PM Hints At Anti-Bandh Legislation

Prime Miniter Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' has said that he is working at bringing laws to ban bandh and strikes, particularly in highways. Addressing eastern regional festival in Damak, Jhapa, Friday (Jan 02), PM Dahal said he would talk with other political parties to finalize such law. "Let us end bandhs in industries and highways for some time," he appealed. He said that the government was also engaged in talks with all the parties to resolve the various issues facing the country. He referred to recent agreement with Nepali Congress (NC). On Friday itself, deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Bamdev Gautam also reiterated PM Dahal's anti-bandh statement. He also hinted that the government would bring such law at the soonest. Compiled from reports

YCL Will Vacate Govt Buildings Before Deadline: Pun

Maoist youth front Young Communist League (YCL) Chairman Ganesh Man Pun on Friday (Jan 2) welcomed the Prime Minister's decision to vacate the government buildings and said his paramilitary troops will leave the buildings two weeks before the deadline set by the government. Speaking at an interaction program organized today in the capital, Pun said the YCL will be involved in development and construction work in the coming days. While saying that his fellow cadres will play a lead role in the socio-economic transformation of the country, the YCL chief also challenged youth wings of the other political parties to compete with them in the same. Pun also accused the main opposition party Nepali Congress (NC) of obstructing the political outlet by raising the issue of YCL. Bowing down to the intense pressure from the NC, Maoist Chairman and Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Thursday agreed to issue a deadline of three months to vacate the private and government properties captured by the YCL. Compiled from reports

PM Unable To Address Parliament

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' who had gone to the parliament, Thursday (Jan 1) evening, to address to resolve the impasse created by continued boycott of main opposition Nepali Congress (NC), had to return in vain after smaller parties raised fresh obstructions. The PM returned after Dalit Janajati Party and another independent member of Constituent Assembly (CA) threatened to obstruct the parliamentary session unless the government fulfilled their demands related with quotas in education. Earlier, PM had agreed to immediately start and complete within three months the process of returning seized properties as well as to disband paramilitary structure of YCL within three weeks. He agreed on these points during his meeting with a delegation of senior leaders of NC in Baluwatar in the afternoon. The NC leaders had gone there after PM showed signs of fulfilling NC's demand for time-bound implementation of their nine-point demands at the meeting of mechanism of six ruling parties held in the morning. In that meeting, the parties in the ruling coalition had advised PM to fulfill NC's demands. Compiled from reports

Nepal Refers To Party On CC Nomination

The former general secretary of the Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) Madhav Kumar Nepal has said that his party will have the final say on whether to honor the proposal to nominate him to head the Constitutional Committee (CC) in the Constituent Assembly (CA). "This is an issue that has to be decided by the party. I cannot make comment at this juncture," Nepal told journalists when he was asked if he accepts the government's proposal to nominate him to head the CC – which will lead in the drafting process of new constitution. Nepal had met with Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda,' Wednesday (Dec 31) morning. And he said that during the meeting the PM, indeed, made such proposal to him. For Nepal to head the CC, he will first have to be elected or nominated to the CA as he is not currently a CA member. PM held talks with Nepal on the day when main opposition Nepali Congress (NC), too, is slated to confer with the UML over the matter related with non implementation of past pacts by the Maoists. The NC has formed a taskforce to initiate talks with all the political parties except the Maoists. Compiled from reports

Hopes Of Nepalis Eyeing Jobs In South Korea Dashed

The dreams of thousands of Nepali youths to find well-paid jobs in South Korea has been shattered for the time being after the Korean government announced on Tuesday (Dec 30) to temporarily halt issuing employment permits to foreign workers as the recent arrival of foreign workers surpassed the quota set for the same. The Korean Ministry of Labor decided to freeze in work permits until February 2009 saying that the number of foreign workers employed in the country has exceeded the set quota of 72,000, the Xinhua news agency reported. With the decision, nearly 4500 Nepali youths, awaiting lucrative jobs in South Korea after finishing all the required procedures, have been left in lurch. So far, only 2700 have received the contract with the Korean government thought 6500 Nepalis have passed the language tests conducted for the employment in Korea under the Employment Permit System (EPS). Among those receiving contract, approximately 2000 Nepalis have reached South Korea. While signing the memorandum of understanding for EPS in July 2007, both the governments had asserted that more than 5000 Nepalis would be provided with employment opportunities in South Korea annually. Earlier, the South Korean government had announced the possible decrease of the employment quotas for the year 2009 taking into account the global economic slowdown. The government of Nepal and South Korea signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for Employment Permit System (EPS) in July 2007. The EPS section of the Department of Labor and Employment Promotion had given orientation to 500 of the 6,768 people who passed the Korean language tests. The selected workers were also imparted training on the South Korean social, economic, and legal systems, as well as general information on the works they have to do and their responsibilities in South Korea. Kantipur reports

YCL, Youth Force Creating Security Nightmares

Coordinator of Madhesi Janadikar Forum (MJF) and Foreign Minister Upendra Yadav has blamed the activities of the youth wings of two main ruling partners, CPN (Maoist) and CPN (UML), for lack of peace and security in the country. Speaking at a gathering of MJF cadres in Saptari district on Tuesday (Dec 30), Yadav said the government would not be able to create sense of security if it fails to check the unruly activities of the Maoist-aligned Young Communist League (YCL) and Youth Force of the UML. The youth groups must be fully disarmed and their militant activities should be controlled by the concerned parties, minister Yadav added. Speaking further, the MJF chief said there parities should forge a broad consensus in order to manage the current transitional phase and that the failure in doing so would lead the nation to a crisis. In order to create an atmosphere of trust among the parties, Yadav said, the government should act on the promise to return the properties seized by Maoists during the insurgency, and implement the agreement signed with Madhesi parties. Compiled from reports

Kantipur Scribe Receives Death Threat From Maoist Appointee

A member of the Board of Directors of Alternative Energy Promotion Center (AEPC) under the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology, Deepak Bahadur Shahi threatened to take life of journalist Bikash Thapa of Kantipur daily on Tuesday (Dec 30). The death threat to Thapa, a senior journalist, came two days after the government committed to protect journalists and press freedom. Shahi, who was appointed to the post in CPN-Maoist quota came to Kantipur publications and threatened Thapa over the news story published in today's edition of Kantipur titled "Govt Aid without installing solar panels". "Be careful, anything can happen to you at any time," threatened Shahi, claiming to be a Maoist. Shahi had arrived at the publications today along with other two associates. Thapa had written about Shahi being fined by the AEPC for taking government donation without installing solar technology in rural areas. The news mentioned that the AEPC Board of Directors had appointed Shahi, a minor technician, as its member by removing an engineer. Compiled from reports

Remittance Business Will Not Suffer Badly: Govt

A high level government official on Monday said that the ongoing global financial crisis has not yet affected the employment of Nepali youths abroad. While speaking at an interaction program on "Global Financial Crisis and Its Impact on Foreign Employment" Krishna Hai Baskota, revenue secretary at the Ministry of Finance, said," The relatively high-paid jobs are being affected by the current worldwide meltdown. As Nepalese youths are primarily engaged in the low-rung jobs, there is no need to get panic about the possibility of massive layoffs of Nepali laborers abroad.' However, Dr Chiranjibi Nepal, an economist and former chairman of Security Board of Nepal, argued that as Malaysia and the Gulf countries have started to feel the heat of the global financial crisis, they are laying off unskilled workers like Nepalis. "It is not a blurred fact that remittance has helped to keep the country's shaky economy afloat. So, the shrink in demand of Nepali labourers in popular job destinations like Malaysia and the Gulf countries is sure to bleed the country's economy," he added. Tilak Bahadur Ranabhat, president of NAFEA (Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies) urged the government to come up with concrete packages to help the remittance business that contributes around 17.4 percent to the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Compiled from reports