Kathmandu, November 3, 2006 Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala today told US ambassador James Moriarty that the modality of arms management “will be as decided by the Nepali people themselves,” advisor to the PM on foreign affairs Dr Suresh Chalise told this daily. The US ambassador met Koirala at the prime minister’s official residence here today. “The meeting was a kind of routine one between Girijababu and Moriarty. It saw the US envoy briefing the Prime Minister on the peace process and what he had to say in the light of his visit to the Indian capital,” Chalise said. Koirala told Moriarty that “the modality of arms management will evolve in such a way that it is finally acceptable to all.” Moriarty is not very happy with the unchanged stance of the government that arms management should entail keeping arms under one lock and key that goes to the Maoists while UN seal serves as an insurance. The crux of the meeting lies in the fact that while the US government has been insisting on dual lock when it comes to managing the arms wielded by the Maoist fighters, the latter have been insisting that one lock would suffice. Koirala is in favour of a single lock with UN seal while the key to the lock goes to the Maoists. It is not acceptable to the Maoists, UML, NC(D) and the US envoy. New SLC model papers to be out in two weeks: Tripathee The Curriculum Development Centre (CDC) is putting in all efforts to prepare specification grids for School Leaving Certificate level examination papers at the earliest. The government had announced that the SLC papers would from this year contain questions only from the curricula of the tenth grade and not from ninth and 10th grades. “The CDC will prepare specification grids and model question papers for the SLC examination within the next two weeks and these will be distributed throughout the nation at the earliest,” said Laba Prasad Tripathee, spokesperson at the Education Ministry. He said the recent decision was made based on the recommendation by the subject committees. While conceding that it was quite late to make an announcement about change in question patterns, with almost half the academic year already gone, Tripathee said it was all because of the political events in the country. “In such a situation it is always difficult to make major decisions,” said Tripathee at an interaction organised by Education Journalist’s Group. “The SLC examination should not be made such a big issue,” he said. Ramesh Prasad Gautam, the head master of the Padmodaya High School, said the government’s decision on SLC was made just to increase the pass percentage rather than improving examination system.