Nepal Highlights

Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal has reacted strongly to increased involvement of foreign diplomats in the internal politics of Nepal in the recent days. In his interview to the Financial Times, London, on Sunday, PM Nepal said, it would not be acceptable to him if those nations tried to influence him 'crossing diplomatic norms.' There is no overlord here. We don't want any neo-colonialism here. Undue pressure will not be tolerable to us, Nepal said. Reports say, foreign countries including the EU, have been pressuring the political parties to form a government with Unified CPN (Maoist). Nepal said, it had been a mistake to bring the Maoists to main-stream politics without disarming them. The Maoists are changing, but too slowly, he said. In an interview with the same newspaper, international department in charge of the Maoists, Krishna Bahadur Mahara said, the Maoists were being forced back into war. We don't want to start another war. But, if there are no opt...

The Home Ministry has directed all District Administration Offices to detain officials of Unity Life International and initiate action against them. The ministry directed its sub-ordinate bodies to initiate action against Unity Life International bosses after it found the company had been running its business illegitimately. The company has been providing banking and insurance services without taking permission from regulating bodies Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) and Insurance Board (IB). The company has claimed it has over 6.5 lacs members across the country and about 2.5 lacs members abroad. It operates on pyramid structure of Network marketing.  NRB, IB and Nepal Stock Exchange had issued a joint public notice last year without mentioning Unity's name to abstain from Network marketing and companies which claim to provide assurance without taking permission from the government. The home ministry has instructed the security agencies to increase vigil at exit points to check Uni...

The ethnic Khasi community in the north-eastern Indian state of Meghalaya have threatened Nepali speaking locals to leave their villages within 24 hours, Monday.  Chief of the Khasi community ordered the Nepalis to leave their villages Monday morning after observing the incident site where seven people of his community were shot dead by police following a dispute with the Nepali Community.  Seven people of Khasi community were killed when police opened fire to control a dispute between the Nepali and the Khasi community in Langapi at the border of Meghalaya and Assam.  Although, there used to disputes between the Nepali and the Khasi community since many years, the bitterness between the two communities got aggravated after Sunday's incident. Nepalis are in a minority in Meghalaya with 2.6 percent of the total population. 

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) has called for fresh tenders to print Machine Readable Passports (MRP)s, Monday. The ministry issued a public notice calling bids from interested printers following a directive from Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the parliament. MoFA opened the MRP printing tender for the second time after the cabinet revoked its decision to award MRP printing contract to India following intense pressure from all quarters.  The previous tender process on MRP printing was cancelled citing technical reasons.  Foreign ministry has changed some conditions for bidders to allow more companies to participate in the tender process.   A printing company which has an experience of printing in at least two countries and has an annual turn over of at least USD 13 million is eligible to bid for MRP printing contract.  Earlier, the government had set USD 18 million as the minimum turnover and an experience of printing in at least four countries. Only four companies ...

A writ petition has been filed at the Supreme Court (SC) to prevent CA term extension.  Bharat Jangam filed a writ at the SC Sunday requesting the court to issue an stay order as the government and the parties were preparing to illegally extend the CA's term.  Jangam has claimed, the political parties do not have the right to extend the CA's term as article 64 of the interim constitution clearly mentions the term of CA will be two years.  In a ruling on a separate case in April, the SC had said, all provisions in the interim constitution but those pertaining to the fundamental rights of an individual can be amended. 

A non-governmental bill for the extension of the Constituent Assembly (CA) term has been tabled at the CA secretariat, Sunday.  UML lawmaker Dheerendra Bahadur Shrestha tabled the bill to amend article 64 of the interim constitution in consent with his fellow colleagues in the parliamentary board. Article 64 of the interim constitution has the provisions about the tenure of the CA.