News Notes (Spotlight Weekly)

King Grants Audience To Koirala, Nepal

Nepali Congress President, Girija Prasad Koirala, and UML general secretary, Madhav Kumar Nepal, have reiterated their party's respective stands during their audience with King Gyanendra on Monday, reports said. KANTIPUR daily quoted Nepal as saying that he demanded formation of an all-party government as per the spirit of article 128 of the constitution. During his nearly two-hour long audience, Nepal also demanded joint audience between the King and leaders of major political parties. Similarly, NC President Koirala insisted that the restoration of the House of Representatives was the only way out to resolve the present impasse. The King listened to their views but did not express any reactions, the news report said. Compiled from reports March 11.

CIAA Raids Houses Of Police Officers

Special teams from the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) raided houses of five senior police officials in the capital late Monday (March 10), reports said. The CIAA raided houses of senior superintendents of Nepal Police, Kalyan Timilsina, Kiran Gautam and Basanta Kuwor, superintendent of Police Tapendra Dhoj Hamal and police inspector Basanta Rana on charge of amassing wealth through illegal means. Sources at the CIAA said that property of these officials were being recorded and that cases would be filed only if there were evidence of amassing property through illegal means. The Commission had raided houses of some two dozen revenue officials last year and also filed cases against them. Compiled from reports March 11.

King Gyanendra To Visit India

King Gyanendra is to leave for India for nearly a week from March 18, reports said. During his personal visit, the Nepalese monarch would take part in the religious ceremony at Kanchi Kamkotipeetham. The Hindu monarch will attend the "kotihom", a vedic fire ritual, to mark the 50th succession anniversary of Kanchi seer Sankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati and also visit other holy sites in India. King Gyanendra is also likely to meet Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. A formal announcement to this effect is yet to be made. Compiled from reports.

CIAA Gives Clean Chit

The anti-corruption watchdog, Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) has given clean chit to former Ministers Khum Bahadur Khadka and Jaya Prakash Prasad Gupta on one of the many cases of irregularities it is probing against them. A statement issued by the CIAA last week said that though former Minister Khadka had made an arbitrary decision while nominating contractors for Rapti Bridge construction and misused his power, there was no need of further action against him as he no more held the post. The Commission, however, said another case filed against Khadka for allegedly amassing huge amount of assets was still under investigation. Similarly, the anti-graft body also decided to give clean chit to former minister Gupta on charge of allowing the import of cellular mobile phones irregularly. The Commission is, however, probing on more cases of corruption against Gupta. Both Khadka and Gupta had been taken into custody for several months by the Commission last year on charges of corruption. They were later released on bail by the Special Court of Kathmandu. Leading dailies report March 10.

Lawyers Demand

Over 1,700 practicing lawyers from around the country have demanded immediate dismissal of the Lokendra Bahadur Chand-led government terming it as "unconstitutional." The seven-point Kathmandu Declaration adopted at the end of the three-day conference on March 8 said the declaration of the cease-fire and talks should be transparent so that it includes the views of everyone and should represent the feelings of the public. "The present constitution has guaranteed the sovereign rights of the people but they have not been able to use this right," the declaration said. Compiled from reports March 09.

Nepal Not Consulted By India

Nepali officials have said that they are yet to be consulted formally about the ambitious Indian project to link its rivers. Water Resources Secretary, Keshav Bahadur Chand, said that there hadn't been any consultation (from the Indian side) in this regard so far. India has made public its grand planning of linking 37 big rivers in the country including major river system in Nepal in order to prevent flooding and famine. The plan aims to receive 33 billion cubic meters of regulated water from the Himalayan rivers every year and generate 30,000 MW of power. Experts say there is the potential to produce 50 billion cubic meters of water every year from Koshi, Gandaki, Karnali and Mahakali rivers of Nepal and generate up to 22,000 MW of power from these rivers. According to an estimate, up to 225 billion cubic meters of water flows down to Ganga from Nepalese rivers every year. Space Time March 5.

Speaker Denounces Maoist Demands

The only senior popularly elected representative in the country, Speaker Taranath Ranabhat, has said that agreeing to Maoist demands for a round table conference, interim government and (elections to the) constituent assembly would be ominous for long-term peace and stability in the country. Addressing an interaction program in the capital last week, speaker of the dissolved House of Representatives said that you need to invite up to 500 people so as to include dalit, ethnic communities, women and civil society. "How can such a meet resolve the problem?" he asked. Ranabhat insisted that reinstatement of the dissolved parliament was the only way out to restore the constitutional process and resolve the country's problems. Himalaya Times March 6.

Economic Forum On Cards

The economic experts, entrepreneurs and intellectuals are to form an Economic Forum (EF) in a bid to help reform socio-economic situation in Nepal. An adhoc committee, in this connection, has been formed early this week under the convenorship of Prithvi Raj Ligal, former vice-chairman of the National Planning Commission (NPC). According to a press statement, other members of the ad-hoc committee are Shambu Sharan Kayastha, Narendra Kumar Basnyat, Ananda Raj Mulmi, Keshav Raj Jha, Rajendra Kumar Khetan and Madhukar SJB Rana. The main objective of the Economic Forum will be "to pay special heed towards building permanent peace considering the economic sectors as an important and integrated sector for overall economic development." Compiled from reports.

Nepalese Women To Work In Jordan

With the lifting of ban on women visiting Gulf countries last month, the government is working to make Jordan a lucrative job market for hundreds of aspiring Nepali women, senior officials said. "We are receiving increasing demands for Nepalese, especially women for jobs in Jordan. We are carrying out a study on the issue," Kamal Chaulagain, Minister for Labor and Transport Management said. He added that the government has taken keen interest after receiving information that Jordan will be much safer for women looking for employment abroad. "We are carrying out studies on the issue before finally letting Nepalese to go to Jordan for jobs," the minister said while addressing a workshop on 'Role of the Media in Empowering Migrant Women Workers of Nepal', organized by United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), Department of Labor and Employment Promotion and SAMANATA, an institute for social and gender equality. Compiled from reports.

Gautam Reprimanded

The UML standing committee criticized recent comments made by senior party leader, Bamdev Gautam, and has directed him not to repeat such statements in future. In an interaction program and a television interview last week, Gautam had said that all the parties should support the Chand-led administration if it could broker peace with the rebels. He had also voiced his support towards the Maoist demand for constituent assembly. Major political parties including UML have termed the Chand government as "unconstitutional" and also boycotted the all-party meeting convened by the premier. After the party's meeting on March 5, Gautam told reporters that the party leadership had treated him badly in the meeting as he refused to undertake "self-criticism." Gautam was instrumental in the UML's split some four years back and headed the splinter CPN (ML) as its general secretary. He later returned to the UML. Compiled from reports.

UN To Help In Reconstruction

The United Nations system in Nepal is preparing to coordinate reconstruction of the physical infrastructure destroyed due to the violent Maoist activities, according to media reports. Resident Coordinator of the UN system in Nepal, Dr. Henning Karcher, said that UN was ready to assist Nepal in the reconstruction works but said that they were yet undecided about the nature of cooperation. A UN official said that a proposed program of reconstruction and rehabilitation included providing relief to the victims irrespective of which sides he or she belonged, provide employment, disburse food aid and reconstruct the destroyed infrastructure. "Such an assistance will be provided keeping low profile," the official said. Meanwhile, sources said the government has initiated works to mobilize up to five billion rupees for the relief and reconstruction programs, especially for the areas highly affected by the Maoist insurgency. Leading dailies report.

Garment Exports Rise

Export of garment to the United States, which absorbs almost 85 per cent of the total garments exported from Nepal, has recorded an impressive growth, entrepreneurs said. According to the Garment Association of Nepal (GAN), exports to the US increased by over 72 per cent in February this year as compared to the same period last year. Similarly, despite the small size of the market, garment exports continued to enjoy a positive and high growth rate in Canada. A Nepali team, comprising officials and exporters, had visited the US and Canada early this year lobbying for duty free and quota free access to Nepali apparels in the US market. "It is only the beginning and we will continue such efforts," said Kiran Prakash Saakha, President of GAN.