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POLLS AS SCHEDULED SAYS UCPN MAOIST LEADER
Kathmandu, 19 Aug.: UCPN (Maoist) leader Post Bahadur Bogati has reiterated that the Constituent Assembly will be held on the slated date of November 19 even if the CPN-Maoist stays out, RSS reports from Nangalbare..
Speaking in a news conference organised by the Revolutionary Journalaists Association, Ilam district chapter here on Monday, he said the demands that Chairman of the Council of Ministers Khil Raj Regmi resign from the post of Chief Justice and deferring the election date put forth by the CPN-Maoist both are untenable.
Bogati also said that the CPN-Maoist itself would be at loss if it did not participate in the CA election.
He also cautioned that the whole country would be defeated if the CA election was not held on November 19.
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ELEPHANTS DESTROY PADDY CROP
Kathmandu, 19 Aug.: Wild elephants coming from the Dudhuwa National Park, India have destroyed the paddy crop planted in some 25 bighas of land at Baisebichwa VDC in the district, RSS reports from Kanchanpr..
Likewise, the tuskers destroyed a house and ate the grains kept in the house of local Krishna Panta, said a local Khusi Ram Chaudhary.
The tuskers have been wreaking havoc in the area destroying the crops and the houses for some years, terrorising the locals. But no preventive measures have been applied so far, complained locals.
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EC ALSO SAYS ELECTION ON SCHEDULE

Kathmandu, 19 Aug.: The Election Commission (EC) is all prepared to hold the Constituent Assembly election as scheduled on November 19 even if the Mohan Baidya -led CPN-Maoist does not participate in it, Bhadra Sharma writes in The Kathmandu Post..
According to the EC, holding elections after November would be a complicated affair if the scheduled polls are deferred.
“With or without Baidya, we are all set to hold the polls as scheduled. There is no point in postponing them.” a senior EC official told the Post on Sunday.
EC officials, however, say ‘some technical problems’ remain and poll-opposing parties and underground armed outfits are threats to the security situation during the elections. “Security will be tight if Baidya boycotts the elections, while the government must support us with a special security plan,” the official said.
Nepal Police lacks around 35,000 security personnel when it comes to providing security to the around 18,000 polling booths in 10,006 locations. EC officials say at least 100,000 security personnel will be required in the 240 constituencies.
Questioning their efficiency and impartiality, the EC has rejected the Nepal Police headquarters’ plan to recruit temporary police personnel for the elections.
Sources close to the Ministry of Home Affairs said the government is preparing a plan to give a “certain role to the Nepal Army” to ensure free and fair elections. The ministry is awaiting the outcome of the ongoing talks between the major parties and the Baidya-led 33-party alliance before submitting the Integrated Security Action Plan to the EC.
The EC has so far completed registering political parties, while over 12.3 million of an estimated 15.4 million voters have been enrolled and the week-long ‘special’ voter registration process is under way since Saturday. Over 18,287 more voters were registered in the two days beginning Saturday.

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UCPN MAOIST MUST SLOG

Kathmandu, 19 Aug.: A preliminary evaluation of the UCPN (Maoist) has shown that the party will have to “struggle hard” for the November elections if it is to retain its current position as the largest party, Kamal Dev Bhattarai writes in The Kathmandu Post..
Leaders sent to all the 240 constituencies have started reporting to the party headquarters and they say that the party’s ground position is weak and that top leaders should slog it out to retain the party’s position.
“The big challenge for us (in the November elections) is to become the largest party again. The talk of the party securing majority seats is for public consumption,” a leader close to party Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal told the Post. Leaders say the reasons for the party’s ‘degrading’ position at the grassroots level are the split in the party, dissatisfaction among the rank and file over the party’s performance after it joined mainstream politics, and the “relatively strengthening position” of the Nepal Congress (NC).
UCPN (Maoist) leaders say some devoted district and local level cadres have joined the Mohan Baidya-led CPN-Maoist, weakening the party, while the grassroots organisational structures are ‘in a mess.’
“We also found that many of our committed cadres have gone abroad for employment, while some others have left the party and started their own business,” a central leader, who was sent to the Far West, told Post.
The split in the party has adversely affected its hold in the hilly region even as its position in the Tarai remains unchanged. “We are focusing on the Tarai belt and we are expecting more seats there in the next polls,” a leader said. Top party leaders Dahal, Baburam Bhattarai and Narayan Kaji Shrestha are planning to visit districts in the Tarai to boost the party’s position there. “We certainly have many challenges after the split and our main competitor is the Nepali Congress,” leader Devendra Poudel said.
As chances of the CPN-Maoist joining the elections get slimmer, the UCPN (Maoist) is trying to woo Baidya party leaders, who are positive about the polls, into the party fold. According to a leader, Dahal is trying to persuade some leaders of the Baidya party to join his side by offering them lucrative constituencies and ministerial portfolios in the government after the CA elections. UCPN (Maoist) leaders expect a ‘large chunk’ of the CPN-Maoist leaders and cadres to join forces with them soon

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NEW INFO. ON DIANA DEATH BEING PROBED

Kathmandu, 19 Aug.: British police are assessing new information about the deaths of Princess Diana and her friend Dodi al Fayed in a Paris road crash in

1997, Reuters. AFP report from Lo(ndon..

London’s Metropolitan Police did not elaborate on the information, or its source, but Britain’s Sky news television station said it had come from the parents-in-law of a former soldier and had been passed on by the Royal Military Police.

Sky said it understood the new information included an allegation that the deaths of Diana, Dodi and their driver were caused by a member of the British military.

A royal spokeswoman said there would be no comment on the matter from William or Harry, or from Charles’s Clarence House office. The Ministry of Defence also said it was not commenting.

A spokesman for Dodi’s father Mohammed al Fayed said he had no comment to make, but would be “interested in seeing the outcome”, adding that he trusts the police would investigate the information “with vigour”.

The Metropolitan Police said in a statement that it was assessing the “relevance and credibility” of information into the deaths that it had recently received.

“This is not a re-investigation and does not come under Operation Paget,” it said. Operation Paget was the two-year police inquiry into the numerous conspiracy theories surrounding the crash. Led by John Stevens, formerly Britain’s top policeman, it concluded in 2006 that all the allegations it assessed were without foundation.

Diana and Dodi and their chauffeur were killed when their car crashed in a road tunnel while pursued by photographers after the couple left the Ritz hotel in Paris on 31 August 1997.

Dodi’s father alleged that the couple had been killed on the orders of the British establishment.

Stevens concluded there was no evidence of murder and said that driver Paul had been drunk and going too fast. A 2008 inquest in London returned a verdict of unlawful killing and said Paul and the photographers were to blame for the deaths.

In 2008 Mohammed al Fayed announced he was abandoning his campaign to prove the couple were killed, for the sake of Diana’s sons William and Harry. He said he had reservations about the outcome of the inquest but had had enough: “I am leaving the rest for God to get my revenge.

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