Biratnagar, August 6, 2005

Two security personnel were injured when Maoists opened fire at them at Damak Bazaar of Jhapa district today. Police constables Tilak Shrestha and Krishna Shrestha were having tea when a group of Maoists attacked them at about 4.30 pm. The two, residents of Takshar of Bhojpur district, are undergoing treatment at the BP Memorial Institute of Health Sciences (BPKIHS), Dharan, according to the Regional Police Office (RPO), Biratnagar. Krishna Shrestha had gone to Damak to meet his friend Tilak, who has recently been transferred to Udayapur from the Area Police Office, Damak. In a separate incident along the Indo-Nepal border in Sunsari last night, at least eight persons were injured when alleged Indian dacoits clashed with members of the Village Security Committee (VSC) at Ramgunj, Sinwari VDC.

According to the RPO in Biratnagar, eight persons of Ward numbers 7 and 8 of the VDC were hurt when dacoits opened fire at them. They are undergoing treatment at the BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, the RPO stated. The group of 30-40 dacoits took along with them cattle from the area.

Govt to appoint mayors, dy mayors

Kathmandu, August 6, 2005

Close on the heels of the appointment of chairmen and deputy chairmen to 47 District Development Committees (DDCs), the government is “working” to appoint mayors and deputy mayors in 58 municipalities who will be required to fulfil the responsibility to conducting elections to those municipalities. The government is “busy doing its homework” to appoint the mayors and deputy mayors “very soon”, most probably, within fifteen days, in all the 58 municipalities, an official source disclosed. The appointment move is aimed at providing an “effective administrative system to provide proficient and transparent” service to the people, the source said. He, however, said that the primary objective of the appointees would be to conduct municipal elections within this year, as announced by the King. The erstwhile government headed by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba had dissolved the local bodies in 2002 following the expiry of their five-year term. Later, the mayors and deputy mayors who were appointed by the then Surya Bahadur Thapa-led government in November 2003 were replaced by government officials in 2004 following the decision of the then Sher Bahadur Deuba-led government. “The process (of appointing mayors) has begun,” another source claimed, adding: “The appointees could possibly be picked from independent politicians, former Panchas and people supporting political parties and who are ‘interested’ in taking posts but having ‘grudges’ in their party-folds.”