The main opposition party Nepali Congress (NC) today submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, demanding that the government implement the past agreements including immediate return of properties seized by the Maoists during the decade-long insurgency.

NC vice-president Ram Chandra Poudel met the Prime Minister and submitted the nine-point memorandum.

Other demands in the memorandum include scrapping of the paramilitary structure of the Maoist youth wing, Young Communist League (YCL) and reconstitution of the army integration special committee on the basis of political consensus.

Receiving the memo, Prime Minister Dahal said he was serious about the issues raised by the NC and that the government would look into them, Laxman Ghimire, a member of the NC delegation, told reporters. Dahal also said the government and his party were in favour of consensus among the parties on major political issues like constitution-making and the peace process.

The NC has put forth its demands at a time when relation between the main ruling party, CPN (Maoist), has hit all time low. Of late, the Congress party has fallen out badly with the government over the composition of the army integration special committee. nepalnews.com mk Nov 09 08

Anti girl trafficking volunteers rescued nine Nepalese girls last week from a frontier Indian town of Raxaul which is adjacent to Birgunj in Parsa district and handed them over to Maiti Nepal, reports said.

The girls, most of whom were minors, were rescued while being taken to Indian capital New Delhi by volunteers with the Cross-Border Anti-Trafficking Network, an NGO based in Raxaul, and then handed them over to the Birgunj branch of Maiti Nepal.

The report quoted Maiti Nepal Birgunj branch head Sangeeta Puri as saying that Phoolmaya Magar, 50, was taking the girls, who were from Mahottari and Sarlahi districts, to India to sell them into brothels where they would be forced to work as commercial sex workers.

Puri said that the girls have already been handed over to their parents. But it was not known through the report whether Magar was arrested.

Hundreds of Nepalese girls from the impoverished hilly districts of the country are trafficked to Indian metropolis mostly through Raxaul every year despite concerted efforts by Maiti Nepal and other anti-trafficking networks to put a lid on this appalling human tragedy.

After ending up in brothels in big Indian cities like New Delhi and Mumbai, the girls have to often go through intense suffering in the form of physical and mental tortures including depravation in uninhabitable places where they long to see the sun for years. It is estimated that more than 100,000 Nepalese girls and women currently work in brothels across India. nepalnews.com ag Nov 09 08

Minister for Forest and Soil Conservation Kiran Gurung on Sunday appealed to the President and Vice-President whom he said are in ceremonial role not to participate in public functions, reasoning that the “careless remarks” they make in those programmes have started to become very controversial.

The CPN-UML minister was also of the opinion that the President and Vice-President, in fact, shouldn’t be invited in such public functions and asked organisers of such programmes to pay heed to his advice.

Speaking at a press meet organised by Press Chautari Kaski Chapter in Pokhara Sunday morning, he said that VP Parmananda Jha’s public assertion last week that the special committee on army integration is “unconstitutional” and that political parties are to be blamed for the delay in constitution drafting “was against the his vice-presidential code-of-conduct”. Jha has even repeatedly expressed his displeasure in public for not being given any political role or invited in public programmes.

Both President Ram Baran Yadav and VP Jha have been a subject of criticism lately for not using their discretion in choosing the sort of public programmes they attend – like inauguration programs, book launches, religious ceremonies and even cycle rallies.

On army integration, Minister Gurung believes that if the special committee on army integration is unable to push ahead the integration process then the government might fail and added that it is important that parties like Nepali Congress and Terai Madhes Loktantric Party (TMLP) participate in it.

He, however, said that if they (NC and TMLP) keep on lingering then the committee would start work without them even.

During the program, Minister Gurung also informed that a tight mechanism that includes civil society and journalist will be formed in the district level to keep a tab on the illegal timber smuggling that has seen a rise lately. nepalnews.com Nov 09 08

Jhal Nath Khanal
The general secretary of Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) Jhal Nath Khanal has said that the opposition party Nepali Congress (NC) will be brought into the Special Committee on army integration.

Following his meeting with Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ on Sunday morning, Khanal said, “We must bring in NC to the committee. For that, we need to work through understanding.”

He added that he urged the PM to carry out homework quickly in order to form different commissions such as Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Commission on Disappeared Persons.

“The National Planning Commission will also be reorganised,” he said. nepalnews.com sd Nov 09 08

Foreign Minister Upendra Yadav has sad that there are injustices in resource sharing in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) due to which they are not able to carry out programmes on their own.

Addressing the Asia regional consultation on LDC issues, Saturday, in Kathmandu, Minister Yadav said, “Poverty will not be eradicated unless injustices prevail in LDCs.”

Dr. Arjun Karki, International chair of LDC Watch said that the first two LDC conferences were held in Paris (in 1980 and 1990), but failed to gain much attention from different stakeholders. The third conference, which was held in Brussels in 2001 came up with a Brussels Programme of Action (BPoA) that comprised of seven basic goals. He also informed that the Government of Nepal will be holding the chair of LDC Government next year.

The two-day consultation is being held to assess the effective implementation of the BPoA including other internationally agreed development goals towards achieving the overarching objective of poverty reduction and sustainable development in the Asian LDCs.

The consultation started with the message that an increase in number of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) from 24 in 1971 to 49 today, and ironically, after three decades of special development attention, three UN LDC consultations and three specific Programmes of Action, clearly proves the failure of existing development paradigms to effectively address the development challenges and constraints in these poorest countries.

There are now 33 LDCs in Africa, 15 in Asia and 1 in the Caribbean that house 750 million people. nepalnews.com sd Nov 09 08

Chinese players dominated the first day of 14th Asian Mountain Bike Championship winning both titles in Men’s and Women’s Elite Cross Country race at Chovar, Kathmandu.

A cyclist from Iran during the Cross Country ? Elite Men Final of ‘ XIV Asian Mountain Bike Championship’ at Chovar, Kathmandu, Saturday, Nov 08 08. nepalnews.com/NPA

A cyclist from Iran during the Cross Country – Elite Men Final of ‘ XIV Asian …
Chinese rider Jiang Xue Li clocked 1 hour 34 min 24 sec to complete the 35.63 km long seven lap race. Japanese rider Kohei Yamamoto secured the second position clocking 1 hour 55 min 46 sec and Chun Hing Chan of Hong Kong finished the race in 1 hour 56 min 52 sec for third position.

Nepalese Padam Sabenhang, among four Nepalese bikers, was the only one to finish the race, with a time of 2 hours 10 min and 53 sec securing 17th position out of 30 bikers.

Ren Chengyuan of China won the ladies category with timing of hour 34 minutes 24 seconds for 25.45 km. Additionally, Chinese players came in second and third also. Nepalese Nirjala Tamrakar was forced to leave the track for her slow riding.

The Down-Hill category will be held on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the organizer has said that the top three riders from male and female categories would qualify for the 2012 Olympics. nepalnews.com Nov 09 08

The big four parties – Maoists, Unified Marxist Leninist (UML), Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (MJF) and Nepali Congress (NC) – have agreed not to have any reference to system of party whip in the Constituent Assembly (CA) rules.

“We have decided against any reference toward whip. This means there will not be whip system,” said Dinanath Sharma, chief whip of the Maoists.

Chief whip of opposition NC, Laxman Prasad Ghimire, added that the parties will have their own provision regarding whip in their respective party statutes. “In party statutes, it will be clear on which matters the parties need to issue whip and on which matters the individual members will be allowed to exercise their conscience,” he said.

Earlier, NC, Maoists and UML were in favour of whip system while MJF and other smaller parties, particularly Madhesi parties, favoured allowing members to vote their conscience on important matters during constitution writing.

“The delay in formulating CA rules had blocked the process of writing new constitution for long. Now we have reached to one decision. We will now talk with other parties before finalising it after which the process of constitution writing will start,” said MJF chief whip Ram Janam Chaudhary. nepalnews.com sd Nov 09 08

Vice President Parmananda Jha has said that there should not be any provision for party whips in the Constituent Assembly (CA).

Vice-president Parmananda Jha
Speaking at a programme in Biratnagar, Saturday, Jha accused the parties of trying to infringe upon people’s fundamental rights by trying to impose ‘whip system.’

“If again the constitution is written on the basis of majority and minority then that cannot be owned by the people,” he said.

He also said that the agreements signed by the government and the Madhesi parties have not been implemented yet. nepalnews.com sd Nov 09 08

Chairman of Madhesi Janaahdakar Forum (MJF) and Foreign Minister Upendra Yadav today lashed out at the aggressive remarks of political personalities including Vice President Parmananda Jha on the army integration special committee.

Foreign Minister Upendra Yadav (2nd from right) participating in an inaugural ceremony of the Asia Regional Consultation on issues of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in Kathmandu on Saturday, Nov 08 08. nepalnews.com/rh

Foreign Minister Upendra Yadav (2nd from right) participating in an inaugural…
Answering questions asked by journalists after the inaugural ceremony of the Asia Regional Consultation on Least Developed Country Issue in Kathmandu on Saturday, Yadav said that creating controversy on the issue would not serve any good purpose.

VP Jha who was elected to the prestigious post on a MJF ticket had in a public speech recently described the army integration special committee as unconstitutional.

Yadav also said the government would go a head with the army integration process if the Nepali Congress refuses to join the special committee despite repeated requests. nepalnews.com rh Nov 08 08

A leading human rights activist and member of the Constituent Assembly, Ms Sapana Pradhan Malla has said the new constitution of Nepal can still be drafted within the stipulated time frame.

CA member Malla.

Addressing the sixth Annual Lecture of the Britain-Nepal Academic Council (BNAC) at SOAS, University of London on Thursday as a keynote speaker, Ms Malla said constitution making was a political act and that there was a need for all political parties come together for nation-building. “Revolution has no end and rights have no barrier,” said Malla adding, “Women in Nepal were challenging the political structure itself so as to ascertain their rights.”

Speaking on the theme, “Inclusive Republican Democracy and Women’s Rights in Nepal,” Ms Malla said Nepal had come a long way in creating a fairer and more inclusive society. She outlined the campaign that women’s rights organisations had played in achieving equality for women in all walks of public life in general and property rights of women in particular. She said that law reform was a major tool in achieving equality for women.

She noted with some satisfaction that the constituent assembly had about 33% women members, but asserted that only 9% women were in actual decision making or influential positions within the government and party political structure. She also stated that there was still a long way to go in achieving effective and equitable representation of women in all branches of the government and especially the judiciary where the representation of women was very low.

Speaking from Chair, Professor Surya Subedi identified six main challenges facing the nation and the Constituent Assembly: (i) How best to address the issue of federalism while maintaining the unity of the nation; (ii) How to empower women and people belonging to traditionally marginalised ethnic and janjati groups; (iii) how to strengthen the rule of law and make democracy more genuine and stronger; (iv) which system of government to adopt in the future – whether it should be presidential, parliamentary or some sort of a mixed system; (v) What sort of electoral system to adopt for future elections – whether the country should continue with the present mixed electoral system or go for a different system; (vi) how best to adopt a constitution that is conducive to economic development, lasting peace, and prosperity for the people of Nepal for generations to come.

The annual lecture was attended by British academics interested in different facets of Nepal, including anthropology, political economy, law, literature and culture, history, art, tourism, health and nutrition etc, and scholars and intellectuals of the Nepalese community living in the UK as well as representative of various national and international organisations and students studying at various British universities.

This year’s annual lecture of the Academic Council was sponsored by the Bhandari Brothers of the UK. The Council thanked the Bhandari Brothers for their support and generosity. All four Bhandari brothers, Pashupati, Shankar, Kamal and Yadav, were also present at the annual lecture and Professor Subedi thanked each of them for their support and generosity. nepalnews.com Nov 08 08