alliance

MADHAB KUMAR NEPAL MEETING PREMIER MANMOHAN SINGH FRIDAY

Kathmandu, 26 July: Senior UML leader and former Prime Minister

Madav Kymar Nepal is to hold discussions with Indian Prime Minister

Manmohan Singh in the Indian capital Friday morning on the second day

of his India visit.

He discussed Nepal issues including the November 19 elections with

Sonia Gandhi and Foreign Minister Salman Khirshid Thursday.

Nepal returns home Sunday

Nnnn

FRIDAY MORNING TEMPERATURE 2- DEGREES CELSIUS

Kathmandu, 26 July: Friday morning temperature in the capital was 20

degrees Celsius.

Mercury is expected to rise to 27 degrees Celsius in the afternoon.

Altogether 110mm rain was recorded Thursday in the capital.

Nnnn

MEDIA GOOGLE

: The three major parties -- UCPN-Maoist, Nepali Congress and CPN-UML, have agreed to restructure the election government led by Chairman Khil Raj Regmi if that could bring agitating Mohan Baidhya-led parties to polls. Addressing a special interaction organised by Professional Alliance for Peace and Democracy here today, Ccoordinator of High Level Political Committee and Chairman of Unified CPN-Maoist Pushpa Kamal Dahal said they were ready to restructure the existing government, organise an all-party meeting or all-sector round table conference and increase the number of seats under proportional representation system to meet their demands.”

(Maoist Chief Prachanda in The Himalayan Times, 26 July)

Nnnn

RAPTI RIVER LEAVES RICH IN RAGS

Kathmandu, 26 July:: Everyday Tirathram Dhobi of Holiya VDC in Banke gazes at the Rapti River for hours. Not long ago, the land where now the river flows, was his. It’s a riches to rags story that the raging Rapti has written for a number of landlords of Holiya VDC after changing course due to lack of embankments, Damodar Bhandari writes in The Himalayan Times from Koliya, Banke.

The flooded river has so far eroded over 1,000 bighas of farmland belonging to hundreds of families in Holiya VDC. Tirathram of Khadaicha is one of them. He lost 25 bighas of land to the river. “Had the government constructed embankment on time, I wouldn’t have lost my property,” he rues.

Residents of Tepari, Piprahawa and Khadaicha villages in Holiya VDC are the worst affected. Piprahawa’s Radheshyam Dhobi lost 10 bighas to the raging river. No different is the fate of Radheshyam Kurmi. “Earlier there was a road that saved my land, but four days ago the flooded river swept away a stretch of the road and along with it my land,” Kurmi lamented.

Apart from a large swathe of land from Holiya to Kusum, the river also swept away almost 500 metres stretch of the road linking nine VDCs in the past one month and rendered dozens of families homeless.

“Every year the monsoon brings misery but nobody cares to do anything to prevent such disasters,” lament the locals.

Janatako Tatbandh regional office based in Lamahi of Dang describes Holiya as highly flood-prone area. “There is no option but to construct embankments to save the remaining land and human settlements before the river sweeps them all,” Office Chief Binod Chapagain told THT, adding that his office has sought the budget to do the needful to salvage the remaining fields from the Rapti River that change course every year.

Nnnn

SONIA GANDHI PUSHES DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE IN NOV.

ASSEMBLY POLLS

Kathmandu, 26 Nov.: Indian National Congress Chair Sonia Gandhi has said her party and the ruling political alliance UPA wants to see a strong bond among democratic forces during the upcoming CA election in Nepal, The Himalayan Times reports..

Gandhi, considered the most powerful figure in Indian politics, expressed such a view during her meeting with senior CPN-UML leader Madhav Kumar Nepal at her residence in New Delhi this afternoon. “My party and the UPA want to see unity among democratic forces in Nepal, consolidation of democratic rights with drafting of the constitution, and early end to the ongoing political transition in Nepal,” Rajan Bhattarai, a member of UML’s foreign department quoted Gandhi as saying. “This will pave the way for focusing on economic development and making Nepal a peaceful, democratic and prosperous nation.”

Nepal is on a five-day visit of India.

On his part, Nepal said it was an understanding among Nepal’s political parties that the November election was “only way out to end the ongoing political transition and to institutionalise the political achievements of the 2006 movement”. He also stressed on regular visits and interactions among leaders of political parties of the two countries to help understand each other’s issues.

Nepal’s scheduled meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today afternoon, however, was postponed for Friday morning. He is the third top Nepali politician to visit the southern neighbour in recent days, after UCPN-Maoist Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Nepali Congress leader Sher Bahadur Deuba. Dahal and Deuba had visited New Delhi in April and June, respectively.

Earlier, Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai called on Nepal. He told Mathai that Nepal “needs cooperation and support from international friends, including India to hold election in a free, fair and peaceful environment.” He also asked the Indian side to speed up construction of Tarai Hulaki Road, and sought assistance to construct Dolalghat-Dhankuta portion of the mid-hill highway. He also spoke of the need to speed up work on the Mahakali (Pancheshwor) Project, and Mujjaffarpur-Dhalkebar Transmission line, among others

nnnn