THT 10 years ago: PM to begin talks on CA, poll date, today

Kathmandu, March 13, 2007

Prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala will initiate a “series of dialogues and meetings” with the eight party leaders beginning tomorrow to discuss the formation of the interim government, and fix a date for election to constituent assembly.

A meeting of four political parties — Nepali Congress (NC), CPN-UML, NC (Democratic) and the CPN-Maoist — held at the residence of Prime Minister Koirala in Baluwatar, participated by PM Koirala, Maoist supremo Prachanda, UML general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal and NC (D) president Sher Bahadur Deuba, among other leaders, mandated the PM to initiate the dialogue with the political parties from tomorrow.

Emerging out of the meeting, NC leader Arjun Narsingh KC said the PM promised the fourparty leaders that he was “committed to hold constituent assembly elections by mid-June under any circumstances”. “I assure you that I will meet the challenge of holding elections to constituent assembly come what may,” KC quoted Koirala as saying.

The PM is also learnt to have sought cooperation of all the political parties to meet l the common commitment of holding constituent assembly polls by mid-June. The meeting also discussed implementation of the understandings reached so far between the seven-party alliance and the Maoists.

While the seven-party alliance raised concern over the Maoist’s “continued violence”, including intimidation and extortion, and also the recent remarks of Prachanda on his fighters and their arms, the Maoists side blamed the government for failing to stick to the previous understandings.

Govt urged to frame law on adoption

The Kathmandu Declaration of the first International Conference of Inter-country Adoption today urged the government to ratify the Hague Convention, 1993.

The three-point declaration has urged the government to formulate laws and regulations according to the norms and values of the Hague Convention, establish and operationalise a central authority to regulate and facilitate the processes and exercises of Intercountry Adoption accordingly, to ensure clear provisions for licensing institutions, organisations and agencies working in adoption, and to set up an effective system of monitoring such agencies and to take concrete measures to prevent irregularities and malpractices.

The declaration also realised the need for an accessible National Information Centre on adoption for sharing the information and making the entire process transparent and reconvene on similar happening periodically.

The delegates showed solidarity and agreed upon to extend the cooperation to the government of Nepal to initiate reform regulation inter-country Adoption and for the overall development of Nepalese children.