President of the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (MJF) Upendra Yadav has said the Terai movement was not for separation or communal conflict.

Speaking at a discussion organized by Association of Nepalese Teraian in America (ANTA) New York Chapter recently in New York, Yadav said the Madhesi demands were neither aimed at separatism nor for disturbing the communal harmony, and affirmed the need for federal structure, republic state, proportional representation, and overall, an inclusive democracy for the new Nepal.

The discussion had an extensive participation of the Nepali Diaspora, both from Terai and pahadi communities.

In response to the questions about the Forum’s operational system, Yadav stressed that his party believes in non-violence and is committed towards communal harmony. Yadav also shared with the participants the 26-point demand presented to the government talks team, which included issues such as formation of state restructuring commission, inclusion of Madhesis in all state organs, federal system of governance and proportional representation, among others.

Citing the death of former Indian Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar, Monday’s session of the Interim Legislature Parliament scheduled to discuss the government’s programmes and policies has been withheld.

The parliament would briefly convene to pass a resolution expressing condolence on the demise of the Indian politician who gave vital support in Nepal’s pro-democracy movement in 1990.

The parliament was scheduled to hold discussion on the programmes and policies of the government for three days before PM Koirala answered the questions raised by the lawmakers on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, some leaders including Ram Chandra Poudel, Dr Shekhar Koirala, Gopal Man Shrestha and Pradip Giri have left for New Delhi to attend the funeral ceremony of Chandra Shekhar today.

Leaders of various parties have expressed condolences on his death.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has “ordered his government’s appropriate authorities to review all issues related to Gurkhas and their families”, according to Gurkha Army Ex-Servicemen’s Organisation (GAESO).

GAESO officials told a news conference in Kathmandu on Monday that Brown gave the order today, responding to the request made by Tul Bahadur Pun VC, for a “full review of facilities including equal pension for Gurkhas at par with their British colleagues”.

They said GAESO representatives would hand over a memorandum today to British officials, mentioning a complete full list of discriminatory provisions, which should be changed.

Retired Gurkhas have long been demanding pension equal to their British counterparts. The British Defence Ministry had in March announced to provide with equal pensions to Gurkhas taking retirement after July 1997, but the GAESO has been demanding that all retired Gurkhas be entitled to the revised pension scale.

The new British Prime Minister had met the 84-year-old Tul Bahadur Pun at Downing Street, London, where he welcomed the Victoria Cross veteran.

During his meeting with Brown, Pun urged British government to revise its decision regarding the rights conferred to Gurkhas, to which Brown had pledged a review.

Pun was awarded the prestigious Victoria Cross for single handedly storming a Japanese military position equipped with machine gun in Burma in 1945.

“You have been a very brave and courageous man and we would like to help you in whatever way possible,” British newspaper Mirror quoted Brown as saying. “Your bravery is something which we would all wish to celebrate, thank you very much,” Brown further said and assured his support to Pun’s cataract operation.

“To be here and greet the prime minister of Britain makes me absolutely pleased and is something I have never imagined before,” Pun told media persons there. “The Prime Minister said some very nice things and said he would consider my requests for my Gurkha comrades.”

The British Army currently has around 3,400 Gurkhas serving in countries including Iraq and Afghanistan, with 250 new recruits annually.

“I am very confident that he is going to do that because he is an honourable man. For that I thank him very much. I am very, very happy he is going to give our cause high priority now,” news reports quoted him saying.

Meanwhile, Prince Harry joined the Gurkha battalion on Sunday, Telegraph daily reported. The paper terms the battalion as one of the most fearsome units in the British Army.

Harry, an officer with posh cavalry regiment the Blues and Royals, is doing a spell with the legendary fighters to learn their killer expertise. He was driven to the Brecon Beacons in Wales with men of the 3rd Battalion, Royal Gurkha Rifles for a four-day exercise.

He will take part in every aspect of the operation. “To all intents and purposes he will be a Gurkha,” the paper said.

At the end of the exercise Harry, a 22-year-old 2nd lieutenant whose own unit has gone to Iraq without him because of fears for his safety, will be presented with a honourary Khukuri.

The 15th central committee meeting of the CPN (UML) concluded Monday evening, passing the political paper presented by general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal.

The marathon meeting that began on June 24 unanimously passed the general secretary’s political paper, which stresses on massive mobilisation of party workers for constituent assembly polls, with minor changes.

According to UML central leader Pradeep Gyawali, the meeting has decided to consolidate the eight-party unity and, at the same time, maintain closer ties with all left parties.

The meeting formed seperate committees to prepare party’s election manifesto and mobilise party workers for the November polls.

Some central leaders including Bam Dev Gautam and Jhal Nath Khanal had criticised Nepal’s paper for describing the CPN-Maoist as “extreme left”.

The meeting also turned down the demand of ‘Gautam-Khanal combine’ for the 8th general convention to elect a new leadership before the CA polls.

The central committee was divided over a proposal on barring future general secretaries from holding their post more than two terms. Gyawali said there was no decision on the issue.

Sixty central committee members had participated in the meeting.

Country is likely to face shortage of banknotes by the end of October, immediately after Dashain festival, according to Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) officials.

Acting NRB Governor Krishna Bahadur Manandhar told the Finance Committee of the legislative parliament on Monday that banknotes would be in short supply after Dashain festival (October 21) if the absence of the Governor, who signs banknotes, draws out for a long time.

He said the exiting stock of banknotes will sustain the demand until Dashain, the most extravagant festival in Nepal.

Since printing of banknotes is a time-consuming process, timely steps should be taken to ward off the possible crisis, he added.

Manandhar was appointed Acting Governor of the central bank a week ago after the suspension of Governor Bijay Nath Bhattarai, who is facing corruption charges.

Bhattarai was suspended after the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) filed a case against him on June 29. He has been released on bail.

A serious dispute has arisen between CPN-UML’s general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal and the party’s standing committee members Jhalanath Khanal and Bamdev Gautam on the way of classifying the Maoists, Kantipur Daily reports.

On the 13th day (Saturday) of the ongoing central committee meeting of the party, the top leadership of CPN-UML remained divided over the issue as to whether it would be right to term the Maoists that has already joined the interim government a “radical leftist force” or a “democratic force”.

After General Secretary Nepal, while answering questions put to him regarding the political paper which he presented for discussion, said as the Maoists lay more importance to their arms and military, they should be termed as a radical leftist force, Khanal and Gautam had immediately sprung up in defense of the Maoists. They said that a ‘force’ that has already joined the government should not be called radical leftists and instead should be thought of as a democratic force.

One participant of the meeting told the daily that during the heated discussion that ensued, Nepal had reiterated his stance that the Maoists can’t be defined as a democratic force as long as it holds on to extreme leftist views.

It is stated in Nepal’s ‘political paper’ that the monarchists, bourgeoisie reformists, radical leftists and revolutionary democratic forces are active in Nepal’s current political realm.

The 3rd World Conference of Non-Resident Nepalese (NRN’s) is going to be held from October 15 to 17 for which a committee under the chairmanship of the foreign minister has already been constituted. The recent cabinet meeting had also decided to allocate Rs 2 million for holding this conference.

The committee comprises, among others, a member of Nepal Planning Commission (NPC) and secretaries of the ministry of foreign affairs, ministry of finance, ministry of industry, commerce and supplies and ministry of culture, Tourism and civil aviation.

Likewise, the presidents of Federation of Nepalese Commerce and Industries (FNCCI), Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI), Chamber of Commerce and Non-Resident Nepalese Association (NRNA) are also among its members. The vice-chairman and general director of FNCCI and CNI and member secretary of the NRNA Kathmandu secretariat are in the organizing committee.

The bullish trend at the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) showed no signs of abating as it continued to soar for two straight weeks. The Nepse index kept registering new historic highs throughout the week, a growth attributed to the strong performance of commercial banks at the stock market.

The Nepse index registered a healthy double-digit growth of 19.82 points to reach a new high of 613.47 points this week. After the stock market opened at 593.65 points on Sunday, it continued to climb all through the week and on Tuesday it set a new record by crossing 600-points mark for the first time in its history. According to trade analysts, soaring share prices of commercial banks, finance companies and hydropower companies supported the growth.

The weekly turnover also increased significantly this week to Rs 497.4 million with 1,453,396 unit shares being traded through 2,326 transactions, against last week’s figure of Rs 257 million through the trading of 624,893 shares. Out of the total 87 listed companies, 68 companies saw their transactions this week. The group wise share trading analysis shows that all major groups including commercial banks and insurance groups posted an impressive growth.

Stock market analysts have been somewhat bewildered by the unusual growth in major indices saying that it is largely caused by speculative buying and investors’ pinning their hopes on the economy which they think would gain momentum soon.

Construction of the 750-MW West Seti, which will be the biggest power plant in Nepal, is expected to start by the end of 2007.

The construction of the mega project located in Doti district, far-western region, will be completed in five years at an estimated cost of USD 1.2 billion, Rastriya Samachar Samiti (RSS) said quoting officials at the construction company West Seti Hydro Limited (WSHL), a subsidiary of Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation (SMEC) of Australia.

Nepal government has 15 percent share in West Seti project being financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and three Chinese banks.

Under the project agreement (PA) signed in June 1997 the Nepal government had assured to grant all licenses to WSHL for the development, construction, ownership and operation of the project, including generation and transmission licenses for a period of 30 years from the date of issue of the license.

The electricity generated from West Seti will be exported to India. Nepal government will receive revenue for the 10 percent of the power generated as royalty payment.

A power purchase agreement (PPA) with a term of 25 years, to be effective from the start of commercial operation, was signed by WSHL with Power Trade Corporation of India in 2003.

WSHL managing director William Bultitude said the project would be handed over to Nepal government after 30 years.

The Interim Legislature Parliament has begun debate on the programmes and policies of the government presented by Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala on Wednesday.

Taking part in the discussion Sunday, most of the MPs described the government’s policies for the new fiscal year as “continuation of the previous ones”.

MP Lila Mani Pokhrel criticised the policy document saying that it “looks like the Congress party’s agendas” and that it has been brought in without adequately consulting the coalition partners. He said there is no objective approach in the policies and programmes to resume the stalled development activities.

MP Tilak Pariyar commented that the government had not been able to change its policies and programmes since the Panchayat era. He claimed the new policies of the government were against the spirit of the people’s movement of April last year.

Maoist and Nepali Congress MPs had some verbal tussle after NC MP Ananda Raj Kandel blamed the Maoists for continuing the criminal activities across the country.

Maoist and Jana Morcha MPs were more critical of the government plans, arguing that they are regressive and do not reflect the need of the hour.

The debate on the policies will continue for three days before PM Koirala answers the queries raised by the MPs on Wednesday. 23 MPs have filed amendment proposals on the policies and the programmes of the government.

Similarly, Bharat Mohan Adhikari presented the report of the parliamentary finance committee before the House. The report has been prepared to facilitate the government for finalising the upcoming budget.