KAILALI

UML CENTRAL COMMITTEE STARTS DISCUSSIONS OF CHAIRMAN KHANAL’S REPORT
Kathmandu, 20 July; Discussions start Saturday at the UML central committee on Chairman Jhalanath Khanal’s  nine-point political proposal and a  strategy to emerge as the biggest party after the November assembly elections
Discussions are also being held to convene a  national representative
meet
Khanal has poposed a party general convention in March.
The focus of the discussions is around the November elections.
The central committee meet started Friday.
The party also reviewed its month-long campaign that just concluded to prevate for the vote.
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CPN MAOIST PREPARING FOR FORMAL RESPONSE TO
INVITES FOR TALKS.
Kathmandu, 20 July: CPN Maoist is preparing to respond officially to
invitations from government and the four-party HLPM inviing it for talks to discuss demands for a roundtable conference to participate in November elections.
The formal reaction will come by Monday, Spokesperson Phampa Bhusal said.
The party will talk with 32 other parties before adopting a formal position.
HLPM of four parties now headed by Chairman Prachanda will hold
separate talks with MJFN Chairman Upendra Yadav.
Prachanda and Mohan Baidhaya who chairs CPN Maoist held
preliminary talks Friday
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CDC WORKING ON COMPLETING ITS SUGGESTIONS ON
ELECTORAL CONSTITUENCIES
Kathmandu, 20 July: The Constituency Delimitation Commission (CDC) is mulling over re-marking constituencies in ‘some districts’ that witnessed a ‘drastic population growth’ in the last decade.
According to a highly-placed source in the CDC, most of those districts, including Jhapa and Chitwan, have seen their population shoot up by more than 100,000. The source, however, did not say how many such districts the CDC plans to re-work
on, Pranab Kharel writes in The Kathmandu Post..
“The constituencies in these districts will be adjusted by taking into consideration the population discrepancies in the Village Development Committees,” a CDC member said, requesting anonymity. While Jhapa had a population of 688109 in 2001, it went up to 812,650 in the 2011 census report. Chitwan’s population also went up by 107,936 and reached 579,984 in the 2011 census. According to the member, the CDC has not been able to do substantive work, given its limitations.
“However, inter-constituency arrangement is also part of the commission and we are working towards this end,” said the member.
The re-delineation plan has become a tough nut to crack for the CDC also because the political parties have competing demands on the matter. While Madhes-centric parties want the constituencies increased in areas where the population has gone up, the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML argue that only 35 constituencies that were added to the actual 205, following the Madhes uprising of 2007, can be re-worked on. The latter cite constitutional provisions. While Article 63 (3A) of the Interim Constitution calls for increasing constituencies in proportion to the percentage of population increase in the Madhes and the population growth in the hills and mountains, Article 154 (8) prohibits reducing the number of seats from the original 205.
Meanwhile, the CDC is mulling over various options on selecting a threshold population. One of the options is fixing the population threshold by dividing the total population (26,494,504) by 240 constituencies. Another option is dividing the total population by the 25 districts to which the 35 constituencies were added. However, CDC officials say both these options are unlikely to give a clear picture.
“If we fix the population threshold by dividing the total population with 240 constituencies, the same threshold will not be applicable in mountain districts which have a sparse population,” another CDC
official said. The official added that the CDC is “all-prepared” to submit its report within the stipulated time (August 16).
The official, however, added that the commission could take some more time if it decides to wait for suggestions from a cross-party taskforce formed to assist the CDC.
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1,200 FAMILIES DISPLACED BY KAILALI FLOODS
Kathmandu, 20 July: Continuous rainfall since Thursday night has flooded some VDCs and Dhangadi Municipality in Kailali district. Around 1,200 families have been displaced in Dhangadi, Mohan Budhair writes in The Kathmandu post from Dhangadi.
Floodwaters from rivers have waterlogged the municipality and its adjoining areas, while lack of a proper sewage system has made matters worse. Public movement has been affected as most parts of Dhangadi are submerged. Floodwaters have entered shops, causing damage worth thousands of rupees. Schools, shops and transport
service in Dhangadi remained closed on Friday.
Police rescued more than 50 families in Uttar Behadi village and moved them to a nearby school after their homes were flooded. More than 500 families from Santoshi Tol, Dhangadigaon, Shivanagar and Campus Road, Bishalnagar and Chatakpur in Dhangadi Municipality have been displaced.
Around 200 families in Srilanka village have also been displaced after floodwaters entered Pahalmanpur, Lalbhojhi, Ramshikhar Jhala and Bhajani. Keshavraj Bhatta of the Nepal Red Cross Society said the displaced are taking shelter in local school buildings and their relatives’ houses.
Personnel from the Nepal Army, the Armed Police Force and Nepal Police, along with Red Cross volunteers, have been mobilised in the affected areas.
In Dhangadi, at least 50 houses were destroyed, while property was damaged in around 3,000 houses. The compound walls of more than 100 houses collapsed, while domestic animals were swept away in some places. According to the Attariya-based field office of the Departemet of Hydrology and Metereology, Kailali district received 352.8 mm of rainfall in the past two days. Some villages in Kanchanpur have also been affected by floodwaters from the Mohana and Doda rivers. Authorities have, meanwhile, put a halt to crossing through the brige at Banabasa Barrage after the water level in the Mahakali river crossed the danger mark.
Landslide dams Lamjung river
A landslide has blocked a portion of the the Khudi river in Ghanapokhara-8 in Lamjung, putting downstream settlements at high risk of a flashflood. The debris has affected the river flow, resulting in the water level to rise around 150 meters high, police said. The police warned that the blockage could burst any time. 
The local administration on Friday evacuated 120 families to safer places, while continuous rainfall has made the situation worse. Around 90 houses close to the river are highly vulnerable. Ghanapokhara, Simpani and Khudi VDCs are also at risk. Meanwhile, landslips in different parts of Pyuthan have obstructed transport service. Some houses and office buildings in the district headquarters are also at risk of landslides, district police chief Ishwar Karki said.
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