Nepal Highlights

Nepali Congress (NC) president Sushil Koirala has reiterated the claim for government leadership, Sunday.   Arguing that the UCPN (Maoist) and UML had already led the government Koirala said, it's now the turn of NC to lead the government.   Both the parties have already led the government, said Koirala speaking at a function in Bara Sunday, it's now NC's turn.   Koirala also clarified Ram Chandra Paudel would be forwarded as the prime ministerial candidate from the party.   According to our party statute, the leader of the parliamentary party becomes our prime ministerial candidate, said Koirala, we have not considered any alternatives.

The Madhes based parties are preparing to forward a common candidate for the post of Prime Minister with support of some fringe parties, if the largest three parties – Unified CPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress (NC) and UML – do not reach a consensus and come up with a common candidate by the election date, Annapurna Post daily reported. The Madhes based parties came up with the strategy as the chances of consensus among the largest three parties is becoming slimmer before the 1 st round of prime ministerial election slated for coming Thursday. Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (MJF) chairman Upendra Yadav, MJF-Loktantrik chairman Bijaya Kumar Gachchhadar or Terai Madhes Loktantrik Party (TMLP) chairman Mahanth Thakur is likely to be a common candidate from the Madhes based parties, according to a Madhes based leader. The parties have also worked out a strategy to woo all the fringe parties to vote for them in the election. The common candidate of the Madhes based parties will receive second ...

A piece of land bought by the Nepalese embassy in Colombo, Sri Lanka is being illegally encroached to make a golf course due to carelessness of Nepalese authorities, Nayapatrika daily reported. About 2 acres, 16 perches of land bought for the construction of embassy building is being encroached as a golf course is being constructed in the adjoining land. Nepalese authorities are unaware of the encroachment.

A meeting of the 28 political parties in the Constituent Assembly (CA) Monday morning has agreed to include provision to give national party status to all political parties participating in the general convention. The parties agreed to scrap the present system to recognise only parties securing three percent votes in the general election as national parties in order to ensure the rights of minority and marginalised groups to open the parties. At the meeting, all parties but the Unified CPN (Maoist) agreed not to change the shape, colour and symbols of the national flag. Maoist vice chairman Narayan Kaji Shrestha informed reporters after the meeting that all other parties except the UCPN (Maoist) had agreed to retain the shape and colour of the national flag. However, the parties had different opinions on interpreting the national flag, according to Shrestha.

India is reportedly all set to resume supplies of lethal weapons to Nepal which it had stalled since the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) started monitoring of arms and armed personnel of Nepal Army (NA) and the Maoist People's Liberation Army. An online edition of leading Indian newspaper, Indian Express, reported that the Indian moves comes as per the request made by Nepal government to New Delhi "for urgent nominal lethal weapons supplies" as the NA was running out of assault rifle, ammunition, training artillery ammunition, among others. The paper quoted government sources as saying that the request was communicated to the highest levels and a decision has been taken to accede to this nominal demand. The report about the possible resumption of arms and ammunition supplies comes ahead of Indian foreign secretary Nirupama Rao's scheduled three-day visit to Nepal starting Jan.18 to take up bilateral issues with Kathmandu and assess the country's ongoin...

Govt to print SLC question papers in Nepal The government has decided to print the School Leaving Certificate (SLC) question papers in Nepal instead of India from now on. A cabinet meeting held at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, Singha Durbar Monday took a decision to this effect. The decision comes after the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Legislature-Parliament directed Ministry of Education (MoE) to print the SLC question papers in Nepal The parliamentary committee had also suggested using the Janak Education Material Centre (JEMC) owned printing press for printing SLC question papers and seek other private alternatives if JEMC alone is not sufficient. Though JEMC has its own state-of-the-art security press, the government has been printing SLC question papers in India citing security reasons -- rampant leakage of questions papers. Similarly, the meeting also gave a go-ahead to the grant aid of Rs 504 million for the Sustainable Land Management ...

 A meeting of top leaders of the largest three parties in the Constituent Assembly (CA) - Unified CPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress (NC) and UML – Sunday morning on settling down disputes on provisions to be incorporated in the new constitution ended inconclusively. Unified CPN (Maoist) Pushpa Kamal Dahal, NC parliamentary party leader Ram Chandra Paudel and UML chairman Jhala Nath Khanal discussed issues related to the national flag, state restructuring, forms of constitutional bodies, and election system, among others at the meeting called by CA chairman Subas Chandra Nemwang at his office in Singha Durbar this morning. Although, NC leader Paudel claimed the three leaders had agreed not to change the shape and form of the new flag, but interpret it differently in the new constitution, CA chair Nemwang said the meeting did not reach any agreement today.  The leaders discussed on important issues including national flag, state restructuring and constitutional bodies, but did not re...