Citing that reforms are not yet completed, Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), the state’s monetary regulatory body, has extended the management contract of Nepal Bank Limited (NBL) by another 6 months.

The meeting of the NRB’s board of directors Thursday decided to extend the tenure of ICC Ireland Group by 6 more months. The group has been running NBL’s management for the last five years.

The foreign management two year contract was to expire Friday. NRB’s board of directors took this decision based on the recommendation of a high-level committee headed by the Finance Minister.

ICC had two weeks ago proposed to extend the contract for another 18 months, however NRB decided to extend it by only 6 more months.

Under financial sector reform, the management of two largest government owned banks, NBL and Rastriya Banijya Bank (RBB), was given to foreign management five years ago.

Army chief General Rookmangud Katawal is scheduled to visit Britain at the invitation of British Ministry of Defense.

Gen Katawal will leave on Sunday for a week-long visit.

Brigadier General Ramindra Chhetri, chief of Directorate of Public Relations (DPR), Nepali Army, told Nepalnews that NA chiefs traditionally pays visit to India and Britain.

Meanwhile, a British newspaper The Guardian has reported that British Ministry of Defense could provide more than £150,000 for building facilities, establishing computerised network and developing human resources.

Minister of State for Water Resources Gyanendra Bahadur Karki has said that the government will abide by the instruction by the parliamentary committee to obtain free power from the West Seti project.

Talking to BBC Nepali Service, Thursday, Karki said he was confident that the Snowy Mountain Engineering Corporation (SMEC), which is developing the 750-MW strong mega hydroproject, will be willing to accept this demand.

“I think they will be positive towards this demand,” Karki said.

Earlier, the Parliament Natural Resource Committee had approved the decision of the government to award the 750-MW strong West Seti hydropower project to Snowy Mountain Engineering Corporation (SMEC) opening the door for starting construction of the mega power project, which is designed to export power to India on commercial basis.

However, the parliamentary committee had instructed the government to get 10 percent free power from the West Seti project. As per the understanding, the SMEC had agreed to give either 10 percent free energy or equivalent amount of money to the government. The SMEC had said it could build a separate 75 MW project if Nepal wants free power since it finds there will be technical difficulty in providing 10 percent power from the West Seti project itself due to lack of transmission facilities in the project site, which is located in Doti district.

The parliamentary committee, however, has instructed the government to get the free power from the West Seti project itself instead of equivalent amount of money.

“The committee has asked the government to hold necessary talks with concerned parties to obtain free power from the project instead of equivalent royalty,” Ram Sharan Ghimire, Secretary at the committee, told Nepalnews.

Ghimire added that the committee has also instructed the government not to award both the Upper Karnali (300MW) and Arun III (402 MW) to the same Indian company, GMR. Earlier, the taskforce headed by former finance secretary Bhanu Acharya had identified GMR’s proposal as most attractive for both the projects.

Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities (NEFIN), the umbrella organisation of more than five dozen indigenous groups in Nepal, is going to celebrate the World Indigenous Day by organising various functions all over the country from August 1 to 9.

For this purpose it has formed World Indigenous Day Organising Committee under the convenorship of its president Pasang Sherpa.

The secretariat meeting of NEFIN Thursday elected Ram Bahadur Thapa as the member secretary of the committee. Thapa is the current general secretary of NEFIN.

Members of NEFIN’s federal council, president and general secretaries of all indigenous organisations active in Nepal including parliamentarians and intellectuals from the indigenous community would also be made a part of World Indigenous Day organising committee.

The indigenous people all over the world celebrate August 9 as the World Indigenous Day every year.

Meanwhile, Dalit activists have asked the government to announce liberation of Haliyas (indentured tillers) living a miserable existence in some far-western districts and proprely rehabilitate them.

Submitting a memorandum to Minister of Land Reform and Management Jagat Bahadur Bogati Thursday, National Dalit Society Welfare Association, Kailali said that the government can use the act it formed to liberate the Kamaiyas or bonded labourers for this purpose.

It is estimated that there are some 21,000 Haliyas in far-western region who are compelled to live a very miserable existence, working as land tenants unable to pay the loan their forefathers had taken from local landlords.

Two people lost their lives in two separate incidents caused by incessant rainfall in Syangja district Thursday.

Krishna Prasad Aryal of Putalibazar-4, Simalbhanjyang was killed when his house was swept away by the landslide that hit the area while another Moti Prasad Aryal of Putalibazar-8 died when the lightning struck him.

The landslides that struck various places along the Siddhartha highway following incessant rainfall have also caused disruption of vehicular movement.

Meanwhile, a cholera outbreak in the remote Lapelang V.D.C of Dolakha district has killed a minor girl Friday while eight more people of the same V.D.C have also fallen seriously ill.

Swosthani Thakuri, 14, a resident of Sungure in Lapelang V.D.C-9 died Friday morning while undergoing treatment at the village health post.

According to reports, the entire locality has been affected due to outbreak of the deadly diarrheal disease caused by consumption of contaminated water or food. Patients seriously afflicted with the disease have been referred to the district headquarter after initial checkup at the village.

District Health Office said that it had already dispatched a medical team to the affected village.

Minister for Peace and Reconstruction Ram Chandra Poudel has said that the government is working through a committee to carry out the task mandated by the constitution towards security sector reforms.

“Our greatest challenge in the security sector reforms is to streamline the Nepali Army and integration of verified Maoist combatants,” he said.

Speaking at the closing ceremony of five-day workshop on Democratic Transition and Civil Military Relations, on Friday, Minister Poudel said that security sector reforms involved not only the right sizing of the security bodies but also internalisation of basic tenets of human rights. The government wants its security wings to be “more democratic, inclusive and responsive to changed local and global contexts,” said Poudel.

Poudel received the document on “National Security Strategy Development” prepared by the workshop by incorporating inputs from the government officials, political leaders, security officials, civil society as well as business sector. He said the government will go through the document and implement its suggestions where possible.

Addressing the ceremony, Robert Hugins, Charge d’Affaires of the US Embassy, stressed the importance of security to hold free and fair Constituent Assembly elections. “The recommendations should prove as invaluable references to policy makers,” he hoped.

At the programme, Nepali Congress leader and former foreign minister Chakra Bastola and Additional Inspector General of Police (AIG), Armed Police Force (APF), Sanat Kumar Basnet presented the highlights of the document. Professor Shridhar Khatri of South Asia Center for Policy Studies (SACEPS) said that the workshop was aimed at making the democratic transition as peaceful and productive as possible.

The document prepared by the workshop details the national security in its various dimensions and has also elaborated about its determinants, especially in Nepali context.

The workshop was jointly organised by SACEPS, the Honolulu-based Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies (APCSS) and California-based Center for Civil Military Relations (CCMR). The workshop was funded by the US government.

This is the third in a series of six workshops in Nepal conducted by SACEPS, APCSS and CCMR. A ‘Security Sector Reform and Democratic Transition’ workshop occurred in August and September 2006, while a ‘Democratic Control of the Security Forces’ workshop was held at the end of May, 2007.

“The purpose of this workshop was to build on the accomplishments and recommendations of the previous workshops in order to build a consensus on Nepal’s core values, national interests, and national objectives,” states a press release issued by the US Embassy.

Police arrested more than 150 freed Kamaiyas from Maitighar in the capital on Friday when they were preparing for a demonstration carrying lantern. They were released after two hours.

The freed Kamaiyas have been demonstrating since Wednesday demanding immediate rehabilitation. They were liberated seven years ago, but thousands of them have not been rehabilitated yet as committed by the government.

Few months back, during a discussion the government had assured the agitating freed Kamaiyas to meet their demands by the end of that fiscal year.

Similarly, freed Kamaiyas today demonstrated in Dang, Banke and Bardiya districts against the arrests and use of force by the police during their protest in front of Singh Durbar on Wednesday.

The freed Kamaiyas in Dang blocked the east-west highway for nearly four hours. On Thursday as well, they had blocked the highway for hours. The agitators said they would continue daily four-hour blockade of the highway until the demands were met.

The meeting between the Maoist leadership and UNMIN officials failed to reach any conclusion regarding the immediate resumption of the stalled second stage verification of the Maoist combatants.

The meeting between Maoist leaders including Prachanda and his deputy commanders and UNMIN officials led by its chief Ian Martin, on Friday, had focused on resolving the issue of stalled verification. Following the meeting, Martin told reporters that more discussions are necessary before the second stage verification can resume. Martin is leaving for New York on Friday evening. He will brief the UN Security Council on the progress of peace process in Nepal.

Meanwhile, a deputy commander of Maoist People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has claimed that the meeting between the Maoist leadership and the UNMIN officials has decided to prepare modality for ‘re-verification’ of some combatants in Ilam camp.

“We have agreed to determine the modality through the meeting with the UNMIN officials tomorrow,” Janardan Sharma aka Prabhakar told Nepal FM.

Refusing to divulge the number of combatants who will be subjected to ‘re-verification,’ Prabhakar said the new modality will be prepared so that there will not be repetition of similar problems during verification in other camps.

Upon returning home after a 40-day trip to the United States Wednesday, the Kumari (Living Goddess) of Bhaktapur was warmly received by thousands of locals in Bhaktapur amid much fanfare and celebration.

As soon as she got out of the main terminal of the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), she was hounded by both local and foreign journalists and photographers as well as large number of locals from Bhaktapur who had come to receive her. There was such a huge crowd pressing to get a first glimpse of her that the police had to be called in to control the situation. But nine-year-old Sajani Shakya didn’t had any idea what was happening, as she was totally unawares about all the drama that had happened during her absence. From cultural purists raising questions on the propriety of her visit to United States where she was taken to promote a documentary film related to the Kumari to even demands that she be stripped of her status – everything about this 4th grader who is venerated as a living deity generated much media hype and publicity.

The Guthi Sansthan of Bhaktapur had sought clarification from her parents two weeks ago, alleging that they had broken tradition by sending Sajani abroad. The Sansthan’s head Nuccheraj Shakya had reportedly put pressure on the parents to sign on a paper that said that their daughter should be stripped of her status as ‘the Kumari of Bhaktapur’. But the same office Wednesday completely denied having proceeded to take that kind of action against the Kumari.

“We did not know that the girl (Kumari) could not be sent to other places…now I know it is very hard to be a mother of a living deity,” a visibly happy Rukumini Shakya, mother of Sajani, said to Kantipur Daily, as she hugged her daughter coming out of the airport terminal and showered her with kisses.

The girl was welcomed with bouquets and taken to Bhaktapur where she was paraded around the major thoroughfares and offered religious worship.

The main priest of the Kumari House also observed a traditional ‘pardon ritual’ and placed her in the house after decorating her in traditional attire.

Sajani who was chosen as the living goddess when she was three years old was taken to the United States to inaugurate a film titled ‘Living Goddess’ shown on June 9.

The Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) has asked the government to correct a provision in the newly presented budget regarding import procedure through the Tribhuwan International Airport (TIA).

Issuing a statement, the FNCCI has said that the provision that makes it mandatory for the importers to separately disclose price of the product, transport cost and insurance amount when declaring its price at the custom office has created unnecessary hassles.

The FNCCI has said that due to the new procedure, import through the TIA has been seriously affected for the last few days. It has warned that the government could bear huge revenue losses if the provision is not corrected soon.