Kathmandu, December 11, 2006

Today’s wet spell came as a shock for weathermen who had forecast the weather in the country to be “mainly fair”. Senior Meteorologist at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) Krishna Manandhar explained today’s wet condition.

“This was the result of the rapid eastward progress of the westerly winds.” The same weather bulletin that forecast a “mainly fair” weather had also said that with the onset of the night, the western region of the country would be “partly cloudy with chances of light and brief snowfall at one or two places in the high mountainous regions”.

“We had expected a brief snowfall in the western parts, but the ‘weather disturbances’ were so rapid that we witnessed showers in Kathmandu instead,” Manandhar said. He added that Chho Rolpa had 40 cm of snowfall in 24 hours and Jumla received 7 mm of rainfall.

Weather disturbance is a system that comes from West Asia, especially during winter, in course of its movement eastward and hits Nepal too. Weather in Kathmandu was said to be mainly fair on Sunday night and well into Monday as well.

However, Kathmanduites witnessed a wet day, although sun tended to cut through the rain-laden clouds late in the afternoon.

Welfare Fund has Rs 10.6 billion: Army

The Nepali Army officially today stated that its Army Welfare Fund has over Rs 10.6 billion as deposits, which earns an annual interest of about Rs 400 million, while Rs 700 million of the Fund is spent in various welfare activities.

The Fund, set up in 1976, also earns about Rs 320 million from the troops participating in UN peacekeeping missions each year.

“The Fund receives 12 per cent of the salary of a soldier participating in UN missions, while anyone participating as UN observer contributes five per cent of the salary,” according to Brigadier General Kumar KC, who is also the Director of the Army’s UN Department of Peace Keeping Operations.

Since the troops participating in UN missions take advance, the Fund has a large figure of unaccounted expenses too. Currently, over Rs 900 million remains as disbursed advance payments which have yet to be paid back.

This amount of advance money has accrued to Rs 7 billion since the fund was established. “Of the advance payments of over Rs 7 billion, the Fund has succeeded in collecting Rs 3 billion which was due to the NA soldiers, while account for Rs 2b advance has been cleared but is yet to be presented to the House of Representatives and the account for other Rs 2b is classified as unaccounted due,” the army’s financial advisor Hari Bahadur Khadka said.

Stating that the Fund was already transparent, the Spokesperson of the Army, Brigadier General Ananta Thebe, said: “The Fund’s account till 2005-2006 has been audited by the Auditor General, and the audit of 2006-2007 is underway”.