Nirupama Rao discusses India, Nepal ties in Kathmandu

Kathmandu, Sep 15 (ANI): Visiting Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao met Nepal Foreign Minister Sujata Koirala and discussed various bilateral issues including greater sharing of vital information between the two countries.

According to Nepalnews, both the leaders also discussed electricity import from India, signing of extradition treaty and the agreements reached during Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal’s visit to India last month.

Talking to reporters after the meeting, Koirala said that the discussion basically revolved around building greater cooperation between India and Nepal, Constitution drafting and the peace process.

“India was keen on providing more assistance to help develop Nepal’s poor infrastructures, building transmission lines for the import of electricity from India, signing of the new extradition treaty and address other trade issues,” Koirala added.

Earlier Nirupama Rao met her Nepalis counterpart Gyan Chandra Acharya and discussed joint strategy for implementation of the 34-point agreement signed between the two countries last month.

During the meeting, she assured substantial amount of Indian investment in Nepal if peace is established in the country.

She also called on former Prime Minister and Nepali Congress President Girija Prasad Koirala at his residence and suggested that Koirala has a great role to play in the days ahead to end the political impasse in Nepal.

She also met CPN UML Chairman Jhalanath Khanal and extended an invitation to visit India on behalf of the government of India. During her meeting she advised Khanal to seek a practical solution on rehabilitation and integration of former Maoist combatants.

Nirupama Rao also met Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, Deputy Prime Minister Bijay Kumar Gachhadar, Chief of Army Staff Chatra Mansingh Gurung and Maoist leader Babu Ram Bhattrai New Delhi is sending a high-level official to Nepal at a time when the constitution-drafting and peace process has been stalled due to differences among major political parties.

This is Nirupama Rao’s first visit to Nepal after being appointed Foreign Secretary on July 31.

She will also visit Pashupatinath temple and offer her prayers later today. (ANI)

Indian foreign secretary arrives in Kathmandu

Kathmandu, Sep 14 (ANI): Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao who arrived here on a two-day visit, will meet President Ram Baran Yadav and Foreign Minister Sujata Koirala today.

Nirupama Rao’s visit is aimed at working out the strategy for implementation of the 34-point agreement between Nepal and India signed during Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal’s India visit, last month.

Nirupama will hold official talks with her Nepali counterpart Gyan Chandra Acharya for the same.

She will also meet Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, Foreign Secretary Gyan Chandra Acharya and leaders of various political parties, including opposition Maoist chief Prachanda.

New Delhi is sending a high-level official to Nepal at a time when the constitution-drafting and peace process has been stalled due to differences among major political parties.

This is Nirupama Rao’s first visit to Nepal after being appointed Foreign Secretary on July 31. She will also visit Pashupatinath temple and offer her prayers. (ANI)

Geri Halliwell on women-welfare mission in Nepal

Washington, September 11 (ANI): Former Spice Girls member Geri Halliwell showed her humanistic side by launching a campaign to help women suffering from gender based violence in Nepal.

As goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Population Fund, the singer is currently on a visit to the country to promote maternal health care and women’s rights.

“When we empower women and take care of them, everyone benefits,” Contactmusic quoted her as telling reporters in the region.

The beauty met the country’s Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal for support to raise awareness of violence against women in the south-west of the country.

Halliwell also spoke about the dangers of domestic abuse and a lack of medical care for pregnant women. (ANI)

Two Nepalese held with fake currency notes in Bihar

Raxaul (Bihar), Sep.9 (ANI): Border guards have arrested two Nepalese with fake currency worth Rs 40,000 in the town of Raxaul, Bihar, near the Indo-Nepal border.

Guards belonging to the Seema Suraksha Bal arrested Shyam Kumar Shah and Azad Alam with Rs 40,000 in fake Indian Rupee notes in Raxaul on Tuesday.

The two revealed that they had been given the money by a person called Zubaid in the town of Birganj, Nepal just across the border to supply to somebody in Raxaul.

Tuesday’s arrest came as Nepal’s Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal assured India that Nepalese soil will not be used for smuggling fake Indian currency into India. (ANI)

Sujata Koirala says she skipped India trip due to illness

Kathmandu, Aug 26 (ANI): Nepal Foreign Minister Sujata Koirala has said that she failed to accompany Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal in his maiden visit to India purely due to health reasons.

At the Nepali Congress Parliamentary Party office where she was summoned to furnish clarification as to why she dropped out of Prime Minister’s visit to India, Koirala, said that there were no other intentions behind it other than the sudden illness she developed on the eve of departure.

Earlier, Koirala had turned down the parliamentary party’s call to be present at the party headquarters on this case, instead sending a written statement where she said she was compelled to cancel her India trip because she was ill.

However, there were rumors that she pulled out of the scheduled India visit due to her dissatisfaction over Madhav Kumar not promoting her to the post of the Deputy Prime Minister.

At the previous parliamentary party meeting majority of the Nepali Congress lawmakers had said that Koirala’s decision to skip the visit to India not only damaged the party’s and country’s credibility and demanded that Koirala be recalled from the cabinet, Nepalnews reported. (ANI)

UML says PM’s India visit a success

Kathmandu, Aug 24 (ANI): The CPN (UML) has stated that the five-day official visit of Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal to India was “successful and fruitful.”

The Standing Committee meeting of UML held at the party’s central office on Sunday said that the visit was successful and thanked the Prime Minister after he briefed the committee over the highlights of his visit.

Meanwhile, former Foreign Minister and Chairman of Madheshi Janadhikar Forum (MJF) Upendra Yadav, has said that Madhav Kumar Nepal’s recently concluded India visit was just a continuation and that it failed to attain any achievements.

Kantipur quoted him as, saying that Madhav Kumar Nepal’s India visit failed to accomplish tasks of national interest.

“We could not see any solid proposal that would have abated the yearly deficit of billion rupees. No talks regarding the maximum exploitation of Nepal’s water resources have been made,” he said.

He also said that Prime Minister has not raised the issue of border encroachment during discussions with his Indian counterpart.

He also said that Foreign Minister Sujata Koirala’s decision to back out of the trip at the last moment was against the spirit of diplomatic norms.

“It’s an extreme mistake in part of Foreign Minister to back out of India tour after sending in the name list of Prime Minister’s entourage” he added.

However, during the visit both India and Nepal included a new trade treaty and agreement to control unauthorized trade, particularly from a third country.

The treaty is aimed at widening the bilateral economic engagements.

The new agreement will replace the existing arrangements since 1991, which was extended from time to time.

The trade treaty, which has been under negotiation for the last two years, aims at enlarging the scope of the existing institutional framework. As per the treaty India gives duty-free access to its market to goods manufactured in Nepal. (ANI)

Naxal-hit states Chief Ministers to meet in August

New Delhi, July 7 (ANI): Home Minister P Chidambaram today said the meeting of Chief Ministers of Naxal-hit states will be held in August to discuss the menace which has increasing in some states.

Replying to supplementaries in the Lok Sabha, Chidambaram said the meeting will discuss the strategy to tackle the threat posed by the Naxals in some states.

He also asked the Chief Ministers of the affected states to renew their appeal to the Naxal leaders to lay down arms and come to the negotiation.

The appeal came at the suggestion of Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, who claimed that he had successfully resolved the problem in some districts in Uttar Pradesh through talks. (ANI)

Nepal Parliament resumes, paves way for new budget session|World[Kathmandu {Kathmandu, July 7 (ANI): After months of obstruction, Nepal Parliament has resumed on Monday.

The session was prorogued after the Unified CPN (Maoist), obstructed normal proceedings of the House for more than two months it has now allowed the resumption of the House following a four-point agreement among the three largest parties in the Constituent Assembly (CA).

Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and Maoist chairman Prachanda addressed the resumed session.

Prachanda said his party adopted maximum flexibility to allow the House work for the welfare of the country and that the obstruction of the House would resume after a month if the agreements are not fulfilled by then.

The parties have agreed to categorically define Prime Minister’s and President’s jurisdiction and forge a consensus among the parties about the same within a month.

Prime Minister Nepal vowed to address the issue of defining powers of the President and Prime Minister within a month in consultation with other parties.

Addressing the Maoist demand of maintaining civil supremacy, Nepal said nobody is in favour of military supremacy. The very idea of republican set up is to maintain civil supremacy.

In his address, Prachanda said his party has agreed to end the disruption of the House to speed up the process of concluding the peace process and drafting of the new Constitution.

Prachanda however warned that his party would launch an aggressive agitation if the government failed to reach an understanding to resolve the issue of Army Chief issue.

The resumption of the normal functioning of parliament will pave the way for the President Dr. Ram Bran Yadav to allow the presentation of the new budget before the current fiscal year ends on 15th of this month.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Surendra Pande has said that the preparations for the next fiscal year’s budget is almost over.

The size of the next budget is likely to be about Rs 280 billion,” he said, nepalnews reported. (ANI)

Nepal alliance parties form taskforce for govt formation

Kathmandu, May 27 (ANI): A joint meeting of the 16 out of 22 parties supporting the UML-led government on Wednesday decided to form a taskforce to made suggestion regarding the set up of the new government and the ministerial portfolios in the new cabinet.

The parties decided to from a taskforce to study the issues after the meeting held this morning failed to reach a consensus on the issues.

The taskforce includes the coalition leader CPN-UML and its probable allies, the Nepali Congress, the Madheshi Janadhikar Forum and the Tarai Madhesh Loktantrik Party. The taskforce will also finalise the government’s Common Minimum Programme (CMP). 50-point CMP of the government was distributed in the meeting.

However, the task to finalise the CMP has been given to the taskforce after some leaders complained that the CMP was incomplete.

The parties have also suggested Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal to revert the decision of the Maoist government to terminate army chief Rookmangud Katawal and appoint Kul Bahadur Khadka as acting chief.

As proposed by the UML, the parties agreed to end the winter session of the parliament early.

Similarly, the parties have urged Speaker Subash Nembang not to table the resolution registered by the Maoists at the parliament secretariat before the parliament for discussion, Nepalnews eported. (ANI)

Madhav Kumar sworn-in as Nepal Prime Minister

Kathmandu, May 25 (ANI): Newly elected Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal took oath of office and secrecy on Monday.

President Dr Ram Baran Yadav administered the oath of office and secrecy to the newly elected Prime Minister amidst a ceremony at the Presidential residence in Shital Niwas this morning.

Vice-President Paramananda Jha, Constituent Assembly (CA) Chairman Subash Chandra Namwang, various political party leaders, chiefs of security bodies, heads of the government and international diplomatic representatives were present at the ceremony.

Madhav Kumar, a UML (Unified Marxist Leninist) nominee, was chosen ‘unopposed’ as the new Prime Minister of Nepal during a legislature-parliamentary session of the Constituent Assembly (CA) on Saturday.

Fifty six-year-old Madhav Kumar, an alumni of Bihar”s Goenka College, received the support of around 360 legislators of 22 political parties, excluding 238 legislators from Maoists and two from the Communist Party of Nepal (United).

He was the Deputy Prime Minister in the Nepalese government during the CPN (UML) minority government as well as the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly. He campaigned for the solution of Nepal Civil War through talks and did not believe that mobilization of the army was the solution.

He was arrested in 2001 during a crackdown on anti-government protest.

Following the palace massacre he called for Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala to step down, though later joined forces with him to launch a campaign against King Gyanendra”s assumption of executive powers.

On April 12, 2008, Nepal resigned as General Secretary of the CPN (UML) after having lost the Kathmandu-2 seat to Maoist candidate Jhakku Prasad Subedi in the 2008 Constituent Assembly election. Nepal was also defeated in Rautahat-6 constituency by CPN(M) candidate Devendra Patel.

In June 2008, the CPN (UML) proposed that M. K. Nepal become the country’s first President, following the declaration of the country as a republic. (ANI)

Madhav Kumar to be sworn-in as Nepal PM today

Kathmandu, May 25 (ANI): Newly elected Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal will be sworn in today.

President Dr Ram Baran Yadav will administer him oath of office and secrecy during a special ceremony at the president’s office.

Along with Prime Minister, a mini cabinet of four-five ministers will also be sworn-in.

Madhav Kumar, a UML (Unified Marxist Leninist) nominee, was chosen ‘unopposed’ as the new Prime Minister of Nepal during a legislature-parliamentary session of the Constituent Assembly (CA) on Saturday.

Fifty six-year-old Madhav Kumar, an alumni of Bihar”s Goenka College, received the support of around 360 legislators of 22 political parties, excluding 238 legislators from Maoists and two from the Communist Party of Nepal (United).

He was the Deputy Prime Minister in the Nepalese government during the CPN (UML) minority government as well as the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly. He campaigned for the solution of Nepal Civil War through talks and did not believe that mobilization of the army was the solution.

He was arrested in 2001 during a crackdown on anti-government protest. Following the palace massacre he called for Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala to step down, though later joined forces with him to launch a campaign against King Gyanendra”s assumption of executive powers.

On April 12, 2008, Nepal resigned as General Secretary of the CPN (UML) after having lost the Kathmandu-2 seat to Maoist candidate Jhakku Prasad Subedi in the 2008 Constituent Assembly election. Nepal was also defeated in Rautahat-6 constituency by CPN(M) candidate Devendra Patel.

In June 2008, the CPN (UML) proposed that M. K. Nepal become the country”s first President, following the declaration of the country as a republic. (ANI)