Nepali House again fails to elect PM, House session postponed

KATHMANDU, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Speaker of Nepali House Subash Nemwang Friday announced to hold another round of election on Aug. 2 to elect new executive Prime Minister out of two candidates who failed to gain simple majority votes during the second round election.

Nemwang made this announcement after two candidates -- Chairman of the largest party Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) ( UCPN-M) Prachanda and another candidate from the second largest party Nepali Congress (NC) Deputy President Ramchandra Paudel got rejected by majority of negative votes.

Out of 572 CA members presented at the House, Prachanda got only 241 votes in his favor while 113 voted against him. Similarly, 218 remained neutral. Likewise, Paudel got only 123 votes in his favor while 241 voted against him and 214 remained neutral.

According to Speaker Nemwang, House will again hold election on Aug. 2 at 04:00 p.m. local time to decide on these two candidates.

The first round election was held on Wednesday and failed to elect new prime minister as no one of the candidates got simple majority votes -- 300 votes out of 599 Constituent Assembly (CA) members as per Interim Constitution of Nepal-2007.

During the first round election, three candidates had proposed their nominations for the election -- Prachanda, Paudel and the third candidate Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) (CPN-UML) withdrew his candidacy.

Amid political turmoil in Nepal, PM re-election is also witnessing standoff after caretaker Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal resigned from his post on July 30 following the pressure from single and the largest opposition UCPN-M to from national consensus government under its leadership.

Editor: Mu Xuequan

Nepal House passes interim constitution amendment bill to extend CA term

KATHMANDU, May 29 (Xinhua) -- An emergency meet- ing of the Legislature Parliament early Saturday passed the 8th Amendment Bill of Interim Constitution of Ne- pal-2007 which will extend Constituent Assembly (CA) term by one year.

Out of the 585 lawmakers who attended the meeting, 580 voted on support of the Amendment Bill while only five voted against it.

Finalizing the result of majority votes cast by lawmakers, House Speaker Subash Nemwang announced that the 8th Amendment Bill has been passed with two-thirds majority of the Parliament.

Concluding the emergency meeting of House, he also added that the next session of House will sit on Monday afternoon. Now, the deadline for Nepal to promulgate new national constitution is also extended for one year. The two-year CA term was meant to expire by Friday midnight, if Parliament would not have passed the Bill by two-thirds majority. The government on Monday regis- tered the Interim Constitution Amendment Bill to extend the term of CA by one year.

However, the single and the largest opposition party Uni- fied Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (UCPN-M) who filed a dissent note against the Bill took back its under- scoring the agreement between major parties to form new national unity government.

“The three parties have agreed to form a new national unity government, parties have also agreed for logical end of peace process, so in this situation I would like to take back the dissent note,” Dev Gurung, lawmaker from UCPN-M and former Minister for Law and Justice, said, when addressing the House.

The Amendment of the Bill to extend CA term was made possible after the three big parties -- the ruling communist party, Communist Party Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) (CPN-UML), Nepali Congress (NC) and UCPN-M forged consensus after an-hour-long bilateral and multi- lateral meeting late Friday night.

The big three parties agreed to extend the CA by one year and passed agreements will be implemented and Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal will resign within a few days to pave way for a national unity government. However, it is not clear that within how many days PM will resign.

“This opportunity will be utilized to conclude the peace process, complete new constitution drafting process and begin a new chapter of consensus politics,” M.K. Nepal told reporters right after the House meeting concluded.

Nepal faces bigger food deficit problem

KATHMANDU, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Nepali government data shows that the size of the population facing food deficit in Nepal has tripled compared with last year.

According to Hari Dahal, joint secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MoAC), the country faces nearly 316, 000 tons food deficit this year, compared with 132,000 tons last year.

“Nearly 1.6 million people have been suffering from food deficit this year due to acute supply shortage while nearly 500, 000 people suffered the same problem last year,” Dahal, who is also spokesperson at MoAC, told Sunday’s myrepublica.com.

According to him, agricultural production including rice output decreased hugely last year due to a late monsoon and drought, thereby causing an acute food deficit in the country. “Rice production decreased nearly 500,000 tons last year,” Dahal added, “That has largely contributed to the food deficit problem this year.”

People from remote districts have been directly affected by the food shortage. A government team led by Joint Secretary Chandra Ghimire at the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies had also conducted a field study on food deficit recently.

Ghimire said about 30 districts face food deficit problem every year. Of these, about 15 districts face severe food crunch.

“The problem of food is mainly due to lack of local productivity,” he said, adding, “The government should identify fertile land within districts facing food deficit and invest in a package program including irrigation, supply of fertilizers, technology input, sending in of technicians and other supportive projects in a bid to get rid of the problem in the long run.”

The report prepared by the Ghimire-led team also concluded that the food deficit problem in the country is worsening. Editor: Bi Mingxin

First day of indefinite strike in Nepal peaceful

KATHMANDU, May 2 (Xinhua) -- People’s life all over Nepal was affected by indefinite general strike and shutdown on Sunday.

The strike was called by UCPN (Maoist) as part of its agitation demanding the step down of the incumbent government.

General lives of people were affected by the strike. Local shops, private offices, industries, factories, education institutions, transportation all came to a halt due to the strike.

Few cars, ambulances, hospital buses, journalist’s motorcycles could be seen on the road.

The party workers were staging demonstrations at major thoroughfares, chanting slogans calling for the government to step down.

The Home Ministry on Saturday had issued directives to all the concerned people and professionals to carry out their general lives as it were as the security was beefed up.

However, few shops and markets are open.

The Higher Secondary Education Board (HSEB) postponed all examinations of Grade 12 ( High School ) for an indefinite period on Sunday due to the Maoist’s strike.

Security personnel were deployed at the various places in the capital city and around the country as well.

The indefinite strike Sunday ended peacefully without any re- ports of violence. The Maoist cadres were singing songs and merry making by gathering in the streets.

Ram Bahadur Chettri, 53, a farmer from Sindhupalchowk, was a little furious, saying he is ready to sacrifice his life for the country.

“We are fighting for constitution, we want our constitution and we want this government to be down at any cost,” he exclaimed.

Kanchi Maya Tamang, a tenth grader, told Xinhua that she came all the way from Sindhupalchowk, some 40 kilometers away from the capital, to participate in the strike and demonstration.

Kumar Lama, an icecream seller, was very happy that his business was up compared to other day. Talking to Xinhua he told that his business rose as many people on the streets are eating his ice-creams.

Apart from blocking roads the Maoist cadres were singing and dancing singing anti-governmental songs and merry making.

The roads in the Kathmandu valley were crowded with people dancing and singing in all the joyful ways.

The announcement of the general strike was made on Saturday following a mammoth rally in Kathmandu valley on the occasion of the 121st International Labor Day.

The strike was pretty much peaceful and there were no reports of violence. Enditem

Chinese Ambassador Qiu guohong Attends the Inaugura- tion Ceremony of Nepal-China Friendship Center

On March 24, 2010, Mr. Qiu Guohong, Ambassador of
the People’s Republic of China to Nepal attended the In-
auguration Ceremony of Nepal-China Friendship Center.
Together with Mr. Bajracharya, the Chairman of the
Nepal-China Friendship Center and all the members, as
well as the distiguished guests from Nepal, the Ambas-
sador expressed his congratulations and hope for the
newly-established center as an NGO to promote people-
to-people exchange and cooperation between China and
Nepal.

Chinese ambassador Mr. Qiu Guohong provided assistance to Dvya Deep Secondary Boarding School in upper Mustang of Nepal

On March 5th, 2010, Chinese Ambassador Mr. Qiu Guohong, on behalf of Chinese Embassy in Nepal, signed a Memorandum of Un- derstanding with Mr. Bista, Chairman of Management Committee of Divya Deep Secondary Boarding School to provide Rs. 5.7 million assistance to the school in Jomsom, capital city of Mustang district.

The assistance will be used to establish meeting rooms, computer rooms and laboratories for the school. The Chief District Officer Mr. Dhakal and more than 100 representatives from the government and parties attended the signature ceremony.