Nepal

Kathmandu, June 23

The recommendation committee led by former chief justice of the Supreme Court Om Prakash Mishra failed to take a decision on the appointment of heads and members of two transitional justice mechanisms today again, amid widening rift between Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and Nepal Communist Party (NCP) Co-Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal.

The two commissions, Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons, have remained vacant ever since their members retired on April 13.

Spokesperson for the committee Sharmila Karki said it failed to hold a meeting after two of its members, Ram Nath Mainali and Prem Bahadur Khadka, remained absent. But knowledgeable sources say the panel is awaiting signal from the ruling NCP and the Nepali Congress, which have been failing to a hold dialogue to reach a consensus regarding the transitional justice bodies, thanks largely to a trust deficit between PM Oli and Dahal. Rift between PM Oli and Dahal widened after the latter brought up the issue of leading the government on rotation basis.

The two parties were already at loggerheads over sharing of posts of chairpersons of the two commissions, and the Oli-Dahal power play has further aggravated the stalemate.

The committee has collected 57 applications for members and chairs, but it can also list any eligible personname, even if that person has not filed an application within the deadline, at the recommendation of a recognised person or institution or at the committeeown discretion, considering special qualification and experience of the person.

The committeemember Prakash Osti, a representative of the National Human Rights Commission expressed dissatisfaction over its failure to take a decision. &I am just not being able to figure out why the meeting is called and cancelled time and again,& he said.

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Kathmandu, June 23

The government has decided to provide special hazard allowance to employees and technicians working in state-owned laboratories.

Employees working in laboratories will be entitled to an allowance not exceeding 25 per cent of their monthly remuneration.

According to the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration, the Council of Ministers had recently made a decision to this effect after employees of state-owned laboratories voiced their concern about the governmentmove to scrap all allowances except dearness and dress, as per its austerity measure in public expenditures.

The Ministry of Health and Population had tabled the proposal of providing special hazard allowance to lab employees at the Cabinet meeting held on April 30.

Employees at Teku-based National Public Health Laboratory and other state-owned laboratories had been demanding that they be provided with the hazard allowance given the nature of their work.

A circular issued by the MoFAGA to all local levels today has requested them to follow the Cabinet decision. The MoFAGA said the hazard allowance for lab employees would be borne by the concerned office from its annual budget.

Earlier, the government had issued Laboratory Hazards Allowance Management Guideline-2015, to protect the right and interest of government employees who operate various scientific equipment in a lab as part of research and experimental activities and are vulnerable to hazardous chemicals or radioactive materials and viruses.

The guideline has stipulated a provision of a seven member Hazards Allowance Fixation Committee headed by a secretary of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.

The committee will conduct risk assessment of various labs in government agencies and fix the allowance based on the risk level.

If the lab technicians and employees are on a leave or are deputed to other government offices for consecutive three months, they will not be entitled to the allowance for that period as per the guideline.

Any employee undergoing training for more than a month at a time will be eligible to enjoy the allowance of that period.

Lab technicians and employees will have to get their health checked once a year and the expenses incurred will be borne by the government.

In case of the need for medical treatment of staffers due to the adverse effects of chemicals and radioactive materials, while working in a lab, the government will extend all necessary support to the concerned employees.

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Kathmandu, June 23

Nepal Police today claimed that it had stepped up action against gold smugglers to bring them to book.

According to statistics released by Nepal Police, it arrested as many as 107 persons with more than 84 kilograms of gold in 11 months of the current fiscal.

Metropolitan Police Office topped the gold seizure chart with 36 kilograms, followed by Sudurpashim Province police (25 kilograms), Province 3 police (11 kilograms), Gandaki Province police (10 kilograms) and Karnali Province police (1 kilogram). The value of the seized gold comes to around Rs 235 million.

Nepal Police had arrested 90 alleged gold smugglers in the last fiscal. It said that the number of smugglers arrested increased to 107 in just 11 months of the current fiscal from 90 in the last fiscal as the security agency adopted zero-tolerance policy against crimes and criminals.

Deputy Inspector General Bishwa Raj Pokharel said, &We have intensified action against persons involved in gold smuggling and illegal trade, transaction and sale of the precious yellow metal. Therefore, more smugglers have been brought to book during the current fiscal compared to the last fiscal. We have accorded a high priority to the arrest and seizure, at the same time.&

Nepal Police said that it had not been able to completely control gold smuggling for want of hi-tech screening devices and detectors along the Indo-Nepal open border and Tribhuvan International Airport.

DIG Pokharel said that the security agency was serious about responding to the changing modus operandi of gold smugglers. Security and customs officials are on high alert to respond to newer modes of smuggling adopted by gold smugglers, according to Pokharel.

Concealing gold in the rectum, battery box, laptop, baggage, air-filter of vehicle, oral cavity, cargo trucks and inner sole of shoes are some of the ways adopted by smugglers. Smugglers also mould gold into jewellery and wear them to outsmart security officials. Some migrant workers returning Nepal are being used as gold carriers, who are promised a ‘good& wage.

The migrant workers are paid by racketeers from the Gulf via wire after the consignment of gold is received by concerned persons in Nepal.

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