SIRAHA RPP LEADER SHOT AND INJURED Kathmandu, 15 June: A Siraha district RPP leader was shot and injured Friday. Shiva Ram Yadav was shot on the Mirchaiya-Ka;ayanpur road as he was driving home on a motorcycle. He was shot by unknown persons. nnnn INDIA, EU WELCOME ELECTION ANNOUNCEMENT Kathmandu, 15 June: India and the EU Friday welcomed announcement of elections. “We warmly welcome announcement of election date by the government of Nepal as it reflects collected desire of Nepali people. We are confident that the Elections that the election will enable the finalizaton ii of a new constitution ad usher in era of peace, stability, progress ad prosperity in Nepal,” said Indian embassy spokesman Abhay Kumar. Spokesperson for the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission Catherine Ashton has welcomed election announcement. “The consolidation of transition in Nepal, including the establishment of stable democratically elected institutions, is a pre-requisite for its successful development. At this stage, it is essential to move forward in the electoral process,” she said. “As a long-standing friend of Nepal, the EU remains ready to extend all its support during the election process and its aftermath, including through the deployment of an Election Observation Mission,” she added.. Nnnn NO INSTITUTIONAL COHESION IN BIG PARTIES Kathmandu, 15 June : Five months after the UCPN (Maoist) general convention, the party has once again come up with a formal agenda of giving full shape to its central committee and form politburo and standing committee, Kiran Pun writes in Republica.. However, Maoist leaders are not very optimistic about the top leadership accomplishing the task this time around as well as the top leaders had failed to do so despite several attempts in the past. Currently, the ongoing central committee (CC) meeting of the party at Paris Danda has taken up the agenda. The CC meeting began on Thursday. The party also is yet to form departments and bureaus and distribute responsibilities. The CC meeting could not take any decision on Friday as well due to differences between the factions separately led by Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Vice-chairmen Baburam Bhattarai and Narayan Kaji Shrestha. The party has formed a 65-member election mobilization committee after failing to give full shape to CC and form standing committee and politburo as Chairman Dahal has been postponing the matter. Parliamentary forces and the international community had hailed the party"s formal announcement during Hetauda convention of turning into a parliamentary party. The general convention, which was held after two decades, had left the issue of CC, politburo and standing committee pending. Party organizational department chief Krishna Bahadur Mahara had recommended a 399-member CC, 51-member politburo and 17-member standing committee meeting held on Sunday. However, the post of secretary in the party is vacant and the party had decided to fill the post of other office bearers as per the necessity. Currently, Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, vice-chairmen duo Baburam Bhattarai and Narayan Kaji Shrestha and general secretary Post Bahadur Bogati are office bearers of the party. “It would be shameful if we fail to give shape to the central committee and form standing committee and politburo through the ongoing central committee,” said CC member Suk Bahadur Roka Magar. Not only the UCPN (Maoist) but all other major parties, including Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and CPN-UML have failed to give full shape to their respective party bodies. NC has yet to form its various departments, while the CPN-UML has failed to nominate five percent of the central committee members. CPN-UML is holding its next general convention soon after four years. CPN-Maoist has also failed to give full shape to its party bodies even six months after the completion its general convention. Parties lacking institutional cohesion The parties have failed to give full shape to their bodies as they lack institutional cohesion. The UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress and CPN-UML are divided into various intra-party factions and sub-factions. The parties are guided by “factional interests”. While the UCPN (Maoist) is divided into Dahal, Bhattarai and Shrestha factions, NC is divided into factions separately led by Sushil Koirala and senior leader Sher Bahadur Deuba. Similarly, CPN-UML has separate factions led by Chairman Jhala Nath Khanal, senior leaders KP Sharma Oli and Madhav Nepal. “The parties are divided into factions and lack institutional cohesion,” Professor Lok Raj Baral told Republica. He also said that the there is no internal democracy in the major parties. Nnnn TWO AFCIRAN FOOTBALLERS ARRESTED’ LOTTERY RACKET BUSTED Kathmandu, 15 June: A police squad of Central Investigative Bureau (CIB) on Friday busted a fake lottery racket with the arrest of two African footballers and a Nepalese tourist guide for assisting them, Kamal Pariyar writes in Republica ,. The racketeers allegedly lured people by sending SMSes of US Dollar win and tempted them to deposit different amounts of money in the bank accounts to get the winning amount. The racket came into police notice after a bank suspected the activities in an account in which amounts would rise and drop suddenly, according to the DIG Kesh Bahadur Shahi, Chief at CIB. The arrested have been identified as -- Ikechukwu John Dike, 22, a Nigerian national who had played A Division league from Jawalakhel Youth Club last year, and Ernest Kamara, 25, a football player from Sierra Leone. The police also detained Samjhana Pariyar, 27, from Sankhupati Chaur-5 of Kavre, for assisting them in depositing the cash in her account. The police had rounded up about twelve people, including the three, released some of them after preliminary investigation. Some African people have been sent to Department of Immigration for over staying their visas. According to DIG Shahi, they had been collecting the amount in the bank account of Pariyar in the pretext of legal fee, processing charge, country tax, insurance charges, NRS conversion charge and others. “They had created an account in the name of Pepsi Drink and Bottling Company and sent web SMSes to Nepali mobile users with congratulatory notes and the amount they have won. They requested them to fulfill legal procedures along with all personnel details via email.” They also gave fake bank account located abroad and fake id of legal advisors in order to convince the responders, he added. DIG Shahi said that police had begun investigation after CEO of Nepal Investment Bank informed about a deposit made by one Rupesh of Bhaktapur in order to get the lottery amount. In the same account other responders had deposited Rs 85,000, euro 50, Rs 200,000 within a month. The police has confiscated a laptop, four mobile sets, four foreign mobile SIM cards, different documents and about Rs 4,96,000 from their possession. The police claimed that there are several other racketeers involved in such fraud but related stakeholders like bank are not much serious about the fraud. Many people are victims of such fraud but people are also unaware about them and get easily tempted and end up losing huge amount, DIG Shahi said. The police said that the investigation is under way and the accused will be charged under banking fraud. Nnnn