All the candidates who had filed their nominations in various posts of Bhaktapur municipality have been elected unopposed.

The state-owned News Agency, RSS, reported that those elected unopposed were Sumitra Madhikarmi of Ward No. 15 to the post of Mayor and Saraju Hada of Ward No. 13 to the post of Deputy Mayor.

Likewise, Rabikrishna Madhikarmi of ward no. 2, Gangananda Banepali of ward no. 3, Laxmi Prasad Dumaru of ward no. 7, Indra Kumar Dhaubanjar of ward no. 8, Majun Suwal of ward no. 14, Uttam Bhakta Bati of ward no. 15, Padamlal Shilakar of ward no. 16 and Kamini Neupane of ward no. 17 have been elected unopposed to the posts of respective ward chairmen, the report said.

Neupane of ward no. 17 is an independent candidate whereas all others had field their candidacy as members of Rastriya Prajatantra Party led by Home Minister Kamal Thapa.

The elected representatives said that they will be engaged in completing the incomplete development projects, and will work to preserve art, religion, culture and ancient heritages of the tourist city. They commit to serve the people at their strength.

The Election Commission has said that elections would be held only for over 600 posts in 36 out of 58 municipalities across the country. With only less than a week for polls, candidates in various municipalities have been withdrawing their nominations through press statements. In many municipalities, elected candidates are reportedly being kept under tight security owing to threats of physical action by the Maoist rebels.

The Maoist rebels on Saturday have freed 21 security personnel including 19 policemen, an intelligence officer and one Royal Nepalese Army soldier Saturday morning.

According to latest reports, those freed include Yam Prasad Parajuli, inspector of National Investigation Department (NID).

In a statement issued Saturday, the CPN (Maoist) said 21 of the detainees were released in the presence of local journalists and human rights activists at Tau market of Palpa. “Rest of the detainees will also be freed soon,” the statement said.

Security personnel who were freed reached the devastated district headquarter, Tansen, this morning.

Eight other people including Chief District Officer, Laxman Thapa, are still under Maoist custody.

The rebels had taken them into custody after fierce overnight battle at Tansen last Tuesday. At least eleven security personnel and eight rebels were killed during the overnight battle.

National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), however, said the number of detainees stood at 37.

Rights groups and family members of those abducted had appealed the rebels to free all the people under their custody and treat them as per Geneva conventions.

Meanwhile, the women’s wing of the CPN (Maoist), All Nepal Women’s Association (Revolutionary) has said security personnel have arrested their central committee member, Parbati Thapa, from Bafal, Kathmandu on January 27. The Association has urged rights groups to help protect life of Thapa and pressurise the government to make her whereabouts public.

Suspected Maoists have abducted three senior officials of the Surya Nepal (P) Ltd.—a leading Nepal-India joint venture—from southern district of Bara on Friday.

According to reports, chief of the manufacturing division of the Surya Nepal, Prabhaker Bikram Shah and managers Damber Mani Limbu and Sarbajit Rana were forcibly taken away by a group of armed personnel at around 6:45 p. m. from Chhata Pipara of Bara district Friday evening.

The abductors also set fire on the vehicle Surya Nepal officials were traveling in, according to reports. They were on their way to Birgunj from Simara of Bara district where the company’s production plant is located.

Surya Nepal officials in Kathmandu could not be reached for comments.

Formerly known as Surya Tobacco Company (P) Ltd., Surya Nepal is the largest private sector company in the country. Its promoters include ITC of India and Soaltee Group of Nepal.

With an annual turn over of around Rs three billion, Surya Nepal captures over 60 percent of the Nepali cigarette market. The company is the single largest contributor to the Nepali exchequer, accounting for nearly 4% of the country’s revenue, according to the official website of the Company.

The Maoist rebels had recently abducted a group of contractors working with the Company but freed them later. They had also targeted the company’s production plant in the past.

There has been no word from the rebels as yet regarding the abduction.

The state-owned Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has demanded Rs 2 billion from the Ministry of Finance for payment to Indian Oil Corporation (IOC).

Talks with the ministry were initiated after the NOC received a letter from IOC saying the payment processes would be simplified if the NOC cleared its dues in one installment, Kantipur daily reported Saturday. The corporation wrote a letter to the ministry on Friday, demanding the Rs 2 billion grants.

At present, the NOC owes over Rs. 2 billion to the IOC.

The IOC had notified that the monthly payment duration could be extended to the last day of the month if the existing dues are cleared. According to earlier agreements, the NOC needs to clear the month’s payment by 15 of the English month.

The report further said the IOC would accept monthly payment in three installments if this condition were met. This would end the NOC’s problem regarding interests, the daily quoted an official at the NOC as saying. The IOC has demanded 10 percent interest if payment was delayed.

Even though the NOC was closing the month’s transaction by the month’s end in previous months but it has not been able to pay January’s installment. The Indian oil agency has sent a bill of Rs 2.8 billion for the month of January.

The NOC has been running into heavy losses for the last few years particularly after the government stopped providing subsidy saying the corporation should manage its costs on its own. Currently, the corporation is facing a loss of around Rs 570 million a month.

Seven human rights activists detained at the Women Development Training Center, Lalitpur have refused to accept detention letter produced under the Public Security Act (PSA).

Talking to Nepalnews from custody on Saturday, Charan Prasai, president of Human Rights Organisation of Nepal said the rights activists would not accept the detention letter and added that they have not acted in the way that can hamper the peace and security of the country.

He described the condition of the detention center as ‘very poor’ with only three toilets for more than 100 detainees and that they the detainees were being served unhygienic food and drinking water.

Human rights activists Gopal Siwakoti, Bishnu Devkota, Narayan Dutta Kadel, Mukunda Rizal, Suresh Bhattarai and Bijul Biswakarma have been kept there for the last four days. They have been arrested from New Road while staging protest against February 1, 2005, royal move.

Cadres of the protesting political parties, engineers, teachers and professors were also detained with them in the same room.

Rooms are very congested and detainees are not able to sleep well, added Prasai.

Meanwhile, journalists including Bishnu Nisthuri, president of Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ), Harihar Birahi, Sanjay Santoshi Rai, vice president of FNJ, Krishna Humagai, Jhapa district president of FNJ, who were arrested from a rally of teachers and professors on Friday who were kept at at Janesewa police post in New Road were released on Saturday morning.

OHCHR on Friday wrote a letter to Home Minister Kamal Thapa asking for unconditional release of detainees detained under the PSA. The government said that the protestors were arrested to maintain peace and security in the city.

There are reports of fresh clashes at Panauti in Kavre district—nearly 32 km east of capital, Kathmandu, from Monday evening.

Latest reports say a large number of heavily armed rebels mounted attacks at security posts stationed at Panauti municipality from around 8:20 p. m. this evening.

A local resident told Nepalnews over phone that both the sides had exchanged hundreds of rounds of bullets in less than half an hour. He said the rebels seemed to have targeted the municipality building, among others. There were reports of explosions also.

The latest clash is taking place just two days ahead of the municipal polls slated on Wednesday.

There were no immediate reports of casualty on either side.

Reports said there were explosions in Dhulikhel—the district headquarters of Kavre and Banepa municipality this evening.

Details were not immediately available.

Only last week, the rebels had mounted a major attack at Tansen municipality in west Nepal. At least 11 security personnel and eight rebels were killed in the fierce overnight clashes. n

The downward move of the export of Nepalese readymade garment continues in 2006 as well recording a fall of 8 percent in the month of January.

The export of readymade garments decreased by 41 percent in 2005, following the termination of quota free access to Nepalese readymade garments from 1 January 2005.

According to data released by Garment Association of Nepal (GAN), Nepal exported garment worth a total of US$5.60 million during the month.

The export in the same month of the last year was US$ 6.08 million, which again was a decline of over 46 percent as compared to the same month of 2004.

This is the 15th consecutive month the largest foreign currency earner is facing decline.

Export of readymade garment declined by 30 percent in 2004 and 41 percent in 2005.

According to GAN, the number of Nepali garment manufacturing units operating in the country has plummeted to 25 and about 50,000 people employed in the sector have lost their jobs thanks to the sharp decline.

Garment entrepreneurs have been urging the government to set up garment processing zone and initiate effort to pass a bill in the American senate, which will provide duty free access to readymade garments to give life to the ailing garment industry.

The Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) moved to the Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday challenging the Election Commission’s January 24 decision to deny both factions of the RPP the election symbol, a plough.

The petition claims that the decision of the EC infringes the rights of the RPP led by Rana, as the party had been using the symbol for a long time.

“The EC’s decision violates party’s rights ensured by Articles 11(1), 12, 2(c), 113 and the section 18 of the Election Act 1990,” the writ petition states.

Talking to Nepalnews on Friday, joint general secretary of the RPP Khem Raj Pundit said that they moved to the SC in the suspicion that it will give decision under some influence.

“Every proof is in our favour and we are the RPP, but the EC did not give us the symbol ‘plough’ rather decided to freeze it so we moved to the SC with the suspicion that the EC might give verdict under some influence,” he added.

He further added that they moved to the SC to save their election symbol.

The EC decided to freeze the election symbol plough after both factions of RPP led by Rana and Home Minister Kamal Thapa claimed for the same saying they are the authentic party.

The dissident faction of RPP led by Home Minister Thapa deposed party president Rana from the post of party president by holding a special general convention after the party establishment side expelled 10 central committee members including Thapa.

The establishment side said the claim of Thapa faction for the election symbol is baseless saying the dissident faction did not have right to summon special general convention.

All chiefs of security forces of the country started a two-day special worship session in the temple of Bhadrakali, Kathmandu on Thursday, reports said.

According to reports, King Gyanendra is scheduled to visit the temple on Friday to offer worship at the temple.

Chief of the Army Staff Pyar Jung Thapa, Chief of Armed Police Force Sahabir Thapa, Chief of Nepal Police Shyam Bhakta Thapa and Chief of National Investigation Department Devi Ram Sharma are participating in the worship.

Animal sacrifices will be made at the altar of goddess of power in Friday, the Kantipur daily reported.

Nobody has been allowed to go inside the sanctum saying a special worship is going on.

The worship coincides with the first anniversary of the royal takeover.

Basanta Panchami, popularly known as Saraswoti Puja, is being celebrated across the kingdom on Friday by offering prayer to Saraswati, the Goddess of learning.

Manjushree Temple (File Photo)
On the occasion, devotees honour the deities of knowledge and learning. Hindus honor goddess Saraswati and the Buddhists god Manjushree.

Devotees visit shrines devoted to goddess Saraswati and Manjushree and offer flowers, sweets, fruits, etc to the goddess.

This is a day when people from school, students to scholars worship their pens and books and artists worship their instruments to please the Goddess and expect her favor in their studies so they become wise and knowledgeable.

Basanta Panchami announces the advent of spring, with official ceremonies organized at Hanuman Dhoka Square.

Devotees worshiping the statue of Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of knowledge and wisdom, at Nil Saraswati Temple in Gairidhara, Friday, Feb 03 06. nepalnews.com/rh

Devotees worshiping the statue of Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of knowledge and wisdom, at Nil Saraswati Temple in Gairidhara, Friday, Feb 03 06. nepalnews.com/rh
In Kathmandu, hundreds of devotees line up from early morning to pay respect to the goddess of learning, Saraswati, at shrines on the hill near the Swayambhunath Stupa and Saraswati Kunda in Patan.

On this day, small children are given their first alphabet lesson today.

This day is regarded as a very auspicious day for marriages too as it is believed that Goddess Saraswati herself blesses the couples.