Five persons are still missing after a car they were travelling in fell into swollen Trishuli river in Darechowk VDC of Chitwan district on Tuesday night.

The car fell down the road in Mugling-Naubise section of Prithvi highway. The car with registration number Ba 3 Cha 2494 had plunged into the river.

Five persons include Saroj Baidya, Sunita Baidya, Shaswat Baidya, Kalpana Shrestha and Pritha Shrestha were travelling in the car, according to police. They were travelling to Kathmandu from Pokhara.

The Government of Japan has announced financial assistance of US$ 83,263 (approximately five million rupees) to Save the Children Japan under the Grant Assistance for Japanese NGO Projects Scheme.

Save the Children Japan will implement the Project for Quality Education for children affected by armed conflict in Dang and Surkhet districts in coordination with the District Education Offices and local NGOs – the Society for Environment Education Development (SEED) and Women for Human Rights (WHR), the Japanese Embassy said.

A contract to this effect was signed and exchanged Wednesday between Japanese ambassador Tsutomu Hiraoka and Eiichi Sadamatsu, the resident representative of Save the Children Japan – Nepal Office.

Under the project, Save the Children Japan will utilise the grant to enhance the quality of education in 30 primary schools in Dang and Surkhet Districts where many internally displaced people reside. The Project will enable approximately 6,000 children affected by armed-conflict, especially girls, Dalits and indigenous children, as well as the children of widows through the improvement of the management of government schools.

An unidentified gang killed a college teacher in cold blood at Banglamukhi, Lalitpur, late Tuesday evening.

Dharma Raj Bista, a teacher at Everest College in New Baneshwor, died while being treated at Bir Hospital for the injuries he received in his head after being beaten by the gangsters with an iron rod.

Also an administrative official of Nepal Commerce Campus (NCC), Bista had been initially taken to Patan hospital but was later rushed to Bir Hospital for a CT scan and surgery where the doctors declared him dead.

Police said they had launched massive manhunt to track down the assailants.

Meanwhile, protesting against the murder of Bista, the students of Nepal Commerce Campus (NCC) and Everest College blocked the traffic for hours Wednesday morning at New Baneshwor.

Eleven Dalit families including a nursing mother have been left homeless for six days now after the District Forest Office (DFO) officials set fire to their makeshift homes in Govindapur V.D.C in Siraha district last week.

Dhank Kumari Biswokarma, 34, who delivered a baby child only eight days ago in Govindapur V.D.C has been left at the mercy of fate as 11 Dalit families including hers have been forced to live under the open sky in the excruciating monsoon weather.

After a group of forest employees deliberately set ablaze the Dalit settlement alleging its inhabitants of encroaching upon the territory of the forest in an unauthorized manner and engaging in illegal felling of trees, the Dalit families have fallen in a deep dilemma and no option but to move elsewhere.

Whatever little belongings they had including their cooking utensils and clothes were also consumed by the fire set by forest officials.

Decrying the incident as ‘appalling’, local human rights organisations have appealed to the authorities to immediately provide suitable compensation to the victimised Dalit families immediately and make proper arrangement for their rehabilitation.

The legislature parliament passed the government’s policies and programmes following a day long discussion on Wednesday.

The parliament passed the policies and programmes by majority after the Maoists withdrew their amendment proposals. The parliament, however, rejected amendment proposals put forth by Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), Nepal Workers and Peasants Party (NWPP), and National People’s Front.

After the House passed the policies and programmes, Economic Survey of the current fiscal year was presented at the parliament by Minister for Agriculture Mahantha Thakur on behalf of Finance Minister Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat. The government is likely to present budget of coming fiscal year 2007/08 at the parliament on Thursday.

Earlier, lawmakers had protested the Prime Minister’s absence in the parliament to answer their queries concerning the policies and programmes of the government.

Prime Minister Koirala was to answer the queries of the MPs in the afternoon, but did not show up citing bad health. Most of the MPs, who commented on the government’s policies, made it a point to criticise the Prime Minister for not attending the crucial question-answer session.

They asked what made the Prime Minister to attend the American embassy’s function around the same time and be absent in the prescheduled question-answer session in the House citing health problems.

On behalf of the Prime Minister, Peace and Reconstruction minister Ram Chandra Poudel answered the questions over the government’s programmes and policies. Poudel promised to improve security situation to hold successful election in November, among others.

Though majority of the lawmakers criticised the government policies for the new fiscal year, the policy document was passed by the House.

Assessing the performance of the interim government on the completion of 100 days in office, Maoist ministers have conceded that the government failed to work as per the people’s aspirations.

“This period marked a period of experimenting and testing. People had high expectations from us, but we could not match them,” said Krishna Bahadur Mahara, Minister for Information and Communication and government spokesperson, addressing a press meet by Maoist ministers on Wednesday
afternoon.

Another Maoist Minister Dev Gurung, who holds the portfolio of Ministry of Local Development, went on to blame Nepali Congress (NC) for the failure of the interim government.

“Although the interim constitution clearly stipulates that decisions have to be taken based on political consent, NC works as if this is a one-party government,” Gurung said.

The Maoist ministers, however, touted the announcement of CA elections date as their achievement.

At the press meet Maoist ministers also briefed about achievements made by the Ministries they lead.

There are five Maoist ministers in the interim cabinet including Mahara, Gurung, Hisila Yami (Minister for Works and Physical Planning), Matrika Yadav (Minister for Forest and Soil Conservation) and Khadga Bahadur Biswakarma (Minister for Women, Children and Social Welfare).

The Ministry of Finance briefed Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala about the budget of the coming fiscal year Monday.

MoF briefed PM Koirala this time as per the tradition of apprising the head of state about the programs and policies of the budget. In the past, the finance minister used to go to the palace and brief the King about the major highlights of the budget before making it public.

A four-member team led by finance minister Dr Ram Sharan Mahat went to Prime Minister’s official residence at Baluwatar and informed him about the major highlights of the new budget for FY 2007/08.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Bhoj Raj Pokharel has warned that holding the constituent assembly elections on November 22 will be very difficult if government does not take urgent measures to improve the security situation of the country.

Speaking at a discussion organised by the Parliamentary Special Committee for Constituent Assembly Elections Monitoring on Tuesday, CEC Pokharel also asked the leaders to stop making negative comments on the elections.

Stating that the commission has been working on technical aspects of the election, the CEC urged the parties, the interim parliament and the government to work for create a favourable climate to ensure that the polls do not get delayed yet again.

He also said the commission has not been able to begin voters’ education programme and establish election offices in districts due to the fragile security conditions.

According to the CEC, the total number of eligible voters for the CA polls is around 17.6 million.

The meeting of the parliamentary committee today was the first since its formation.

Even the lawmakers belonging to the ruling eight party alliance criticised the government’s policies and programmes at its discussion in the parliament on Tuesday.

Maoist MPs criticised it for not being too progressive and not laying clear ground for republic, among others. Maoist lawmaker Janardan Sharma said that since police alone would not be able to provide security for elections, the eight parties should mobilise people by forging a common mechanism.

Lawmakers belonging to Maoists and other parties demanded that the government come up with concrete security plan and publicise the report prepared by Rayamajhi commission.

Nepali Congress general secretary KB Gurung rued the lack of implementation of agreement between Maoists and political parties. He urged Maoists to returned seized properties.

Rastriya Janashakti Party (RJP) president Surya Bahadur Thapa said that the elections cannot be held even in November given the situation of insecurity.

RPP to vote against policies

Meanwhile, Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) has decided to vote against the government policies and programmes.

“We think this policy fails to address security situation. It does not address issues raised by Janjati and Madhesi communities,” said RPP president Pashupati SJB Rana.

“We will carry out the duty of opposition and vote against it,” he said.

Rana also told reporters, on Tuesday, that his decision to visit the royal palace to greet King Gyanendra on his birthday was a ‘personal’ one.

King Gyanendra has advised his well-wishers who had come to Narayanhiti Palace on Sunday to pay their respects during his golden jubilee birthday celebrations to ‘work for peace’, Kantipur Daily reports.

The embattled king gave the advice during the tea party thrown in his honour by crown prince Paras on the 3rd day of his golden jubilee birthday celebrations, Sunday. While government ministers and officials, eight party leaders, police and army top brass stayed away, Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) leaders and people close to the palace were present.

A journalist who attended the party confided to the daily, “The King said that all should work for peace.” However, when asked further questions, King Gyanendra did not answer, the daily said.

The king exchanged pleasantries with people who were known to him in the party. Most of the people who had the opportunity to exchange a few words with the King told him that the country was gradually falling in the mire of disintegration and chaos.