THT 10 YEARS AGO: Prachanda tells YCL to exercise caution

Kathmandu, May 23, 2007

The second day of the Young Communist League (YCL) meeting ended inconclusively today, ruling out any public commitment from the outfit to mend its ways.

“The day was dedicated to 15 regional bureau chiefs who filed their reports on the problems they are facing. A decision will come tomorrow,” YCL leader Chandra Bahadur Thapa, “Sagar,” said.

The outfit had called the meeting yesterday following directives from Maoist leader Prachanda to “assess the activities of the youth wing in the changing context.” Prachanda, who held talks with the YCL leadership today, told the latter that “care must be taken to see to it that no untoward incidents are attributed to the YCL cadres.” The Maoist supremo’s sane advice comes following pressure from alliance partners to rein in YCL cadres “in the interest of the peace process.”

Present in the meeting with Prachanda were Maoist leaders Dr Baburam Bhattarai and Ram Bahadur Thapa “Badal”. The Maoist leadership had come under pressure to rein in the YCL on Sunday when Prachanda met Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala. Koirala has been under pressure from his party rank and file to pressure the Maoists to stop their intimidatory ways if the peace process was to make any headway. Koirala has ruled out calling an eight-party alliance meeting until the Maoists mend their ways. He has also ruled out announcing a date for constituent assembly elections until the people felt a definite change in the general political atmosphere, which, Koirala insisted, “has been vitiated by the YCL cadres by indulging in intimidation.”

Finance ministry owes govt Rs 26.66 billion

Kathmandu, May 23, 2007

Different ministries and departments of the government have dues adding up to Rs 29 billion, according to a report released today.

The report, compiled on the basis of different government and other reports, states that 91.96 per cent of the total dues, Rs 26.66 billion, is owed by the ministry of finance.

The Auditor General’s Office owes the government Rs 17 billion. The Department of Inland Revenue and VAT Office, Rs 7.8 billion and the Customs office Rs 2.1 billion.

The Supreme Court, that hallowed portal of justice, owes the government Rs 1.9 million. The Ministry for Water Resources, the Ministry for Forest and Soil Conservation and the Ministry for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation respectively share 0.57, 0.44 and 0.32 per cent of the dues.

The report was made public by Remac Nepal, an NGO. “It is not clear who from which department or institution is responsible to collect the dues. There must be some authority to take some bold step on it,” said NP Saud, a lawmaker who is a member of the parliamentary Finance Committee. He said though all the dues do not reflect corruption, the uncleared dues are a result of financial irregularity of some sort.