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CAPITAL MORNING TEMPERATURE 2- DEGREESCELSIUS
Kathmandu, 21 July:
Sunday morning’s temperature was 20 degrees Celsius in the capital.
Mercury is expected to rise to 26 degrees Celsius in the
afternoon.
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CONSENSUS MOST ESSENTIAL FOR DELIENATING ELECTORAL
CONSTITUENCIES
Kathmandu, 21 July: The eight-member
taskforce formed to
recommend on Constituency delineation, discussed the issue
with members of the Constituency Delimitation Commission
(CDC) today [Saturday], The Himalayan Times reports..
CDC member Netra Dhital said political consensus was a must to resolve the
issue of constituency delineation as the CDC’s hands were tied by conflicting
provisions of the constitution. “Under the present circumstances, we can do
justice neither to the hills nor the Tarai,” he added. Dhital said 24 of the
25 districts that had added constituencies in 2008 had recorded high growth
in population in the last 10 years and those districts deserved more seats,
but due to conflicting provisions in the constitution, the CDC was not in a
position to increase constituencies in those districts.
“On the one hand, the constitution says Madhes will have constituencies in
proportion to the percentage of the population and hill region will have
constituencies in proportion to numerical growth of population,” he argued,
“But we cannot reduce the 205 constituencies that existed in 1999 nor can we
increase the 240 first-past-the-post electoral constituencies.”
Dhital said CDC was a technical body and could offer only technical solution
but since constituency delineation was a political issue, any solution must
be backed by parties to avert negative fallout.
“We told the task force that we could suggest several alternatives, but they
would have to be backed by political parties. We have told them not to resort
to stir over the delineation issue.” Dhital said, adding, political
understanding had helped resolve the delineation issue in 2008 and the same
spirit should prevail this time too.
The task force will hold its meeting in the next two days and submit its
recommendation to the HLPC.
Madhesi parties have demanded 121 constituencies in Madhes in proportion to
the region’s population, while some other parties have said that population
alone should not serve as the basis for demarcation of electoral districts.
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EC PREPARES FOR POLLS
Kathmandu, 21 July: The
Election Commission (EC) will train 280,000 people, including civil
servants, school teachers, media persons and voter education volunteers,
among others, from across the country for the upcoming Constituent Assembly
(CA) scheduled for November 19, Gani Ansari writes in Republica.
According to Komal Dhamala, executive director of Electoral Education and
Information Center (EEIC) at the Election Commission (EC), EEIC has proposed
to conduct trainings and orientations from August 1.
As per the proposed program, there will be five tiers of orientations and
trainings for them. The trainings and orientations will be conducted at
central level, regional level, district level, Village Development
Committee (VDCs) or municipal wards and at the polling locations.
Dhamala stated that trainings and orientations would be conducted for seven
groups of “master trainers” at the central level. The groups will be
related to security, media, polling, counting, election management,
accounts and logistics and computer. Each group of “master trainers” will
have 25 people, he added.
The “master trainers” will carry out trainings in development regions while
those trained will move to the district and the local level to provide
trainings. The central level and regional level training will carried out
for 14 days.
Asked how the voter education program would be different from that of the
2008 CA election, the executive director of EEIC said technology has
brought some changes in the program. “The EC will use glue digital display,
sign boards, SMS and social networks for voter education,” said Dhamala,
adding, “They were not used during the last CA election.”
According to the proposed program, EC will form Voter Education Polling
Location Co-ordination Committee headed by head teacher of schools in each
polling location across the country.
Dhamala informed that the constitutional body will endorse the proposed
program on voter education within the next two or three days. EC has
already approved a policy related to voter education for the CA polls.
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GOVT. TO ALLOW FOREIGN PARTNERS TO ISSUE BONDS IN LOCAL
CURRENCY
Kathmandu, 21 July : The international
development partners, which want to issue bonds in local currency to
mobilize financial resources in the domestic market, have to remain under
the amount limit, should be synced with the government´s calendar and
should be project specific, as per the guideline that is likely to be
submitted to the cabinet by mid-August, Bhojraj Paudel writes in Republica.
Ministry of Finance is working on submitting the
guideline to the cabinet for approval by mid-August," Baikuntha Aryal,
joint secretary at the ministry, told Repuiblica.
The MoF started developing the guideline after two development partners
expressed their interests to issue bonds in local currency.
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector lending arm
of the World Bank, and Asian Development Bank (ADB) have expressed interest
to issue such bonds in the Nepali market.
"All the development partners can go for issuing bonds in local
currency once the government endorses the guideline," Aryal said.
Once the guideline is issued, international financial institutions with top
credit ratings will be allowed to issue such bonds in Nepal. The
amount thus collected will then be extended in the form of loans to the
private sector for long-term investment in sectors ranging from
infrastructure and agriculture.
The budget for the fiscal year 2013/14 has also made a provision to allow
international development partners to issue bonds in local currency.
"For the long-term investment in large scale infrastructure projects,
necessary arrangements will be made to issue bond in local currency for the
international agencies that have high ranking credit rating," reads
the budget.
The government has envisioned allowing development partners to issue
project-specific bonds in local currency to ensure that the liquidity
mopped up from the market is utilized for the development of significantly
important projects in the country.
According to a source privy to the issue, the development partners are
seeking to issue bonds in local currency in basket so that they can
mobilize financial resources of the domestic market in the projects that
have low risk and high returns.
"The MoF has already shared major points of the guideline with the ADB
and IFC," a high-ranking official said, requesting anonymity.
"Both the development partners have said that they would consider the
government´s policy guidance."
Allowing international development partners to issue bond in local currency
in basket might have negative impact on the national economy. "On top
of that, no country allows international development partners to issue bond
in local currency without amount limit," the official added.
The international development partners, mainly ADB and IFC, are closely
watching how the government would come up with the policy to allow them to
issue bond in local currency, as per a knowledgeable source close to a
development partner.
However, the government believes better yields and guarantee that money
invested in the bonds will be returned back will lure funds that have so
far remained outside of the banking sector, which, according to estimates,
stands at around Rs 20 billion.
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