Kathmandu, July 6, 2007

The Young Communist League, youth-wing of the CPN-Maoist, will “strongly” protest the holding of the rally by the pro-monarchy activists and the lavish dinner to mark king Gyanendra’s birthday.

The king is planning a series of lavish dinners from Friday through Sunday to celebrate his 61st birthday at the palace, where politicians, industrialists, promonarchy intellectuals, diplomats and others have been invited.

Most of the diplomats and politicians have, however, declined the invite. “We will take to the streets and teach a lesson to those who want to revive monarchy and undermine the achievements of Jana Andolan II,” YCL chairman Ganesh Pun said while addressing a programme at Reporters’ Club today.

He said thousands of people will take to the street to foil the king’s plan to show his “strength”. “We are not planning any confrontation but we are not sure how peaceful we are going to be, as that will depend on the situation,” he added. Pun added that the spokesperson for the Maoists and Minister for Information and Communications Krishna Bahadur Mahara had clearly said such activities by the king should be stopped.

While, Lekhanath Neupane, the president of the All Nepal Independent Student Union-Revolutionary criticised the youth and student wings affiliated to the other parties for not showing the same enthusiasm to foil the king’s programme.

UML leader Shankar Pokharel said no politician in the government, or public figures should attend the birthday bash.

West Seti project likely to start in Nov

Kathmandu, July 6, 2007

The construction of the 760 megawatt West Seti Hydroelectricity Project is expected to get underway in November.

Initially, the Snowy Mountain Engineering Corporation (SMEC) — an Australian energy giant — had plans to start the job by January 2008.

The interested firms who would like to bag the job of building the transmission lines should apply for pre-qualification by July 31.

However, SMEC has yet to apply for a mandatory generating licence, which “it expects to be given at short notice” given the level of preparedness demonstrated by the company.

The company has plans to generate 760 megawatt of power and market it in India. The entire process has come under criticism from members of parliament representing constituencies in the Far Western Region, with some even demanding “electrification of the region before the power is exported.” “Our demands are suitable rehabilitation, jobs to locals and desirable flow in the river,” said Bhakta Bahadur Balayar, who represents a constituency in Doti.

The parliamentary Natural Resources and Means Committee is not happy with the concession given to SMEC under which Nepal is no longer entitled to 10 per cent free energy over and above what it will be getting once the project is commissioned.