Breaking the tradition, the newly elected Speaker of the House of Representatives (HoR), Subash Nemwang, took oath of office and secrecy in the parliament itself on Saturday.

In the past, the Speaker of the HoR would be sworn in by the King at the Royal Palace even as the constitution of 1990 does not specifically mention by whom the Speaker should be sworn in.

Nemwang was elected unopposed to the post of Speaker of the reconvened parliament this morning. Deputy Speaker Chitra Lekha Yadav announced that Nemwang had been elected unopposed to the post.

He was the sole candidate for the post.

A former minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Nemwang was elected in the parliament for the first time in 2056 B.S. He was actively involved in the people’s movement as a member of the Central People’s Movement Coordination Committee.

Nemwang’s unanimous election to the post of Speaker became possible after Nepali Congress (Democratic) – one of the constituents of the SPA—decided to withdraw its claim for the post. Earlier, the party had lobbied for Deputy Speaker Yadav for the post.

A day after the sacking of nine senior security officials including the chiefs of three security agencies, the Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) chief, Pyar Jung Thapa, met with Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala at the latter’s residence in Baluwatar, Saturday morning.

General Thapa went to the Prime Minister’s residence at around 10:30 a.m. and had around 25-minute meeting with Koirala, reports said.

The army chief’s meeting with the Prime Minister comes amidst speculations that Thapa could be the next security chief to sacked for his role in suppressing the recent people’s movement.

Upcoming meeting of the Security Council, of which the RNA chief is a member, will decide his fate, according to reports. Thapa is in news headlines also for his daughter’s lavish marriage with an Indian citizen.

Nine senior security officials including Inspector General of Nepal Police, Shyam Bhakta Thapa, Inspector General of Armed Police Force (APF), Shahabir Thapa and head of the National Investigation Department, Devi Ram Sharma, were sacked by a cabinet decision Friday evening, which came following recommendation from the high-level judicial probe commission headed by former Supreme Court judge Krishna Jung Rayamajhi.

A five member team of Democratic Mount Everest Expedition 2006 is scheduled to mark the success of the People’s Movement by scaling the world’s tallest peak.

As per the information given at a press conference in the capital on Thursday, the team, led by Insu Rai of Faktang VDC of Khotang, will put the flags of all the parties of seven-party alliance and photographs of the 21 people who attained martyrdom during the Jana Andolan II, besides the national flag, on top of the peak.

Other members of the team include Ang Ngima Sherpa, a resident of Beni VDC, Pasang Sherpa of Taksindu VDC, Santosh Basnet of Kerung VDC and Bhuvan Rai of Jubhing VDC in Solukhumbu district.

Ang Ngima, who has seven years of mountaineering experience will be the one to take the flags to the Everest top along with Rai, while the others will provide logistic support.

Rai said although they had very limited time for preparation, they would try their best to scale the peak in the summer season. He said in case of continued bad weather they would start their expedition in August-end.

Thursday’s session of the House of Representatives (HoR) passed a motion allowing senior government officials to participate in trade unions and to direct the government to make necessary legal arrangements on the Labour Act and the Trade Union Act.

After the endorsement of the proposal tabled by CPN-UML lawmaker Pradip Gyawali, civil servants and government officials except security personnel, office heads responsible for managerial works and those holding positions equivalent to Gazetted First Class or above can enjoy fundamental trade union rights guaranteed by ILO Conventions.

The government officers holding the position of under-secretary and below can join unions. Until now, only clerks of the rank up to Nayab Subba were allowed to do so.

Earlier, tabling the motion in the House, Gyawali said since civil servants, professionals and various trade unions actively joined the recently held popular people’s movement, their rights should be protected, adding, “We should take some important decisions for sustainability of the movement’s achievements.”

Hari Acharya of People’s Front Nepal, Shankar Prasad Pandey and Sabitri Bogati of NC participated in the discussion on the motion, which was passed through a voice vote.

Meanwhile, Deputy Speaker Chitra Lekha Yadav, who was chairing Thursday’s session began the session by reading out a pamphlet published by people displaced due to the Maoist insurgency, which was submitted to her.

The pamphlet had urged the government to fulfill 20 demands, which also includes their inclusion in the upcoming government-Maoist talks, declaring the names of all those killed in the course of the insurgency and sending those injured or the kin of the killed to Europe or America for jobs.

This is the first incident in the parliamentary history of Nepal when the chair of the house session read out the demands of the public directly in the session.

Meanwhile, speaking on Thursday’s session of the parliament, Home Minister Krishna Prasad Sitaula appealed to the Maoists to stop extortions and holding public marches in combat dress, in order to make the environment conducive for talks.

Lawmakers raised their voices against Maoists’ extortion during Wednesday’s session of the HoR.

The minister also suggested the rebels not to create obstacles to the peace process which would go against the code of conduct as put forward by the Maoists themselves.

Reiterating his commitment towards providing medical treatment to those injured during the pro-democracy movement, the Home Minister informed parliamentarians that the government would setup a separate fund at the Health Ministry.

The government on Thursday appointed Chief District Officers (CDOs) in the three districts of Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur.

According to Home Ministry, Isthaneshwore Devkota has been appointed CDO of Kathmandu. Similarly, Anand Raj Pokhrel and Baburam Lamichhane have been appointed CDOs of Lalitpur and Bhaktapur districts respectively.

The government asked Kathmandu CDO Sushil Ghimire and Bhaktapur CDO Basanta Raj Bhattarai to report at the Home Ministry and be part of the reserve pool. CDO of Lalitpur had already been transferred by the royal government.

Both of them have been accused of collaborating with the royal government and using excessive force to suppress the pro-democracy movement of the county.

The local administrations imposed daytime curfew and adopted other repressive measures to thwart the pro-democracy movement of the country.

Meanwhile, Yadav Khanal has been appointed as the spokesman of the Home Ministry. Khanal will replace Gopendra Bahadur Pandey.

The Maoist affiliated student union, All Nepal National Independent Students Union-Revolutionary (ANNISU-R), has formally submitted its nine-point demand to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on Thursday and asked the government and the Maoists to express commitment to meet their demands before embarking on talks.

The demands include the disclosure of the whereabouts of its former general secretary Purna Poudel, former central committee members Bipin Bhandari, Nabin Rai, Dil Bahadur Rai, Kamal Pun, Janaki Chaudhary, Krishna Chaudhary, Katak Rai, Gyanendra Tripathee, Devhari Rijal, Nirdal Shah, Gokul Niroula, Dipendra Panta, C N Dhungana, Prakash Poudel and Sindhupalchowk district president Akhil Nepal.

Other demands put forth by the students’ body include drafting of new Loktantrik (democratic) curricula, renaming of the educational institutions named after the kings, namely the Tribhuvan University, Mahendra Sanskrit University, Prithvi Narayan Campus, Mahendra Ratna, Ratna Rajya and Birendra Multiple Campuses.

The ANNISU-R also demanded that the statues of the kings and their family members be removed from colleges. The king should not be the chancellor of TU and Mahendra Sanskrit University, the nine-point demand states, adding that university councils should elect their chancellors.

Holding a press conference after submitting the memorandum to Prime Minister, president of ANNFSU-R, Lekhnath Neupane said, “Before opting for talks, both the parties — the government and the Maoists — should express commitment to meet these demands.”

“We won’t accept the talks if these demands are not addressed,” he said, adding the Maoist-affiliated students’ wing would launch another phase of people’s movement if their demands were not met.

“The private education policy of the government should be scrapped. The government should take over the ownership of all such schools after providing compensation to the owners of private schools. As the process of taking over the schools may take time, fees should be reduced at the earliest and exploitation of teachers should be ended,” the nine-point demand states.

Neupane also demanded the immediate arrest of all the ‘murderers’ who killed the demonstrators during the people’s movement and probe into the murders thereafter.

He also demanded that all the detained students affiliated to the ANNISU-R, including former vice-president Krishna KC, former general secretary Himal Sharma, Ratna Dhakal, Raj Kajee Maharjan, Aendra Bikram Begha, Ram Chandra Adhikary and Tara Bhandary be released, handing over of schools to the communities be stopped, all temporary teachers be made permanent, school admission campaign be stopped and the government take over the ownership of all 10+2 colleges.

The student wing has established a contact office in Bagbazaar following the government’s decision to remove red-corner notice and terrorist tag of the Maoists. The student body also painted walls of various colleges with their slogans.

Industrialist Ratan Agrawal has been critically injured when a group of assailants attacked on his vehicle in the southern industrial town of Birgunj Friday morning.

According to reports, two persons on a motorbike threw socket bombs at the vehicle of Agrawal at around 6:30 a. m. Birgunj sub-metropolis ward. No. 12 this morning and fled. His driver was also injured in the attacks.

Agrawal is undergoing treatment at the Narayani sub-regional hospital and may be airlifted to Kathmandu for further treatment, according to reports.

Nepal F. M., a private radio station, reported that Agrawal was receiving extortion threats by an Indian criminal gang led by Chhote Lal Sahani for quite some time now. Agrawal had also requested local authorities for security cover, the news report added.

Talking to Nepalnews, vice president of the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) Rajendra Kumar Khetan condemned the attack on Agrawal and said the government had failed to provide security to Agrawal though he had been receiving threats for the last one year.

Reports say incidences of extortion threat and attacks against businessmen and leding professionals have gone up across the country after the recent political changes taking benefit of lax law and order situation.

Maoists on Thursday released former Chief District Officer of Sarlahi, Bodhraj Adhikari, after 36 day long captivity.
He was released at a programme held in bordering area of Udaypur and Okhaldhunga districts in eastern Nepal in the presence of journalists and human rights activists.

Maoists had abducted CDO Adhikari along with other security personnel after attacking Malangawa, the district headquarters of Sarlahi district, last month (April 5).

Adhikari got mandatory retirement from the government job early this month– on the basis of his age– while in Maoist activity.

According to radio reports, Maoists also released other security personnel abducted along with Adhikari from another location.

The release came on the same day the government released two senior leaders of Maoists Suresh Ale Magar and Matrika Yadav.

At least 10 people including five policemen were killed when Maoists launched simultaneous attacks at security agencies based at Malangawa.

Industrialist Ratan Agrawal – who was critically injured after being attacked by a criminal gang in the southern industrial town of Birgunj Friday morning– has been brought to Kathmandu for treatment.

He is undergoing treatment at Norvic hospital, industry sources said.

According to reports, two persons on a motorbike threw socket bombs at the vehicle of Agrawal at around 6:30 a. m. at Birgunj sub-metropolis ward. No. 12 and fled. His driver was also injured in the attack.

Agrawal was first taken to the Narayani sub-regional hospital at Birgunj and later airlifted to Kathmandu.

Nepal F. M., a private radio station, reported that Agrawal was receiving extortion threats by an Indian criminal gang led by Chhote Lal Sahani. The same group has been blamed for an attack against businessman, Ramesh Kedia, in Birgunj some two months ago. Kedia lost one of his eyes in the attack.

Talking to Nepalnews, vice president of the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI), Rajendra Kumar Khetan, condemned the attack on Agrawal and said the government failed to provide security to Agrawal though he had been receiving threats for the last one year.

One of the promoters of the private sector Laxmi Bank, Agrawal is also a director of the S. R. Drugs Pvt. Ltd. based in Kathmandu.

Reports say incidences of extortion, threat and attacks against businessmen and leading professionals have gone up across the country after the recent political changes taking benefit of lax law and order situation.

Manang Marsyangdi Club (MMC) lost to Sri Lankan team Ratnam Sports Club (RSC) 2-0 in the AFC President’s Cup at Kuching, Malaysia.

In the match that was delayed by one hour, MMC played extremely well in the first half but could not score missing four golden opportunities. The Lankans failed to threaten the Manang defense and goalie Sangeet Razak even a single time in the first half. T

The second half was a different story with RSC looking a changed side. RSC almost scored early in the second minute had it not been for a brilliant stop by the goalie denying Jayasuriya. But Jayasuriya was not to be denied and he scored some time later to put his team up 1-0.

With the whole team pressing hard to find an equalizer towards the end of regulation, Ratnam stamped their authority utilizing a poor clearance from Tashi Tshering as Mohammad Rawme scored one minute from time.