The 48-hour a week load shedding has decreased the industrial production by an estimated 30 percent and would further worsen if the government did not take immediate measures to improve the situation.

A team of industrialists who met with government ministers Wednesday and informed them about the crippling effect of load shedding on industrial production. They also submitted a report that suggests ways to deal with the situation.

The industrialists met Minister for Water Resources Gyanendra Bahadur Karki and State Minister Dina Updhyaya and conveyed their concern over the load shedding, as well as the delay in reconstruction of infrastructure destroyed during the insurgency.

Chandi Raj Dhakal
The team led by Chandi Raj Dhakal, president of the Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FNCCI), told the ministers that long hours of load shedding have weakened the prospects of continuing industrial activities, expanding commercial activities, establishing new enterprises and providing employment to the growing population.

The industrialists also submitted a memo to the ministers, seeking immediate measures to stop the flow of capital to foreign countries and the increasing trend of industries being displaced from the place of their present operation.

Dhakal also sought the government’s assistance to find alternatives of load shedding, a press statement issued by the FNCCI said. nepalnews.com ia Feb 06 08

Citing the attack on Dilendra Prasad Badu on Wednesday, acting president of the Nepali Congress Sushil Koirala has claimed that the Maoists have now resorted to physical attacks on the NC leaders.

Sushil Koirala
Addressing a function in mid-western district of Dang Wednesday, Koirala said that unruly activities of the Maoists and its youth wing, Young Communist League, are inviting a situation wherein mobilising the Nepal Army during the constituent assembly polls would be necessary.

Koirala claimed that the YCL attack on Badu was failed attempt to murder him. “Such incidents will necessitate the mobilisation of the NA to ensure the security of the leaders during the polls campaign,” he said.

Giving the instance of the meeting between Maoist leaders and royalists recently, Koirala further said the Maoist were more royalist than Sujata Koirala since she had no connection with the royalists. nepalnews.com ia Feb 06 08

The Government of Japan, based on the request made by the Government of Nepal, has approved the utilisation of the Counterpart Fund under the Food Aid of Rs 50 million for the implementation of the Project for the Transportation of Food Grains to Remote Area.

The project was approved in order to counter the existing food deficit in Nepal, particularly in the remote hilly and mountain districts, due to the low productivity of agriculture, a statement issued by Japanese embassy said.

Under this project, Nepal Food Corporation (NFC) will deliver an additional 1,430 metric tons of rice to eighteen remote hilly and mountain districts in addition to NFC’s annual program of delivering about 7,500 metric tons of rice.

The Counterpart Fund was established through the financial assistance extended by the Government of Japan under the Food Aid (KR). The Government of Nepal has procured rice through this assistance and sold it in the domestic market. The amount collected from selling the rice was deposited as a Counterpart Fund, which can be utilised for implementing various social and economic development projects through consultation between the two governments. nepalnews.com mk Feb 06 08

The seven political parties in Narayangardh have joined hands to play friendly football notwithstanding their different stances in national politics.

On Tuesday, CPN-UML defeated CPN-M 4-3 in the inaugural match organized by the Mass Communication Foundation of Chitwan (MCFC). Top leaders were also present at the venue making the environment very entertaining.

“We organized this tournament after consultation with all local seven political parties”, MCFC President Dinesh Thapaliya said, “The main theme of the tournament is brotherhood among all political parties as the country is heading towards constituent assembly elections”.

The tournament has a different set of rules with the players having to be 40+ to particpate. In the inaugural day, top leaders of UML along with Maoist leader and forest and soil conservation Minister Matrika Yadav spent an hour watching the match.

Nepali Congress and Rastriya Janamorcha are locking horns on Wednesday. nepalnews.com bt Feb 06 08

The Supreme Court on Wednesday quashed the government’s decision to provide each member of the interim parliament with Rs 1 million for development works in their constituencies.

A bench of justices Anup Raj Sharma and Kalyan Kumar Shrestha made the ruling, asking the government to put on hold the distribution of the money.

A group of lawyers had filed a writ petition challenging the decision to allocate Rs 1 million to MPs under the constituency development programme.

Describing the government’s decision as unconstitutional, the lawyers had argued that the money could be misused during the constituent assembly election.

On Monday, the seven-party Steering Committee had decided to halt the distribution of the money to the MPs until the polls. nepalnews.com mk Feb 06 08

Students studying through distant learning will, from this year on, be allowed to sit for School Leaving Certificate (SLC) examinations.

The Office of the Controller of Examination (OCE) said that it has for the first time in the country made arrangement for ‘distance learning’ students to appear for SLC exams.

This became possible after the Open Learning Division of the Educational Manpower Development Centre opened “open schools” to increase the access of students who dropped in grade VIII to higher education as a trial project.

Students appearing in SLC exams in the distance learning format do not have to go through the sent-up exams. Instead students enrolled in Open Schools are evaluated based on their attendance, homework and exams they have appeared.

The students appearing for SLC exams through the distant learning system will be asked the same questions asked to the regular students and those passing the exams will be recognised as regular students.

A total of 148 students from various parts of the country will appear for the SLC exams this year. The students are mainly from the remote region of Nepal. nepalnews.com ag Feb 06 08

After Armed Police Force (APF) lifted the trophy of National Women Football 2064 on Tuesday defeating Ilam by 6-0 in the final match, ladies team coach Noble Rana has expressed his great joy saying his team’s effort has paid off.

Anu Lama completed her hat trick, Jamuna Gurung struck twice and Ganga Gurung scored another to rout Ilam to lift the 10th National ladies football championship. The winner and the runner up teams were awarded with cash prize of Rs 50,000 and 25,000 respectively along with trophies, medals and certificates.

“We worked hard throughout the year and this is what we get after our hard work”, Rana told Nepalnews over the phone from Mahendranagar where the tournament was held.

In the championship, Bimala Joshi of Kailali was awarded with best goalkeeper, Samrachana Pradhan of Ilam was awarded with best mid fielder and Darshan Bhaktaraj of ilam was honoured with best coach. Bhagwati Thapa and Anu Lama of APF were awarded with best defense, and striker’s honours. They were each awarded with a cash prize of Rs. 5,000. nepalnews.com bt Feb 06 08s

Girija Prasad Koirala
Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala met with his cabinet colleagues looking after internal security, and also the army chief, on Wednesday morning.

Reports said the PM held meeting with Home Minister Krishna Sitaula and Minister of State for Home Ram Kumar Chaudhary and sought information regarding the security situation, particularly in Terai region, in the run up to the April 10 election for Constituent Assembly (CA).

The PM also held meeting with Peace and Reconstruction Minister Ram Chandra Poudel.

PM is learnt to have instructed his ministers to improve security situation in the country before the election.

Meanwhile, army chief General Rookmangud Katawal also met with the PM. The army sources have termed the meeting as routine. nepalnews.com sd Feb 06 08

Maoists have announced that they will resurrect the people’s government to ease the problems faced by people at the local level.

Maoist’s people’s governments, which were operational in villages and district level as parallel forms of government undermining state authority during the conflict period, had been dissolved following the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the seven political parties and the Maoists two years ago.

The recent meeting of the United Revolutionary People’s Council of the party had decided to resurrect the party’s people’s government.

Although the decision came within days of the high level steering committee’s decision not to reconstitute the local bodies for the time being citing disagreements within the SPA, Maoists have assured that the people’s government would not act as a parallel government like before.

A senior Maoist leader Dr. Baburam Bhattarai
In a statement issued by convener of people’s council Dr Baburam Bhattarai, Wednesday morning, it has been stated that “since the local bodies have still not been re-constituted on the agreement among the seven political parties, the people’s government have been activated to resolve the problems faced by the people in the district and local level and extend help in development related works.”

The statement further said that the meeting which was presided over by Maoist chairman Prachanda also decided to start “model joint development projects” in 11 ‘autonomous state committees and two sub-committees.’

Additionally, the meeting has also re-constituted the central people’s council appointing Dr Baburam Bhattarai as convener and Krishna Bahadur Mahara and Dev Gurung and its deputy-conveners. The central committee also comprises 37 representatives from the party’s various wings and sectors.

Similarly, the meeting has also decided to mobilise activists to start election campaign from February 2. nepalnews.com ag Feb 06 08

Former minister Dilendra Prasad Badu along with one dozen others were injured when Maoist-affiliated Young Communist League (YCL) cadres attacked them in a remote region in north-western district of Darchula, on Tuesday.

Former state minister and leader of Nepali Congress, Dilendra Prasad Badu, at the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, Kathmandu, Wednesday afternoon after being injured in an attack by Maoist cadres in Latinath of Darchula district yesterday, Feb 06 08. nepalnews.com/NPA

Former state minister and leader of Nepali Congress, Dilendra Prasad Badu, at…
The injured persons including Badu are being brought to the capital for treatment. Officials have said that Badu has been severely beaten by the YCL cadres.

Badu and his team was attacked when they were having lunch at a local Mohan Singh Dhami’s house in Ladinath VDC. Maoists began pelting stones at NC activists. Reports said that police also had to open fire to control the unruly crowd.

NC had started the village campaign from the past one week as part of the party’s election publicity program. In the course, Badu including many NC activists had been organizing assemblies and publicity programs in the rural areas of the district.

Reports say the YCL cadres attacked them saying they do not want others to enter into rural region for election campaigning. A couple of policemen were also injured when they tried to stop the YCL cadres from attacking the NC leaders.

Badu, central leader of Nepali Congress (NC), had gone to the village to campaign for the April election.nepalnews.com sd/ag Feb 06 08