BAN

BAN ON CHICKEN AND CHICKEN PRODUCTS BEING
LIFTED UNDER INDUSTRY PRESSURE
Kathmandu, 8 Aug.: Under pressure from the poultry industry,
hovernment is lifting a ban Thursday afternoon on the sale and
movement of chicken and chicken products in the Valley.
The ban in force for just more than one week, is being lifted even as
bird flu was detected in three more farms in Lalitpir Wednesday and sale
of infected meat endangering the health of the general public.
Avian flu has been detected in all three Valley districts as people switch
to  eating mutton and fish whose prices have soared.
The movement of birds will be closely monitored at four entry point in
the Valley with the lifting of the controversial ban.
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MAOIST CHIEF SAYS THREE MISTAKES COMMITTED
Kathmandu, 8 Aug.: : In his public mea culpa, Unified CPN-Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal today counted three mistakes he had made since his party joined the peace process back in 2006. Rishi Baral writes in The Himalayan Times from Pokhara..

Speaking at a programme here today, Dahal said, “My first mistake was not to accept late Girijababu as the country’s president. Had he become the president then, the country would have been on the path of development and prosperity, and the crisis that we are facing today would have never arisen.” As far as presidential post was concerned, Dahal’s party had carried out massive pamphleteering, portraying Dahal as the first president of republic Nepal. By now it has come to the public domain that Dahal did nurse an ambition to become the Head of State.

The episode concerning his decision in capacity of the prime minister to sack then army chief Rookmangud Katawal figured as Dahal’s second mistake.

“Actually I was wrong to seek the removal of then army chief from his post at a time when he had just three months more in service. I am now ruing my habit of taking decisions in a hurry,” said Dahal.

He said his third mistake was standing against the proposal of voting in the erstwhile Constituent Assembly for deciding the issue of state restructuring. “It was my mistake that I was against determining the fate of state restructuring through voting in the CA,” Dahal said.

After he was done with the three mistakes of his post-peace process life, Dahal said the election must be held on the stipulated date.

He also said that conspiracies were being hatched to revive monarchy. He also utilised the stage to warn the CPN-Maoist, saying any attack on democracy would not be tolerated.

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ALL- PARTY GOVT. UNDER REGMI PROPOSED BY CPN MAOIST
Kathmandu, 8 Aug.: The CPN-Maoist today proposed formation of an all-party government, even under Khil Raj Regmi, if the parties in the High Level Political Committee were not ready to change the current Regmi-led dispensation. The CPN-M has been saying that the Regmi-led government is ‘unconstitutional’ and has been calling for replacing it with a party-led consensual government, Arjun Bhandari writes in The Himalayan Times..

CPN-M leaders, during a meeting with the CPN-UML at the latter’s party office in Balkhu today, said if their proposal was accepted, there would be no need to scrap the 25-point presidential order issued on March 13, according to a UML leader privy to the meeting. CPN-M’s another proposal was that it was also ready to accept a government either led by the UML or by the Nepali Congress.

But senior UML leader KP Sharma Oli, who was present in the meeting, told CPN-M Chairman Mohan Baidhya that it was impossible to change the government leadership at this moment. Nor is it possible to alter the date for the election slated for November 19, Oli told Baidhya. “We are flexible on all other issues except these two,” a UML leader quoted Oli as telling the Maoist leaders.

Oli reminded the dissenting party that holding election in the future was almost impossible if it was not conducted this time (on November 19).

Oli is learnt to have asked why the CPN-M had formed dastas (fighting squads) in all 240 constituencies. In response, Baidhya is learnt to have told the UML leaders that the conveners of all the dastas could possibly be fielded as candidates under the first-past-the-post system if any deal was struck with the parties at the last moment.

UML sources said Baidhya, accompanied by Dev Gurung and CP Gajurel, also proposed taking the issues of federalism, forms of governance and election system to referendum while owning up all other agreements reached by the dissolved CA.

Talks with MJF-N

The CPN-UML on Wednesday held talks with Upendra Yadav-led Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum-Nepal. Yadav, who was accompanied by Bharat Bimal Yadav, reiterated his party’s stance that the ratio and strength of the second CA must be what it was in the first CA, citizenship certificate must not be made mandatory to get one’s name registered in the voters’ roll, more time must be given for voters’ registration and a round table conference must be held to discuss all the issues. Yadav said even the UML was neither confident about holding election on time nor about the second CA being able to draft a new constitution.

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