The Nepalese U-19 Ladies cricket team registered their third consecutive victory in the ACC U-19 Women’s Cricket Championship underway in Gymkhana, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Nepali team thrashed Singapore by 9 wickets. Nepal restricted Singapore to just 71 runs. Nepal, in reply, lost just one wicket to overcome the target.

Player of the match, Maya Rawat scored unbeaten 25-runs off 42 balls.

Nepal is also on the verge of entering the semifinal of the tournament. Nepal will secure its semis berth if they win against Kuwait on Wednesday.

In earlier matches, Nepal thrashed Bhutan by 9 wickets and Malaysia by seven wickets. nepalnews.com bt Dec 17 08

After a tug-of-war between All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) and Nepal Football Association (NFA), the two have joined hands to form two committees to proceed with football activities in the country.

ANFA and NFA formed ANFA Statute Drafting Committee and League Organising and Football Management Committee, which was as per their agreement reached on December 7.

NFA president Bijay Narayan Manandhar is the convener of the nine-member Statute Drafting Committee while ANFA president Ganesh Thapa heads the 17-member League Organising and Football Management Committee.

The football activities were halted for two years due to the tussle between the ANFA and football clubs. nepalnews.com bt Dec 17 08

A team of Indian army personnel arrived in Kathmandu Tuesday looking for a leader of an armed rebel group active in north-eastern Assam and Nagaland state of India, reports Kantipur Daily. The rebel leader is believed to be in a hideout in Kathmandu from the past some time.

Indian army personnel from Assam-based Gurkha Rifles have zeroed in their search for Jwel Garlosa, ‘commander-in-chief’ of an underground ethnic outfit named Dima Halim Dogaha (DHD), in the tourist areas of Kathmandu, the report said. The group is also known as the ‘Black Widows’ and is chiefly involved in carrying out attacks against Indian security personnel including blowing up vital infrastructures like roads and railways in conflict-hit Assam and Nagaland state.

DHD is charged of killing more than 100 security personnel and innocent people in Assam where the group is waging an armed rebellion to carve out a separate state for Dimasa ethnic community in areas of Assam and Nagaland state where they comprise the majority.

It must be noted that undergrounds groups like the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) and other rebel groups have been waging a separatist movement in Assam, Nagaland and other north-eastern states of India since decades. Thousands of people have died in their struggle to gain independence from the Indian union.

The Indian army team believes that Garlosa has been running his group from Nepal for the past some time.

“We have reliable information that he (Garlosa) has married a Nepalese girl and has been running a hotel in Thamel or some other parts of Kathmandu,” a member of the Indian army team told Kantipur.

He said they are looking out for Garlosa ‘informally’ as per the information they have received.

“If he is traced we will notify our embassy here and arrest him with the help of Nepal’s security agencies,” he said. “We will then take him with us after fulfilling the necessary legal requirements.”

The government of Nepal has not been formally notified about the arrival of Indian army team.

A senior home ministry official told the daily that he has no information about the arrival of Indian security personnel in Kathmandu, but said that if they seek help then “it will be provided looking at the situation”. nepalnews.com Dec 17 08

Industries based in Parsa and Bara districts have been reeling under a loss of Rs 270 million everyday owing to agitations launched by trade unions, reports The Kathmandu Post.

The workers affiliated to trade unions have unleashed protest demanding a flat increment of Rs 1,300 in their basic remuneration. The entrepreneurs have flatly denied fulfilling the demand raised by labourers terming it as reckless while the trade unions have accused the employers of being reluctant to provide them with their agreed basic facilities.

Notably, the talks initiated between the management and the agitating workers also ended without bearing any fruit on Monday.

It is learnt that a committee has been formed to bridge the rift between the entrepreneurs and the labourers.

Meanwhile, Surya Nepal, a multi-national company that had been closed since Thursday, resumed its operation from Tuesday after the management and representatives of trade unions reached an understanding.

As per the understanding, the company management agreed to provide salary and other allowance of the strike period to the workers.

Similarly, the management expressed readiness to dispel misunderstanding over the agreement reached between the eight workers unions and the FNCCI on November 30.

The FNCCI and the eight workers unions had sealed understanding to fix minimum monthly salary of workers to the tune of Rs 4,600 apart from raising their remuneration as per their grades. nepalnews.com nd Dec 17 08

The central committee meeting of the Maoists, Tuesday, concluded by deciding that no two positions should be given for one person.

However, the party chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda who is also the prime minister, and coordinator of united revolutionary people’s council Dr. Baburam Bhattarai who is also the finance minister, have been made exceptions.

The CC meeting appointed Dinanath Sharma as the party spokesperson while relieving Krishna Bahadur Mahara, who is also the government spokesperson as Information Minister from that party responsibility.

The meeting also made some changes in the leadership of state committees.

Mohan Baidya Kiran as the chief of party organisation department will be the overall leader of the state committees. nepalnews.com Dec 17 08

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal
In his written reply to the Supreme Court (SC), Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said that the recently introduced five percent additional education tax on private schools is aimed at affluent parents.

He has said that the government’s intention was to obtain tax from families that can afford and use it to help educate students in remote areas and poor families.

The reply says that this is a separate progressive tax and is not at all related with the income tax.

The PM furnished the written reply in response to a writ petition filed against the government’s decision to impose the tax.

Private school operators are enraged and agitated over what they call as imposition of unfair tax. nepalnews.com Dec 17 08

Related News

The Constituent Assembly (CA) has formally entered into the constitution-drafting process with the Constitutional Committee, the most important CA panel, opening debate on the drafting process.

On the right track now: Chairman of the Constituent Assembly Subas Chandra Nemwang (2nd from right) administers oath of office and secrecy to the members of main Constitutional Committee amid a ceremony in Singha Durbar, Tuesday, Dec 16 08. Top leaders including Prime Minister and Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Nepali Congress president GP Koirala (absent at the ceremony], UML general secretary Jhala Nath Khanal are in the committee. The formation of CA committees is considered to be the start of statute-drafting process. nepalnews.com/rh

On the right track now: Chairman of the Constituent Assembly Subas Chandra…
The first meeting of the Constitutional Committee was held soon after its members were administered oath of office and secrecy by CA Chairman Subas Nemwang at Singha Durbar on Tuesday.

Members said the meeting chaired by the eldest member of the committee K.B Gurung – since the chairperson is yet to be elected – mainly discussed the procedures of statute-drafting.

The 61-member panel comprises key leaders of the political parties represented in the CA including Prime Minister and Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Nepali Congress president Girija Prasad Koirala, CPN (UML) general secretary Jhala Nath Khanal, coordinator of Madhesi Janadhikar Forum, Upendra Yadav, and president of Terai Madhesh Loktantrik Party, Mahantha Thakur.

While most of the members were present at the swearing-in ceremony, NC president Koirala remained absent due to bad health.

Briefly speaking to reporters after the committee’s meeting, PM Dahal said the formation of CA committees and the first meeting of the Constitutional Committee were a clear indication that new constitution would be drafted right on time. “It’s a proof that the CA is committed to complete the drafting process on time,” he said.

Likewise, CA chairman Nemwang described the committee’s meeting as a crucial development as all the parties have cooperated in kick-starting the drafting process, and expressed confidence that new constitution would be written within the stipulated time. nepalnews.com mk Dec 16 08

Transport entrepreneurs have said that they will not implement the revised transportation fares fixed by the government.

Slamming the government for unilaterally deciding to reduce the public transport fares without consulting them, the transport entrepreneurs on Tuesday also threatened of stir if the government tried to put pressure on them to implement the revised fares.

National Federation of Transport Entrepreneurs Chairman Dinesh Bhandari termed the transportation fares unilaterally fixed by the government as “unscientific” and said that the transport entrepreneurs will not be liable to implement it since it was done without prior consultation with them and hence “unacceptable”.

Bhandari also accused the government of ignoring previous agreement of reviewing fares after seeking their consent for it and threatened of stir if the government tried to enforce the revised rates.

He said that the public transportation fares should not be adjusted on the basis of the reduction in petroleum prices, but that the salary of transport workers, hike in prices of vehicles and spare parts should also be taken into account

The government had reduced the fares of public vehicles run by diesel and petrol by 13 per cent and 9 per cent respectively.

The decision to reduce the public transportation fares was taken by the government following consultation with representatives of six students’ union at the Ministry of Labour and Transport Management on Monday.

Members of the Nepali Congress-aligned Nepal Students Union (NSU) stage demostration in front of Trichandra College in Kathmandu, protesting the government’s decision to review the transportation fare “without consulting them”. The government has decided to lower the fare by six percent citing the recent cuts in petroleum products. nepalnews.com/tbk

Members of the Nepali Congress-aligned Nepal Students Union (NSU)…
Minister for Labour and Transport Management Lekhraj Bhatta had said that the government will take stern action against transporters found charging the older rates.

Meanwhile, student unions blocked vehicular traffic for an hour in front of Tri-Chandra College in Kathmandu today morning, demanding the implementation of reduction in public transportation fare. nepalnews.com ag Dec 16 08

Koshi flood victims padlocked all government offices in Sunsari district headquarters Tuesday as part of the new phase of protests they announced to apply pressure on the government to fulfill their demands for relief and proper compensation.

Works at all the government offices of Sunsari district headquarters Inaruwa were affected due to the protests.

Among the demands of the Koshi flood victims are proper rehabilitation for the displaced, bank loan waiver, one bighas of land for every family affected by the floods, rations cards and Rs 50,000 in compensation.

Some 60,000 people were displaced from their homes and thousands more affected after the breach in Koshi embankment completely submerged Sunsari district this monsoon.

Meanwhile, works at all the government offices of Dhanusha district were also halted today in protest of the murder of a civil servant on Monday.

Various associations of civil servants took out rallies in district headquarters Janakpur to protest the killing of Kumar Niraula, a senior assistant (Nayab Subba), working at the Inland Revenue Office in Janakpur.

Raising serious concern over government’s failure to provide adequate security to civil staffs, they said they will halt all works at the government offices of the district until the culprits are no brought to book and government arranges adequate security for them

Niraula was shot dead by cadres of the Rajan Mukti faction of Janatantrik Terai Mukti Morcha Monday monrning when he was on his way to the office. nepalnews.com ag Dec 16 08

A day after the Maoist pledge of returning the properties it seized during insurgency expired, the Maoist Victims’ Association (MVA) in Dang district in mid-western Nepal said it will continue its protest programmes.

Demanding immediate return of the property seized by the Maoists during insurgency, the association formed by people victimised by Maoists in Dang district had been staging sit-ins and other demonstrations in front of the District Administration Office, Dang from the past one month.

However, seeing that it has been largely ineffective to exert pressure on the Maoists to return the property seized from them during insurgency, they announced that their protests have now entered second phase. The victims also said that their protest will be more concerted than before, as they plan to organize additional protest programmes by wearing black bandana on their head, taking out lantern or torch rallies among others.

MVA said it was compelled to continue the protest programme as Prime Minister and Chairman of the CPN (Maoist) Pushpa Kamal Dahal didn’t live up to the promise he gave last month that the properties seized by Maoists during insurgency will be returned by December 15.

PM Dahal had also announced that the government will provide compensation to the property owners if they don’t receive their property back by December 15.

According to MVA, the Maoists have still not returned more than 2000 bighas land belonging to some 200 odd families in Dang. nepalnews.com ag Dec 16 08