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FORMER ROYAL FAMILY MEMBERS REGISTER AS VOTERS
Kathmandu, 18 Aug.: The Election Commission (EC) Saturday re-opened the voter registration for one week in all 75 districts, as per its own decision made
two days agom The Rising Nepal reports..
On Thursday, the EC, issuing a press statement, had said that it would reopen the voter registration process for a week.
EC Spokesperson Bir Bahadur Rai said that the EC gave a week-long additional time to the missing voters to register in the biometric voters´ list.
People were seen today thronging the district election offices of Kathmandu and other districts in the valley from early in the morning.
Meanwhile, members of the former royal family registered their names at the Kathmandu District Election Office, Babarmahal, today.
Puja Shah, Sitashma Shah and Dilasha Shah, daughters of ex-prince Dhirendra Shah, registered at the voters' roll, Chief of Office Shambhu Chalise said.
According to Rai, the EC re-opened voter registration till August 23 without affecting the timetable of the November 19 CA election.
Earlier, the EC had collected the voters´ names by mid-July.  In the first phase, a total of 12.3 million eligible voters had registered themselves at the voter list. The EC, according to Rai, is preparing to publish the final name list of the voters on September 7.

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POLLS WON’T BE DEFERRED SAYS MAOIST CHIEF

Kathmandu, 18 Aug.: UCPN-Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ Saturday said that no compromise would be made on deferring the Constituent Assembly (CA) election date slated for November 19, The Rising Nepal reports..

Addressing the closing ceremony of a month long campaign to strengthen people-party relationship here, he said that there was no alternative to CA election to end the ongoing political crisis in the country.

He urged the dissenting political parties to give their demands that could affect the poll process.

“The rational demands put forth by the CPN-Maoist could be addressed only if they agreed to take part in the election,” said chairman Prachanda, stating that the CPN-Maoist’s opposition to go to the election was an insult to People’s War and People’s Movement.

Meanwhile, party leader Dr. Baburam Bhattarai asked one and all to make the pro-change political forces victorious with two-thirds majority in the upcoming CA election.

Addressing a programme organized by the UCPN-Maoist, Kathmandu electoral constituency no. 1 to collect suggestions for making party manifesto here, he said that his party had the responsibility to make the CA election successful as the UCPN-Maoist wanted to go to the polls to make a people’s constitution.

“The political parties, which are opposing the election, are unable to comprehend people’s longing to go for the polls to promulgate new constitution,” said Dr. Bhattarai, adding that the date of CA election would not be deferred at any cost as it would plunge the country towards huge political crisis.

Stating that the dialogues with the dissenting political parties to persuade them to take part in the election was positive and in its final stages, he asked the poll-opposing parties to not act against the spirit of people’s desire to go for people’s mandate.

He reiterated that the High-Level Political Committee (HLPC) would move sincerely and put maximum effort in bringing all political parties to the poll process.

On a separate note, Dr. Bhattarai said that the insurgency-era related incidents should be dealt through the Truth Revelation and Reconciliation Commission.

UCPN-Maoist spokesperson Agni Sapkota clarified that there were no hidden agreements to defer the November 19 election date.

Speaking at the regular press meet organized at the party’s central office Parisdanda here, he said that the flexibility of HLPC and the dissenting political parties in recent days had crated certainty over the CA election on slated date.

“It is absolutely false that the UCPN-Maoist does not want CPN-Maoist-led alliance to take part in the election,” said Sapkota, adding that his party wanted the participation of all political parties instead.

On a separate note, he said that the people had provided constructive and critical suggestion during the party’s month-long people-party relationship strengthening campaign.

He said that the invaluable suggestions would be taken seriously by the party to form suitable election strategy.
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LOAD-SHEDDING TO CONTINUE FOR AT LEAST THREE YEARS
Kathmandu, 18 Aug.:: Minister for Energy Umakanta Jha Saturday said  that the government had accorded due priority to the development of the energy sector in the country, The Rising Nepal reports..

Stating that the government had allocated more than Rs. 30 billion for energy sector in its budget of the current fiscal year, he stressed the need of bringing foreign investment for the development of this sector.

“The domestic investment is not sufficient in developing hydropower in the country. The foreign investment should be attracted in the sector,” Minister Jha said while addressing the 28^th anniversary of the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) in the capital.

He informed that the government was working to bring about managerial improvement in the NEA and  hoped that the new structure would leave a  good impact on the NEA.

Energy Secretary Bishwa Prakash Pandit said that the NEA was facing a challenge to supply power in line with the demand in the market and provide people's access to power.

Asking one and all to unite to eliminate the existing load-shedding from the country, he suggested adopting energy mix policy to address the existing power deficit in the country.

Despite hike in electricity tariff, Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) incurred a net loss of Rs. 4.56 billion in the fiscal year 2012/13, he informed.

The loss was mainly due to the mismatch between the electricity service cost and its tariff.

“The low tariff compared to the electricity service cost was the main cause behind the loss incurred by the NEA,” Rameshwar Yadav, Managing Director of the NEA, said while  presenting his report at the  anniversary function.

The NEA’s arrears reached Rs. 7.98 billion by the end of the last fiscal year.

Meanwhile, ongoing load-shedding would go on for next 3-4 years, the he said.

There is no possibility of ending the power crisis the country has been facing now in the near future, Yadav said.

He, however, said that the NEA would implement some programmes and activities to limit the existing load-shedding hours within 12/14 hours a day during the dry season.

The demand of electricity has been rising tremendously over the years. According to the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), the NEA recorded a highest record demand of electricity of 1094.6 MW in December last year.

The NEA had projected the demand at 1163.2 MW last year.

However, the NEA could supply only 719.6 MW power. Out of the total power, 40 per cent was supplied from the NEA’s production, 16 per cent from private sector and 9 per cent was imported from India. The remaining 34 per cent power deficit was managed by disrupting power supply.

The annual demand of power grew by about 9 per cent in 2012/13 compared to the demand a year ago.


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