THT 10 YEARS AGO: 8-party meet discusses CMP,code for ministers

Kathmandu, March 16, 2007

The eight-party meeting started discussions on the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) of the interim government, code of conduct to be abided by the ministers of the interim government, procedures of running the coalition government and ways of creating a conducive environment for an election to a constituent assembly. A taskforce of the eight political parties had drafted the CMP, code of conduct and the parties’ role in creating a conducive environment for the assembly election. “Today, we discussed drafts of the CMP of the interim government, code of conduct to be adhered by the council of ministers and procedures of running the coalition government prepared by the taskforce,” said CPN-UML leader Jhala Nath Khanal. The taskforce would meet again tomorrow. He said that those drafts would be presented to the eight parties’ high-level meeting for their final approval. Khanal said that they would discuss the miniterial portfolios to be distributed among the eight parties only after they reached a consensus on the interim government’s policies and programmes. He said that the interim government could be formed within a couple of days, but he declined to give a timeframe. Asked to elaborate on “creating a conducive environment for the election”, Nepali Congress (Democratic) central leader Dr Minendra Rijal said that all the eight parties and the government would implement the understanding and agreements reached between the seven-party alliance and Maoists and the government and the Maoists from their sides.

Govt to endorse library policy

Kathmandu, March 16, 2007

Fifty years after the first library was established in Nepal, the government is now in a mood to endorse the Library and Information Service National Policy. The draft of the policy is being revised and suggestions by the Ministry of Information and Communications (MoIC) are being included after which this will be endorsed by a ministerial

level meeting. A nine-member committee formed last year under the co-ordination of Dashrath Thapa, chief of Nepal National Library (NNL), had submitted the draft policy to the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) recently. The MoES then forwarded it to the MoIC for further suggestions. Thapa told this daily that the new policy will determine the registration of libraries, set up the standard for a library, budget allocation, data collection and framework for various types of libraries along with the methods to keep the record updated. The policy would be out within a month, said Thapa. The draft states that all the schools and government offices should have libraries.