SLUPS

NEPALI RUPEE SLIPS FURTHER AGAINST DOLLAR

Kathmandu, 10 Aug.: Nepali rupees depreciated further against the US dollar Saturday.

The selling rate was fixed at  Rs,98.89 to the greenback.

The Nepali rupee was been losing value as the dollargains against the Indian rupee.

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SATURDAY MORNING TEMPERATURE IN CAPITAL 19 DEGREES CELSIUS

Kathmandu, 10- Aug.: Capital’s temperature on a sunny Saturday morning was 19 degrees Celsius.

Temperature is expected to rise to 27 degrees Celsius in the afternoon.

Rainfall Friday was 4.6mm.

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GOVT. SETTING UP SECURITY PRESS

Kathmandu, 10 Aug : Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies, Shankar Prasad Koirala, said the government has been doing homework to manage security printing in the country, RSS reports. .
Inaugurating the First National General Convention of the Nepal Printing Industry Association here today, he said it has been inevitable to establish a special press to stop national currency from going outside the country as the nation has to invest a large amount of money for security printing abroad.
The printing industry not only supports in revenue collection but also creates opportunity of employment and supports the state and that the government was positive to address the problems of the printing entrepreneurs.
The government has a policy to work in the public-private partnership for making the economy dynamic and development of industries, said Koirala. The government is ready to reform the existing laws and move ahead if there is something unclear in acts and regulations, he said.
According to the Association, as many as 2,000 presses are affiliated in the Association from  different 40 districts while around 20 billion rupees has been invested in the sector. Nnnn

MADESH PARTIES SLAM COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION ON CONSTITUENCIES

Kathmandu, 10 Aug:: Various Madhes-based political parties have taken strong exception to the Election Constituency Delineation Commission (CDC) report that recommends keeping the existing 240 election constituencies intact, Republica reports.. The Madhes-based parties have maintained that the recommendation of the CDC goes against not only the recent ruling of the Supreme Court that fresh constituencies should be delineated in line with population numbers, but also the relevent constitutional provision and the past political agreement reached with the Madhesi parties to increase the number of election constituencies in line with changes in population. The Madhes-based parties have maintained that the Tarai-Madhes should have 51 percent of the total of 240 seats allocated under the First Past the Post (FPTP) election, in keeping with the latest census in 2011. “This has negatively affected the election environment in the country,” Chairman of Madhesi People´s Rights Forum-Nepal (MPRF-N) Upendra Yadav told Republica. The CDC report has not sought any changes in the number of election constituencies, but has instead set a flat population threshold of 112,000 for Tarai-Madhes and the Hill and Mountain regions alike. Yadav also expressed surprise over the decision of the CDC to submit its report with such a recommendation at a time when they are sitting for talks with the High Level Political Committee (HLPC) over their demand to delineate election constituencies on the basis of the latest census. He said that they won´t take part in the election unless the election constituencies are delineated as per changes in the population shown by the 2011 census. Issuing a separate statement, Nepal Sadbhawana Party (NSP) has urged Chairman of the Interim Election Council Khil Raj Regmi not to endorse the report and instead forward it to the Election Commission (EC) for a review of the recommendation. NSP Chairperson Sarita Giri, while alleging that the top leaderships of the parties in the High Level Political Committee (HLPC) are not serious about the demands of Madhesi people, has demanded that fresh constituencies be delineated as per the latest census. In a separate statement, Coordinator of Tarai Madhes National Campaign J P Gupta has argued that the recommendation of the CDC has exposed the state´s unitary tendency and regressive character. Gupta, who was released from jail recently after serving a term for graft, said the report has dashed the hopes of various marginalized communities including Madhesi people that they would be having better representation and that a new CA would promulgate a statute that provides for state restructuring. Gupta has also slammed the United Democratic Madhesi Front (UDMF), which was actively involved in bringing about the 25-point amendment to the Interim Constitution, for not pushing the Madhesi agenda hard enough. “This status quoist report of the Ansari-led commission has posed a serious threat to the country´s unity. The Tarai Madhes National Campaign strongly demands that the Nepal government reject the report and take a decision to improve on it,” said the statement.
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TALKS WITH CPN MAOIST GETTING NOWHERE Kathmandu,, 10 Aug: Some key leaders from the major political parties have intensified inter-party negotiations in the last couple of days in an effort to bring the agitating CPN-Maoist on board the election process, but they seemed to be getting nowhere, Tirtha Lal Bhusal/Kiran Pun write in Republica.. CPN-UML leader Madhav Kumar Nepal and some other leaders from that party held repeated rounds of talks with CPN-Maoist Chairman Mohan Baidya in the last few days but UML leaders closely involved in the negotiations are not very optimistic about the Baidya-led Maoist party joining the election process. After a few rounds of talks with Baidya´s team, UML Vice-chairman Bamdev Gautam and General Secretary Ishwar Pokharel found it a challenge to persuade them to participate in the polls scheduled for November 19. “As we listened to their views, it became clear that they aren´t interested in participating in the elections in November,” Gautam told Republica. Pokharel said that the UML leaders are for addressing some valid grievances of the Baidya-led party and exhibiting maximum possible flexibility in that regard. “But the talks have yielded no result as CPN-Maoist leaders have come up with vague proposals,” he said. According to Pokharel, the UML leaders have said that the HLPC should and can address some concerns of Baidya´s party if the latter is sincerely committed to joining the elections and comes up with concrete and pragmatic proposals. “If Baidyaji has felt that he has been isolated in the process of forming the HLPC we can review that particular decision but he should be ready to join the HLPC,” said Pokharel. “If the party wants to defer the November poll and the announced election program, he should propose what should be the next date.” The UML leaders have also urged Baidya to recommend the names of ministers they want included in the present government. “But they aren´t ready to commit themselves to the November polls, can´t give any alternative ideas and don´t discuss these specific issues with concrete proposals of their own,” he said. CPN-Maoist Secretary Netra Bikram Chand said that they would participate in the November polls only if the other parties are ready for a broader agreement beforehand on the major contents of the new constitution. “There should be a political agreement on the contents of the new constitution. There should be clarity about what type of new Nepal we are going to build. We should reach a deal on the principle of inclusion, land reform and rectifying mistakes in international treaties that Nepal signed in the past,” Chand told Republica. “There is no point joining the election process if the other parties aren´t ready for this.” Baidya and Chand held talks with the UML team led by Madhav Kumar Nepal at the latter´s residence, with the UCPN (Maoist) team led by the party´s chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal at the residence of Post Bahadur Bogati and with Nepali Congress leaders at NC Vice-president Ram Chandra Paudel´s residence. Chand said they repeated the same view with leaders from all the parties. “An agreement on the contents of the new constitution is the major demand of our party,” he said. UML leaders said that they wanted sincere commitment from the Baidya-led party to participation in elections because they suspect that the former rebels may just be buying time to prepare for urban insurrection. “We can´t rule out anything because in Baidya´s party there is still a strong view in favor of political revolt, which is the party´s official political line,” said a leader involved in the negotiations. “More political instability, political void and anarchy would be favorable for them for such a purpose.” UCPN (Maoist) leaders including Chairman Dahal and Baburam Bhattarai, Narayankaji Shrestha and Post Bahadur Bogati reached Nepal´s residence at Koteshwar on Friday to discuss the matter. Leaders privy to developments said UCPN (Maoist) leaders have argued that there is no point wasting further time in a bid to persuade Baidya´s party, while UML leader Nepal was for making a last ditch effort to include them. “We have now started talking about preparing for the election even if Baidyaji is not ready for November polls because we can´t waste any more time,” said Gautam.
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