and all necessary hardware and software required for the elections. The meeting identified 67 different things required for election purpose. "There has been an understanding to seek the same assistance that each of the donor countries had provided for the 2008 CA election," said an official, asking to be unnamed. Indian government had provided Nepal 500 vehicles for the last CA election. As all these vehicles are in use by various government agencies now, the meeting on Sunday concluded that more than 500 vehicles would be necessary for ferrying ballot boxes and officials to be deputed for election purpose. Earlier in January, EC had written to the Indian Embassy to provid Nepal electronic voting machines in grant. As Indian ambassador to Nepal Jayanta Prasad during his meeting with Chief Election Commissioner Neel Kantha Uprety on Monday expressed willingness to provide support for the poll, EC has decided to seek necessary vehicles, electronic voting machines and ballot boxes from India. The EC is preparing to use electronic voting machines in urban areas where majority of people are literate and traditional ballot paper system in all rural areas. The meeting has decided that Nepal should ask donor countries to provide various items such as wax seals, ink, caps, table clocks to be kept at voting booths. While Japan will be asked to provide security seals as in the last CA election, other logistical support will be sought from various countries including Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, UK and the USA. Earlier last month, Foreign Assistance Coordination Committee of the EC had held a meeting with the representatives of donor countries in Kathmandu. Officials said the list of support to be sought from donor countries is being prepared. Nnnn RS.750B DEMAND FOR NEXT BUDGET Kathmandu, 10 June:: Different ministries and government offices have made made budget demands worth Rs 750 billion, almost Rs 250 billion higher than the ceiling set by the government for the fiscal year 2013/14, Republica reports.. National Planning Commission (NPC), the apex policy making body of the government, has put a budget ceiling of Rs 506 billion for the next fiscal year. “The demand for budget has already crossed the ceiling of Rs 506 billion fixed for the coming fiscal year. Some of the programs proposed by the ministries and different government offices have been designed without studying their viability,” Shanta Raj Subedi, secretary at the Ministry of Finance (MoF), said. Speaking at a meeting with secretaries and regional administrators at the MoF, Subedi said most of the proposed programs, that cross the budget ceiling, are related to current expenditures such as purchase of ration, fuel for vehicles, office uniforms, among others. In the meeting, Finance Minister Shankar Koirala urged the secretaries and regional administrators to suggest programs that could spur economic activities, reduce poverty, establish good governance and help the government achieve six percent economic growth rate in the coming fiscal year. Koirala categorically stated energy, physical infrastructure, agriculture, and tourism and export promotion as the top five priority areas identified by the government for the coming budget. Speaking in the meeting, Tulasi Sitaula, secretary at the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, suggested that the government allocate sufficient budget for proposed programs targeted at linking district headquarters of Humla and Dolpa to the national rod network, ongoing construction of 400 bridges, North-South Highway, Tarai postal roads, Mid-Hill Highway and East-West Highway, among other high priority projects. The government has set a target of connect district headquarters of Humla with national road network within the next fiscal year. It has set plans to link district headquarters of Dolpa to the national road network in the next couple of years. “It is meaningless to allocate budget for regional roads as budget per such road has been decreased to around Rs 3.8 million from Rs 20 million few years back,” Sitaula said, adding, “We are for discontinuing such road project if we can´t allocated sufficient budget for timely completion.” Budget for such regional roads are allocated due to political pressure rather than assessing the demand from the local people. He also suggested stopping construction of 100 tourism roads saying that they are not as per the local people´s need. Jit Bahadur Thapa, joint secretary at the Ministry of Industry, said his ministry has proposed to the government to establish company registrar offices in all five development regions to reduce the pressure of service seekers at the capital-based company registrar office. Similarly, Toya Narayan Gyawali, joint secretary at the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies, told the meeting that negotiation with the World Bank to establish a dry port in Kathmandu to facilitate country´s foreign trade was in progress. Nnnn a