REGISTER

VOTERS BEING REGISTERED EVEN ON HOLIDAYS

Kathmandu, 21 Aug.: Election commission officials will work Wednesday and Thursday to register voters for the 19 November assembly elections despite holiday

in the Valley.

Wednesday is a national holiday to mark janai purnima while a Valley

holiday has been announced to observe Gai Jatra Thursday,.

Week-long campaign to register voters ends Friday.

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CAPITAL MORNING TEMPERATURE 19 DEGREES CELSIUS

Kathmandu, 21 Aug.: Capital’s Wednesday morning temperature

aas 19 degrees Celsius.

Temperature is expected to rise to;27 degrees Celsius in the

afternoon.

Rainfall Tuesday was 26/8 mm.

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CPN MAOIST BEGING DOOR-TO-DOOR ELECTION BOYCOTT CAMPAIGN

Kathmandu, 21 Aug.: With a view to drumming up public support against the Constituent Assembly polls scheduled for November 19, the Mohan Baidya-led CPN-Maoist has started a door-to-door campaign in all electoral constituencies across the country. The party also plans to hold mass rallies, shout anti-election slogans, distribute pamphlets and hold corner assemblies in the constituencies, Roshan Sedhai writes in The Kathmandu Post..
According to leaders, the party has begun formation of an anti-election structure consisting of hundreds of cadres in each constituency under Central Committee members.
In the door-to-door campaign launched last Friday in the Capital, cadres visit individual houses between 3-5 pm. Sudip Malla, a CC member of the party, who is in charge of the Kathmandu constituency No 1, said the drive is an effort to raise public awareness against the polls. The team under him has been visiting houses in his constituency, telling people that the November elections cannot give them a new constitution.
The party has been opposing the elections and demanding that the non-partisan election government be replaced with a political one and that all issues be settled through a round-table conference.
“This (door-to-door campaign) is one of the many anti-election programmes okayed by the party. We will come up with stern protests after this campaign,” Malla said. Parties in the 33-party poll-opposing alliance are collaborating with the CPN-Maoist in many of these activities in the Capital.
Addressing a public gathering in Kathmandu constituency No 5 in Mahankal VDC, party General Secretary Ram Bahadur Thapa on Tuesday urged the public to boycott the polls as, according to him, the election process is flawed. “Elections held by this government cannot be free and fair. The 11-point and 25-point agreements should be scrapped to open way for fresh national consensus and legitimate elections,” he said.
He threatened to launch a ‘people’s revolt’ if the constitution is written by excluding them from the election process.
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PROBE STARTS INTO ADHIKARI MURDER
Kathmandu, 21 Aug.:A seven-member team formed by the Chitwan District Police Office (DPO) on Tuesday began investigation s into the murder of Krishna Prasad Adhikari. Adhikari was murdered by alleged Maoist cadres in Chitwan during the Maoist insurgency in 2004, Bimal Khatiwada writes in The Kathmandu Post from Chitwan..
“The team (led by Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Sanjay Bahadur Raut) started work on the basis of the letter sent by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), as the District Attorney’s Office did not offer any clear instructions on the case,” DPO Chief Pradhyuman Karki said.
Despite the government orders to begin work on the case immediately, the probe were delayed by a week as the DPO awaited legal advice from the attorney’s office.
“We had requested instructions from the attorney’s office, just in case some legal hurdles emerged in the future, affecting the investigation s,” Karki said.
The attorney’s office, however, said it has already advised the police to
initiate the investigation based on the letter sent by the NHRC.
Parents reject govt succour
Nanda Prasad Adhikari and Ganga Maya, who have been staging a fast-unto-death, seeking justice for their murdered son, on Tuesday refused to accept Rs 300,000 given by the government as ‘interim relief.’ Krishna Prasad Adhikari was killed during the Maoist insurgency in Chitwan in 2004. The Adhikari duo, who has been demanding investigation s into the murder, also rejected the government’s pleas to end the fast they have been staging at Bir Hospital for the past one month.
The hospital on Tuesday shifted the couple from the emergency ward to the Intensive Care Unit after their health condition deteriorated. Doctors attending to them said their condition is critical.
On Tuesday, a high-level government team including Health Minister Bidhya Dhar Mallik, Minister for Peace and Reconstruction Ram Kumar Shrestha, Home Secretary Nabin Ghimire and Secretary at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) Raju Man Singh Malla, visited the couple and urged them to end the fast and return to Gorkha, their home district. “We rejected the offer as money is not our priority. Justice must be delivered, while money will not compensate my brother’s life,” Krishna’s brother Nur Prasad Adhikari told the Post from Chitwan where he is following investigation s into Krishna’s murder.
He said the government is yet to begin the investigation s.
“My parents will end the fast once some culrpits are arrested and once they are convinced that the case is making headway,”
Nur said.
Following intense pressure from the NHRC and other rights activists, the government has directed the Chitwan police to investigate Adhikari’s
murder.
The government team visited the couple on the instructions of the Chairman of the Interim Election Government, Khil Raj Regmi. Officials from the National Human Rights Commission accompanied the government officials.
“Attempts are being made at the central and the local levels to begin investigation s into the murder. The government is worried about the fast-unto-death,” a statement issued by the PMO said.
It added that the government will bear all the medical expenses for the couple.
“The government has made a firm commitment to protect and promote human rights in the country,” the statement added.
Krishna, then 19, was abducted from Bakulahar chowk in Ratna Nagar Municipality in Chitwan in June 2004 by Maoist cadres and killed the next day. His family had to then flee their hometown of Fujel VDC in Gorkha following threats from the Maoists.
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