Nearly one dozen persons have been injured after YCL cadres foiled the monarchists’ rally on Saturday.

The YCL cadres attacked a couple of persons claiming they were planning to greet the King on his 61st birthday. According to Radio Nepal, nine persons have been injured. Such sporadic and small clashes had occurred in areas like Bhotahity, Asan, New Road, Sundhara and Lainchaur.

Police on guard in front of the Narayanhiti royal palace, Kathmandu, as King Gyanendra?s supporters take out a rally marking his birthday, Saturday (July 07 07). Students and cadres of the the ruling eight-party alliance organised protests against the diamond jubilee birthday celebration the King who has been stripped of all his rights. nepalnews.com/rh

Earlier, supporters of King Gyanendra had taken out a small rally at Durbar Marg, in front of Narayanhiti royal palace, on Saturday morning. Their plan to organise a rally from Tundikhel was blocked by cadres of political parties.

Scores of people had gathered at Durbar Marg, and chanted slogans against the eight parties and in support of the King, who has been stripped of all his powers.

Cadres of the Maoist sister organisations, All Nepal National Independent Student Union Revolutionary (ANNIFSU-R) and Young Communist League (YCL), staged demonstration at Ratnapark in the morning in an attempt to foil a rally planned by the King’s supporters. The royalists, however, didn’t organise the rally in the area.

Former prime ministers Surya Bahadur Thapa, Lokendra Bahadur Chand and Kirti Nidhi Bista and former royalist ministers Niranjan Thapa, Roshan Karki, Buddhi Man Tamang, Kamal Thapa and Mohammad Mohsin were among those who lined up to extend birthday greetings to the King this afternoon.

While the royalists proceeded towards the palace from Durbar Marg, the Maoist cadres were demonstrating around Ratnapark, Bhadrakai, Shahid Gate and New Road. Large number of Nepal Police and Armed Police personnel were mobilised in and around Durbar Marg in view of possible confrontation.

On Friday, the palace had requested the government to provide security during the Diamond Jubilee birth celebration of the King. The Home Ministry had instructed district security committee to make necessary security arrangement.

Despite assurance of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala that he would not tolerate any kind of attack on press freedom, the Maoist affiliated trade union again disrupted the distribution of The Himalayan Times (THT) and Annapurna Post (AP) dailies Monday morning.

According to THT, the delivery boys landed early morning at Sama Printers, the printers of the two dailies, at Bhaispati and forcibly took control of the vehicles, which had been loaded with Monday’s edition.

The THT report state that police remained mute spectators to all activities.

After requests, the police escorted vehicles to the main distribution point at Bhugol Park. The daily further said YCL cadres also threatened the transporters and distributors not to take delivery of the newspapers.

Similarly, YCL cadres stopped the staff of the dailies from entering the office for nearly two hours this morning and warned that they would lock the publication office by this evening. Around 50 YCL and trade union cadres surrounded the office.

In the face of growing criticism of King Gyanendra’s planned birthday bash, the organisers of the reception have said they do not plan to bring any change in their schedule.

“We will gather in Tundikhel and silently and peacefully go to the palace to greet the King,” former minister and co-chair of the organising committee Dr. Durga Pokharel told BBC Nepali Service.

“There will not be any amendment or change in our plan,” she said, adding, “Those who want to uphold the value of freedom of expression should respect others’ freedom of expression as well.”

She said that there was no reason for anyone to get upset over their plan to greet the King on his birthday. “We are not trying to advocate autocratic monarchy or anything like that. We believe that for the independence of this nation, institution of monarchy is essential,” she said.

On the issue of rejection of King’s invitation by various ambassadors, she said that nobody has invited them. “To my knowledge, nobody has sent invitations to them anyway,” she said.

Student and youth organisations of eight political parties have decided to ask the government to forbid the palace from hosting public reception. They have said that since the constitution does not recognise the King, he should not organise the party in his capacity as the monarch. The students have also decided to hold demonstrations on Saturday. The royal palace is said to be preparing to celebrate the 61 st birthday of King Gyanendra by holding various programmes and parties on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

In the wake of warning by the student and youth activists affiliated with the eight political parties to foil the birthday party of King Gyanendra planned by monarchists, the King has appealed to the government to provide adequate security, reports Nepal FM.

The King has made the request to the Home Ministry asking for security cover during the birthday celebrations, says the report.

It adds that the Home Ministry has replied positively by agreeing to consider the request.

The monarchists are planning to gather in Tundikhel and march to the royal palace to extend greetings to the King on the occasion of his 61st birthday on Saturday. “We are not planning to raise any slogan. We will simply march to the palace silently,” said Dr. Durga Pokharel, former minister and co-chair of the committee formed to organise the King’s birthday.

Earlier on Thursday, student and youth activists of eight parties had decided to hold demonstration and foil the royal reception. They claimed that the King has no authority to hold receptions since he is no more recognised by the constitution.

The Parliamentary Hearing Special Committee on Friday started hearing on the appointment process of four ad hoc judges of the Supreme Court to permanent status.

The hearing committee is questioning four judges- Damodar Prasad Sharma, Ram Kumar Prasad Shah, Gauri Dhakal and Kalyan Shrestha -regarding the complaints about their integrity and other professional issues.

The committee has received altogether 14 complaints against the four judges who were recently recommended by the Judicial Council for permanent status.

Responding to the queries of committee members, justice Sharma said institutional reform is necessary to effectively control corruption in the judiciary and that taking action against few individuals would not make much difference in the state of affairs. He also said the parliament should take up the issue of corruption in the judiciary.

The committee completed the questioning of justices Sharma and Shah by 3:30 pm. Dhakal and Shrestha will separately face the hearing panel today itself.

The second amendment in the Interim Constitution last month made it mandatory for judge-nominees to go through parliamentary hearing.

Former Prime Minister and Nepali Congress-Democratic (NC-D) President Sher Bahadur Deuba has said that the peace and security situation of the country is “not very good” so as to hold the election to Constituent Assembly (CA) in a “peaceful and fearless” manner.

Speaking at an interaction programme organised by Sanchar Prathisthan Nepal, a media advocacy group in the capital Friday, Deuba said as various armed groups are inciting more violence and unrest in terai and that in the hills the Maoists have again started to give continuity to their acts of intimidation there is “not the kind of peace and security situation that is needed for holding the election”

He said that only after the Maoists stops these sorts of activities that the CA election could be held peacefully and in a fearless environment.

Stressing on the need to address the demands of all the agitating ethnic communities, Deuba made it clear that NC-D would not give protection to “those elements who are intent on inviting autocracy”.

Meanwhile, CPN-Maoists in Kapilvastu district has returned the house and land properties of 27 people which they had seized during the time of armed conflict, stated a release issued by Maoist district in charge of Kapilvastu Sanjiv Kumar.

“As per the agreement and understanding reached with the government and political parties for establishing permanent peace in the country, the house and land property that had been seized earlier has been returned to their rightful owners,” states the release.

It further said that the party would gradually return the lands of other people that remains with them, but made it clear that the lands of the “royalists” would for now be with the party.

The Parliamentary Hearing Special Committee on Friday unanimously approved the nominations of four ad hoc judges of the Supreme Court to permanent status.

The committee gave its approval to the nominations of four judges- Damodar Prasad Sharma, Ram Kumar Prasad Shah, Gauri Dhakal and Kalyan Shrestha – after a hearing today.

The judges, who have been recommended by the Judicial Council for permanent status, were questioned separately by the House panel regarding the complaints about their integrity and other professional issues.

The committee, which had registered altogether 14 complaints, said there were no serious charges against any of the nominee.

This was the first hearing of his kind in the history of Nepal’s judiciary.

The second amendment in the Interim Constitution last month made it mandatory for judge-nominees to go through parliamentary hearing.

The Special Court Friday released the suspended Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) Bijay Nath Bhattarai, who is facing corruption charges, on Rs 250,000 bail.

Following a hearing today, a bench comprising justices Bhup Dhoj Adhikari, Komal Nath Sharma and Cholendra Shumsher Rana granted him bail.

Bhattarai, who remained in overnight police custody, deposited the bail amount today itself and walked free.

On Monday, the three-member bench had asked Bhattarai to appear before the court within 15 days. On the same day, the bench released co-accused Surendra Man Pradhan, the executive director of the bank’s Financial Institutions Regulation Department, on Rs 50,000 bail.

Bhattarai and Pradhan have been accused of embezzling Rs 24.5 million in terminating a contract of a foreign company in the multi-million dollar Financial Sector Reforms Programme launched with foreign aid.

The CIAA had filed the graft case against the NRB bosses on June 28.

Breaking with the traditions, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala will be witnessing the traditional Bhoto Jatra festival of Rato Machhindranath in Jawalakhel on Sunday.

Unlike the tradition of King traveling to Jawalakhel to witness the annual ritual, Prime Minister, in his capacity as the Head of State, will be going to the place this year, according to Home Ministry.

PM Koirala will visit Jawalakhel on Sunday at 5:30 pm to witness the festival.

The interim constitution has given all the powers of head of government as well as head of state to the prime minister.

The Non-Resident Nepalese Association (NRNA) is organizing a Sports Expo from October 3-6 at the World Trade Centre in Kathmandu.

The organizer informed on Wednesday during a press meet that the expo will have 50 stalls exhibiting 100’s of sports paraphernalia with more than 25,000 sports loving people expected to visit.

NRNA is also organizing NRN Kathmandu International Marathon on October 6.