The budget session of the Legislature Parliament saw obstruction as soon as it started Monday.

Four lawmakers from smaller parties left their seats and came to the rostrum, chanting slogans even before speaker Subash Nemwang started reading out the letter from the President, informing about the start of the 10th session.

Four lawmakers – three from fringe parties and one independent – chant slogans to obstruct the House as the budget session starts, on Monday, 02 May 2011. nepalnews.com
The lawmakers – Bishendra Paswan of Dalit Janajati Party, Rukmini Chaudhary of Sanghiya Loktantrik Manch, Buddha Ratna Manandhar of Newa Rastriya Party and independent lawmaker Sadrul Miya Haq – came to the rostrum, insisting not to allow the House to proceed despite the speaker’s ruling that they could not obstruct the proceeding even before it started formally, but the agitating lawmakers did not stop.

Amidst their protest, Nemwang announced the House adjourned until May 8.

Earlier, the four lawmakers had blocked consecutive House sittings as well as the meetings of the Constitutional Committee (CC) demanding guarantee of the rights of marginalised communities including indigenous groups, Dalits and Muslims in the upcoming constitution. nepalnews.com

The Nepali Congress parliamentary party (PP) Saturday decided to obstruct budget session of the Legislature Parliament in protest against the preparations of the ruling parties to table the early budget. However, the PP decided not to obstruct other sittings of the House.

The PP concluded that focusing on budget would be to waste the crucial time which should be used for drafting the constitution and concluding the peace process.

“The meeting concluded that the ongoing peace process should be completed at any cost for promulgation of the new statute within May 28,” NC leader Nabindra Raj Joshi told reporters.

Meanwhile, the meeting also demanded that the newly appointed Managing Director Dr. Laxmi Narayan Singh be allowed to work in Bharatpur Cancer Hospital without any obstruction.

The party has also urged the government should make necessary arrangement for smooth supply of fuel, Joshi informed. nepalnews.com

Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal on Monday said the constitution drafting process can move ahead smoothly only after the peace process is taken to a logical conclusion.

Stating that the coalition partner UCPN (Maoist)’s role is crucial to ensure successful conclusion of the peace process, he said without the active participation and involvement of the Maoist party that task is next to impossible.

Inaugurating a programme organised by National Association for Development of Indigenous Nationalities in the capital today, PM Khanal praised the crucial decisions taken by the Maoists in favor the ongoing processes of constitution drafting and peace and described them as vital to successfully concluded the peace process.

The prime minster’s remark has come at a time when the top Maoist leaders have been saying that constitution drafting and peace process should not be viewed as separate entities and should be taken ahead simultaneously. nepalnews.com

Ten candidates for the central member of the Federation of Nepalese journalists (FNJ) have withdrawn their nominations.

Those announcing withdrawal of candidacies include Madhav Dulal, Shankar Kharel, Arjun Giri, Hira Lal Bishwokarma, Birman Sherpa, kumar Bibek Nandan and Sitaram Shakya.

108 journalists have filed their nomination for the 31-member central working committee (CWC) for different posts.

The 23th general convention of FNJ is going to start in Kathmandu from tomorrow.

The two-day general convention will elect the new central body of the umbrella organisation of Nepali journalists. nepalnews.com

UCPN (Maoist) has deferred the office-bearers’ meeting called for today until Tuesday.

The meeting that was expected to finalise the names of additional ministers for the Khanal cabinet was put off, as the party needed to discuss with CPN-UML and Nepali Congress first.

According to Maoist vice chairman Narayan Kaji Shrestha, the leaders were also to discuss the budget session of the Legislature Parliament.

“We are hopeful that the meeting on Tuesday will arrive at a consensus among leaders to publicise the names of additional ministers from the party,” Shrestha said. nepalnews.com

Two persons were killed at Gumdi VDC, a remote village in Dhading district when they were buried under a mudslide Sunday.

The victims have been identified as Mamita Tamang, 12 and Maya Tamang, 20.

According to District Police Office Dhading, the two died as they got buried under a mudpile that fell over them while digging for red soil used for cleaning and decorating the house.

The area where the accident took place is very remote because of which the victims could not be immediately rescued to taken to hospital. nepalnews.com

Himalayan Sherpa Club (HSC) and Nepal Army Club (NAC) beat Machhindra Club and Mahindra Bansbari Football Club respectively in the Martyrs Memorial Red Bull ‘A’ Division League being held at Dasharath Stadium in the capital on Sunday.

HSC defeated Machhindra 3-1 while NAC trounced Mahindra Basbari 4-0.

In the first match between the HSC and Macchindra Club, Jagjeet Shrestha scored two goals and Puskar Gahatraj scored one for Sherpa Club while Suraj Gurung was the lone scorer from the opponent team Macchindra.

Similarly, in another match between NAC and Bansbari Football Club, both the team could not score any goals till the first half. But in the second half NAC succeeded to score four times through impressive strike from Tanka Basnet, skipper Bikash Malla, Santosh Nepali and substitute Chakra Bahadur Tamang respectively. nepalnews.com

The Higher Secondary Education Board (HSEB)’s grade 12th examinations for the academic 2010/11 have begun from Monday.

The HSEB said altogether 387,812 students from 3,065 higher secondary schools, known as 10+2, are appearing in the exams.

The Board has said that the exams would be conducted strictly with improved regulations.

Recently, it had decided to tighten the measures for fair conduction of exams and formed a separate board to ensure that.

Those found of breaching the examinations’ rules and regulations would face public offence charge, according to HSEB vice chairperson Hemraj Mishra.

For smooth operation of the examinations, the Board has deployed around 11,000 security officials, 881 superintendents, 1,654 assistant superintendents and 85,537 across the country.

The exams will last until May 13. nepalnews.com

The overall Balance of Payment (BoP) recorded a deficit of Rs. 11.30 billion during the first eight months of this current fiscal year 2010/11 compared to a deficit of Rs. 19.12 billion in the same period last year.

The current account also registered a deficit of Rs. 8.87 billion compared to a deficit of Rs. 30.50 billion in the same period last year. According to a data maintained by Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), the decline in trade deficit along with improvement in current transfer attributed to such a decline in the current account deficit.

The Free on Board (FOB) based merchandise trade deficit has increased marginally by 0.2 percent to Rs. 203.35 billion during the first eight months this current fiscal year. Such deficit had grown by 60.5 percent in the same period last year.

The service account deficit has also declined significantly by 22.2 percent to Rs. 7.54 billion during the review period while service account deficit had increased by 4.2 percent to Rs. 9.70 billion in the same period last year.

The net transfer account registered a growth of 12.8 percent to Rs. 198.03 billion in the review period compared to that of a year ago. Under the transfers sub-group, grants increased by 11.0 percent to Rs. 17.22 billion while pension receipts rose marginally by 9.4 percent to Rs. 19.43 billion.

Likewise, workers’ remittances increased by 12.3 percent to Rs. 161.62 billion compared to its growth of 9.9 percent in the same period last year.

On a monthly basis, the remittance inflows increased by 11.0 percent in February and March compared to the value of the previous month of this fiscal year.

Likewise, under the financial account foreign direct investment of Rs 5.47 billion was recorded in the review period compared to the level of Rs 1.61 billion in the same period a year ago. nepalnews.com

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Bharat Mohan Adhikari has on Sunday said that the government will bring new budget after forging consensus with Unified CPN (Maoist) and Nepali Congress.

Bharat Mohan Adhikari
Deputy PM Bharat Mohan Adhikari
Inaugurating the seventh district convention of the UML affiliated intellectuals´ council in Morang, Adhikari claimed that timely budget will also play an instrumental role in ensuring peace and constitution, and pledged to introduce the new budget by May 28 at any cost.

He also said that if the budget is delayed, all the development works and financial activities will be adversely affected in the country.

Adhikari said that he will hold discussions with major parties as well as fringe parties to forge consensus regarding early budget soon upon returning to Kathmandu. nepalnews.com