Nepali ex-princess leaves for Singapore

FROM CHINA VIEW

KATHMANDU, July 17 (Xinhua) — Half month after her husband ex-crown prince Paras Shah left Nepal for Singapore, former princess Himani Shah Thursday headed to the same country to join her husband.

According to a leading local website, eKantipur.com, the former princess, along with her three children, boarded a Silk Air flight to Singapore Thursday afternoon.

Police escorted Himani to Tribhuwan International Airport in the capital Kathmandu.

Former crown prince Paras Shah left Nepal on July 1 to find a good school for his children and home for his wife.

The former royal couple went to Singapore to admit their three children in to a school in Singapore.

The Constituent Assembly declared on May 28 that the country became a federal democratic republic. 

Nepal parties at war over first President

FROM IANS

KATHMANDU: Open war erupted between Nepal’s political parties on Thursday, the eve of the Republic’s first Presidential polls, signifying an end to the politics of consensus and indicating steep hurdles for the Maoists when they form the new government.

In a dramatic turnaround, the Maoists – who had earlier indicated they would support any candidate chosen by their allies, the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (UML), for the post of Nepal’s first President at the historic election on Saturday – came up with a candidate of their own, enraging the UML.

The former rebels chose a former revolutionary from the Terai plains, Ram Raja Prasad Singh, who had been part of an armed movement in support of a Republic long before the Maoists started their People’s War with the same aim in 1996.

Singh, whose family was close to the Indian socialist leaders who fought against the British occupation of India, went to prison as a boy along with his father for harbouring Indian revolutionaries.

In virtual political retirement now, the veteran leader was picked by the Maoists to ensure there would be no parallel source of power to try eclipse the Prime Minister, a post that Maoist chief Prachanda is expected to assume after the Presidential poll is over.

Prachanda, however, said his party would propose Singh’s name to ensure that the ceremonial post of head of state – who would replace deposed king Gyanendra – retained an inclusive flavour, giving special importance to the ethnic communities and women.

The rebels are also proposing one of their own MPs, Shanta Shrestha, for the post of Nepal’s first vice president.

The move came after the UML was dead set on fielding its former chief, Madhav Kumar Nepal, for the president’s post.

Nepal, India to cooperate in field of Himalayan Environment and Development

FROM ANDHRA NEWS

The Union Cabinet today gave its approval for the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Kathmandu in Nepal and the Gobind Ballabh Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development (GBPIHED) in Almora.

New Delhi, July 17 : The Union Cabinet today gave its approval for the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Kathmandu in Nepal and the Gobind Ballabh Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development (GBPIHED) in Almora.

The GBPIHED is an autonomous organization of the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

This MoU will provide an institutional mechanism for undertaking mutually beneficial research activities in the Himalayan region, enable efficient coordination and will ensure sustainability of partnership between the two organizations.

This will also facilitate the GBPIHED to develop as an interface institution between the Central Government and the local communities in the Indian Himalayan Region.

This MoU shall be valid for a period of five years.

Rare and unseen pictures from the Bhasa Andolan (Nepali Language Recognition Movement)

BOTH PHOTOS BY DIPAK SHRESTHA

A procession is lead led to the Governor’s Palace at Darjeeling to put through the demand for the inclusion of Nepali Language in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution

Mr. Ratan Lal Brahmin, an advocate for the inclusion of the Nepali language in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution try to pacify the people.

The Gurkhaland movement is crippling tea gardens in Darjeeling

By Hannah Gardner / The National

DARJEELING, INDIA // When Prashant Tamang, a 25-year-old policeman from Darjeeling, entered the Indian version of Pop Idol last year, he never imagined he would win, let alone reignite a century-old Gurkha separatist movement in the process.

Performing in front of a live studio audience in Mumbai, Mr Tamang’s biggest concern was to make sure his Nepalese accent did not come through as he delivered songs from Bollywood movies in Hindi.

Back in Darjeeling, part of the state of West Bengal, his participation in the show was taking on a life of its own, and as a wave of ethnic pride surged though the region, demands for a separate Gurkha state within India – to be called Gurkhaland – were reborn.

Today, Mr Tamang has been granted leave from his job in Kolkata, and is trying to build a successful career as a singer.

“I’m glad I kept the Gurkha name alive, but I don’t interfere in political things,” Mr Tamang said.

In his hometown, however, the emotion unleashed by his victory shows no sign of abating and has even triggered the formation of a new political party to spearhead the drive for statehood.

Since February, the newly formed Gurkha Janmukti Morcha, which translates as the Gurkha People’s Liberation Front, has organised a sporadic general strike, shutting government offices, businesses and the steep potholed roads that connect the region with the outside world.

Improving efficiency is a way to overcome supply deficit

FROM TIMES OF INDIA

India loses roughly 40 per cent of electricity generated, thanks to inefficient transmission and distribution systems. Theft and pilferage siphon off what could otherwise generate employment, output and growth. Experts say that if we only had a bank of baseline data that would be digitised and on tap, specially designed software would help detect losses location-wise. This would make it easier to rectify lapses and overhaul supply lines to minimise transmission and distribution losses. A committee has been set up to generate baseline data required to put in place a feasible audit and accounting system. In 2002, a bureau of energy efficiency was set up and an action plan formulated. An audit found that 23 to 46 per cent energy could be saved with better end-use energy management in buildings. 

   An expert committee on integrated energy policy in 2006 said that in the next 25 years energy efficiency and conservation would be the most important sources of increase in supply for industry, agriculture and transport, commercial and domestic use. Simple initiatives towards saving energy include replacing incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent lamps. 

   The recently announced eight-point climate action plan includes taking up energy efficiency as an important way to improve energy availability, but a more detailed, targetoriented plan would have to be spelt out for different ministries to implement. China, for instance, has a specific 10-point energy efficiency programme to increase future potential through saving and smart adaptation of new technology. India’s future energy planning strategies would have to factor in efficiency, since the country has a poor record in this respect.

Bimal Gurung inaugurates Tea Management Centre at Roy Villa

Photo by Himalaya Darpan

 

Roy Villa

Cheskha – From The Himalaya Darpan

Celibate snow leopard to get foreign female companion!

FROM IANS

By Vishal Gulati

Shimla, July 16 (IANS) Single at six can sure be lonely – at least if you are a male snow leopard! To help one such captive big cat in a Himalayan nature park, the authorities are scouting for a partner from abroad. This story revolves around Subhash the snow leopard, whose female companion Sapna died from disease last year. Both were inmates of the nature park in Kufri, 15 km from here.

“We are now planning to get a female snow leopard from outside India. Efforts are on. We are trying to contact zoos in the US and Hungary so that we can get a female snow leopard,” wildlife conservator Lalit Mohan told IANS.

Sapna and Subhash had been brought from the Padmaja Naidu Zoological Zoo, Darjeeling, under an exchange programme in 2004.

The zoo authorities at Darjeeling had told the wildlife wing of Himachal to keep the pair in separate enclosures to prevent further inbreeding as they belonged to the same bloodline. But Sapna died.

Said Mohan: “Since the snow leopard falls under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, it cannot be captured from the wild. Even in captivity, it is not available in surplus. So his companion could not be arranged.”

Besides Kufri, Darjeeling is the only other zoo with a snow leopard population but all these are from the same family.

“The main objective of the Kufri park is to initiate the conservation breeding programme, especially of highly endangered species. Subhash’s forced celibacy is a matter of concern for all of us. But very soon we will be able to find his mate.”

Pin Valley National Park and the Kibber Wildlife Sanctuary in the cold desert of Spiti in Himachal is the natural habitat of the snow leopard. It is also found in Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.

R.S. Kishtwaria of the College of Veterinary Sciences in Palampur, 175 km from here, says forced celibacy for a long period is not good for such animals and results in abnormal behaviour.

GJM asks Narbula to vote for UPA if Gorkhaland demand conceded

FROM PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Kolkata, July 16 (PTI) The GJM today asked Congress MP from Darjeeling Dawa Narbula to vote for the UPA government “only if the Centre makes a commitment on the creation of a separate Gorkhaland state.” “GJM president Bimal Gurung has categorically told this to Narbula over telephone today,” Gorkha Janmukti Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri told PTI over phone from Darjeeling.

The MP had been elected by the hill people and it is his “bounden duty” to work for the cause of the Gorkhaland, he said.

 ”We want him to vote for the UPA government in the July 22 trust vote only if there is commitment by the Centre on the creation of Gorkhaland; otherwise he should not vote in favour of the government.” Asked what the GJM would if he did not adhere to Gurung’s ‘instruction’, Giri said, “People should not allow him to enter Darjeeling.” Narbula who was elected to the Lok Sabha from Darjeeling on a Congress ticket in 2004 was not available for comment. PTI

Gorkha group issues fiat to Congress MP from Darjeeling

FROM IANS

Darjeeling, July 16 (IANS) The Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) Wednesday demanded that the Congress MP from Darjeeling Dawa Norbula should make Gorkhaland a pre-condition for voting in favour of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government during the confidence motion slated for July 22. “We want him to support the ruling UPA only if it decides to support Gorkhaland. If the UPA does not do so, then Norbula should vote against the government,” GJM general secretary Roshan Giri told IANS.

Giri said GJM president Bimal Gurung conveyed his party’s stand to Norbula at a meeting Wedensday.

The GJM, leading the movement for a separate state in the Darjeeling Hills, has been blockading government offices in the area since July 5. Earlier, the party organised an indefinite shutdown in the hills twice over its demand for a separate state.

Norbula was elected on a Congress ticket in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections with support from the Subhas Ghising-led Gorkha National Liberation Front(GNLF).

 But with the GJM coming to the forefront of the Gorkhaland movement, the rank and file of the GNLF deserted Ghising and joined the GJM.

 The Congress-led UPA government faces a crucial floor test in the Lok Sabha July 22 to prove its majority in the wake of the withdrawal of support to it by its erstwhile Communist allies over the India-US nuclear deal.

 

Sam’s due

 

FROM THE INDIAN EXPRESS

The Bharat Ratna has not been awarded since 2001. This could be a response to several different things: the political furore that frequently accompanies the choice of a nominee, perhaps, or the slight distaste that certain parts of the establishment continue to feel for anything that even vaguely suggests elitism. 
 
The only two awardees this century, Lata Mangeshkar and Bismillah Khan, were carefully apolitical choices. There was a time when there was a consensus about the sort of person that could be considered emblematic of what we wanted India to be. 
 
That consensus has been replaced by clamour. There is sustained pressure, analogous to the competition for social advancement being played out among previously marginalised groups, to reward figures from the past with which those groups have been traditionally associated: Jyotiba Phule, Karpoori Thakur, or, in one suggestion of truly inspired absurdity, Bahadur Shah Zafar. India’s highest award has become another battleground where constructed identities contend for recognition and respect. 
 
In one way, it is particularly depressing that the suggestion that the Bharat Ratna be given to Sam Manekshaw is being framed in similar terms, as an overdue mark of respect to a military hero — something to gratify the armed forces, who may have felt slighted that his funeral was not properly attended. Framed in this manner, it is too easy to ignore as simply another iteration of an intensely tiresome competition. 
 
This would be a mistake. Sam Manekshaw is indeed a genuine military hero, decorated on the battlefield. He is also a unique modern Indian icon, unique in that when we remember him we celebrate success, not just heroism; and also a genuine liberal symbol, who believed in and supported, in or out of uniform, in every way, the best parts of the Indian state’s ideals.

Border crimes, infiltration to figure in Indo-Bangla talks

FROM PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Kolkata, July 16 (PTI) Spurt in trans-border crimes, particularly in the Sunderbans area, and infiltration problems will figure prominently at tomorrow’s Indo-Bangladesh foreign secretary-level talks in Delhi.

Issues relating to the progress of work in the unfenced border would also be discussed at the meeting, West Bengal Home Secretary Ashok Mohan Chakraborty said. Chakraborty has been asked to be present there as a representative of the state.

Trans-border crimes, particularly from the Sunderbans area of Bangladesh, will be discussed at the meeting, he said. PTI AKB PB MD SCY 07161822 DEL 

 

Border crimes, infiltration to figure in Indo-Bangla talks

FROM PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Kolkata, July 16 (PTI) Spurt in trans-border crimes, particularly in the Sunderbans area, and infiltration problems will figure prominently at tomorrow’s Indo-Bangladesh foreign secretary-level talks in Delhi.

Issues relating to the progress of work in the unfenced border would also be discussed at the meeting, West Bengal Home Secretary Ashok Mohan Chakraborty said. Chakraborty has been asked to be present there as a representative of the state.

Trans-border crimes, particularly from the Sunderbans area of Bangladesh, will be discussed at the meeting, he said. PTI AKB PB MD SCY 07161822 DEL 

 

Over 3000 disappeared during decade-long Nepal conflict

FROM PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Kathmandu, Jul 16 (PTI) Over 3000 people disappeared during the decade-long armed conflict in Nepal, with the Maoists responsible for over 1000 such “missing” persons.

Out of the total 3,362 people who went missing during the civil war, the state was responsible for the disappearance of 2,280 and the Maoists were responsible for 1,008, while the disappearance of the remaining 80 has been blamed on other groups, according to the latest data provided by the National Human Rights Commission.

Besides, the status of 2,333 of the “missing” people has been made public on the initiative of the commission, but the condition of 1,029 people is yet to be revealed, said Deputy Director of the Commission Yagya Prasad Adhikari. PTI SBP WAJ 07161720 DEL 

No move to shift hill court powers to Siliguri: WB govt

FROM PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Kolkata, Jul 16 (PTI) Even as thousands of cases were pending and undertrials languishing in jail including two Czech scientists at Darjeeling owing to a ceasework by lawyers in support of the agitation demanding statehood of the hills, the West Bengal government today said it will not shift powers of the hill courts to Siliguri sub-divisional court.

“No step has being taken to shift powers of the hill courts to Siliguri sub-divisional court,” State Home Secretary Ashok Mohan Chakraborti told a five-member delegation of advocates from three hill courts, who met him at the state secretariat to demand that powers of the hill court should not be transferred to any other court outside the hills.

“These are wild rumours and I have given them in writing that there is no such move,” Chakraborti told PTI here.

Claiming that there was a move to transfer powers of the district court at Darjeeling to Siliguri in the plains in a bid to scuttle the agitation, the delegation gave a memorandum to the home secretary, Dipankar Dey, president of a joint action committee of three bar associations of the hills said.

The delegation also met the registrar general of the Calcutta High Court and gave a copy of the memorandum.

The memorandum claimed that the district administration was trying to transfer the powers of the district court to Siliguri illegally and without any jurisdiction.

Apart from the district court at the district headquarter in Darjeeling town, there are two other subdivisional courts in the hills at Kalimpong and Kurseong, while Siliguri, which is also in the district, also has a subdivisional court.

Lawyers of the three hill courts have formed a joint action committee in order to coordinate the protests. The courts have not been functioning since the last week of June, Darjeeling Bar Association president Amal Lama said over phone from Darjeeling.

Alipur road in Kolkata named ‘Bhanu Bhakta Sharani’

FROM GORKHAPATRA SANSTHAN KATHMANDU, July 16: Marking the 195th birth anniversary of pioneer poet Bhanu Bhakta Acharya, a section of the Alipur road in Kolkata of India was named ‘Bhanu Bhakta Sharani’. The ‘Bhanu Bhakta Sharani’, made possible at the initiative of the Nepali Consulate General, was inaugurated on Sunday by Mayor of Kolkata City, Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya. On the occasion, MP of West Bengal, Ram Pyare Ram, representatives of various Nepali organizations in Kolkata and local politicians were present at the programme. The visiting guests on the occasion garlanded the portrait of the pioneer poet and offered flowers. Speaking on the occasion, MP Ram Pyare Ram said the pioneer poet contributed to the promotion Nepali languages as well to the development of Nepal-India Hindu culture. Mayor of Kolkata city, Mr Bhattacharya said importance of Ramayana, translated into Nepali by poet Acharya, was increasing day by day in the social, cultural and literary sectors of Nepal and West Bengal. Consul General, Suresh Man Shrestha said the naming of a section of Alipur road as Bhanubhakta Sharani was another positive addition to the Nepal-India relations. The Migrant Nepali Association (India), the Nepali Bhasha Parishad and various other organizations organized a variety of programs to mark the birth anniversary of the pioneer poet. Various speakers at a function organized by Nepali Conference Delhi on the occasion of 195th Bhanu Anniversary in the Indian capital yesterday shed light on his contribution for the promotion of Nepali language and culture.

Meet of Telangana supporters

ANNOUNCEMENT!

A broad based meeting of supporters of Telangana would be organised on Osmania University campus shortly to drum up support for the demand on Statehood to Telangana.

Leaders of Telangana Intellectuals Forum, which proposed to hold the event, told a press conference here on Friday, tomorrow.

Protest over Singareni privatisation

FROM THE HINDU

KARIMNAGAR: The Nava Telangana Praja Party (NTPP) has decided to organise a mahadharna programme in Godavarikhani town on July 19 in protest against the privatisation of the Singareni Collieries Company limited and the retrenchment of coal workers.

Disclosing this to newsmen here on Wednesday, NTPP leader E. Peddi Reddy said that the NTPP founder T. Devender Goud would participate in the day-long mahadharna along with scores of coal workers and supporters of Telangana state at the busy cross roads of Godavarikhani industrial town. He said that they would expose the government’s anti-worker policies at the dharna.

He said that the Singareni was the lifeline of the Telangana region and they would take all measures to protect it from privatisation and ensure more employment to the coal workers and their children. To a query, he said that the TRS bandh on July 19 was coincidental and they would continue their mahadharna programme at Godavarikhani. He also said that they would be forced to contest elections if the situation arises for the cause of Telangana state and they would use the slogan of ‘our vote for our Telangana state’.

TRS emerging as smaller parties nucleus

FROM SOUTH ASIAN MEDIA NET

HYDERABAD: The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) seems to be emerging as the nucleus of smaller parties and Independents wanting to vote out the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government on July 22.

Union Agriculture Minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar set the ball rolling initially when he talked to TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao over telephone to seek the latter’s support in favour of the UPA.

But, the stand taken by Mr. Rao that the Union Cabinet first pass a resolution granting statehood to Telangana became a deterrent for the UPA camp to continue negotiations with him.

After the UPA gave up hopes, other parties and individual MPs were in touch with him almost on a daily basis. On Tuesday, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati called up Mr. Rao to seek his support in the voting against the UPA. National Democratic Alliance (NDA) convener George Fernandes contacted Mr. Rao over phone on Wednesday.

Mr. Rao is believed to be even prepared to support the candidature of Mayawati for the Prime Minister’s post, as she had favoured statehood for Telangana in the past. He is also planning to hold a meeting of smaller parties and Independents in New Delhi on July 20, for better floor coordination.

Asked if an alliance of parties with contradictory ideologies such as the Left, BJP and the Bahujan Samaj Party was possible, Mr. Rao said politics was always dynamic and there were no permanent enemies in it.

More ex-royals fly the Nepal coop

FROM NEW KERALA

By Sudeshna Sarkar,

Kathmandu, July 17 : Less than two months after Nepal’s last king Gyanendra was shorn of his crown and asked to leave the royal palace, his humiliated family has begun an exodus from the former Hindu kingdom, with his grandchildren and their mother also departing for Singapore Thursday.

Former crown princess Himani, the least controversial and most loved member of a family that became a hated symbol of feudalism and exploitation, will be herding her three young children Purnika, Hridayendra and Krittika, out of the new republic in the hope of sheltering them from the growing public bitterness against the Shah dynasty.

It will be exactly 16 days since Himani’s husband, former crown prince and the deposed king’s heir Paras shook the dust of Nepal off his feet and headed for Singapore.

The controversial former prince, whose appointment as the heir to Nepal’s throne after his father was never accepted by the people, flew to Singapore earlier ostensibly to find a good school for his three children.

The three had stopped going to their school in Kathmandu, Rupy’s International School, since May 28, when Nepal’s newly elected constituent assembly formally proclaimed the Himalayan kingdom a republic and stripped all the royals of their titles.

Nepal front-runner for president

FROM SOUTH ASIAN MEDIA NET

KATHMANDU: Former general secretary of the CPN-UML Madhav Kumar Nepal could be picked as the country’s first President if the Maoists’ central secretariat meeting scheduled for tomorrow morning gives nod to the UML proposal. The Maoist leadership is still insisting that the UML should propose an “inclusive” candidate from among women, ethnic or Madhesi communities for the post. “We have asked the UML leadership to propose an inclusive candidate for the post,” senior Maoist leader Dr Baburam Bhattarai told this daily. He said whether or not to accept Nepal as the Presidential candidate would be decided by his party’s central secretariat meeting.

Dr Bhattarai said they would also hold separate meeting with the Madhes-based parties, who are yet to take a stance on joining the Maoist-led government. “We have not reached any decision to elect Nepal as the President,” Dr Bhattarai said, denying speculation that the Maoists had agreed on Nepal’s name for the post. A UML source, however, claimed that Nepal’s name had been confirmed for the job and the two parties had even reached an agreement on power-sharing.

The source said UML was likely to bag Home, Local Development and Foreign Ministry in the new government to be led by the Maoists. The source said Nepal might file his nomination by 1 pm tomorrow as per the schedule set by the parliament secretariat. Election of the CA chairman and vice chairman would be held after the President’s election and government formation.

Terror in Terai after ex-Maoists’ threats

FROM GULF TIMES

KATHMANDU: Almost two years after the end of the Maoist war in Nepal and signing of a peace pact, the Terai plains along the India-Nepal border are braced for fresh violence with an armed group of former Maoists asking aid agencies to quit within 10 days. Besides the rebel group, humanitarian agencies, including UN bodies, are also under siege from the Maoists, who are poised to form the new government by this month.

A faction of the Janatantrik Terai Mukti Morcha (JTMM), a band of former Maoists, has asked the staff of development projects to leave Terai, causing grave concern to international agencies, including the UN.
After the Rajan Mukti faction of the splintered underground outfit issued a press statement, asking the staff of projects and I/NGOs from the Terai to leave the plains in 10 days, “development partners are at alarm stage and taking precautions while moving in field and other activities”, the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Activities (OCHA) said in a press statement.

In addition, the Maoists, who in the past undertook to allow aid agencies to work without any hindrance, are now increasingly targeting them. The OCHA has documented at least seven incidents of unacceptable pressure by the Maoists. In Dadeldhura district in farwest Nepal, an organisation ceased to plan projects after Maoist interference. In Rukum in the midwest, a Maoist stronghold, the former guerrillas forced an organisation to close its field programmes.

Cooking gas supply runs dry

FROM SOUTH ASIAN MEDIA NET

KATHMANDU: The Kathmandu Valley is facing severe shortage of cooking gas, as there had been no import of LPG from Barauni refinery for the last 12 days. Sanwar Mal Agrawal, president of the LPG Industries’ Association, said 500 metric tonnes of LPG had been loaded in Mathura station and was ready for delivery to Nepal. But that’s just a trickle compared to the average monthly demand of 10,500 metric tonnes.

Even after the Barauni refinery, which has been shut, re-opens, LPG supply won’t be regularised, as the IOC has told NOC that it would not supply more than 100 metric tonnes of LPG a day for non-payment of its past dues, says Agrawal. Local dealers have already run out of stock and customers are set to face an unprecedented shortage. Nepal Oil Corporation fuel stock too is worrisome, as NOC has imported only quarter of the monthly demand for July.

During the first 14 days of July, NOC imported 2,750 kl of petrol while the monthly demand is around 12,000 kl. Likewise, NOC imported 6,700 kl of diesel against the monthly demand of 30,000 kl and 2,000 kl of kerosene against the demand of 10,000 kl. In the past two months, the NOC had been able to import only around 40 per cent of the demand. NOC managing director Digambar Jha said the NOC was not being able to import enough fuel due to fund crunch. He said even loan from banks was not available as it was closing of the fiscal year.

Sobhraj’s fiancee asked to choose between love & life

FROM TIMES OF INDIA

KATHMANDU: Catapulted into headlines worldwide after the news of her engagement to criminal mastermind Charles Sobhraj became public, Nepalese girl Nihita Biswas is now facing the flipside of her controversial romance. [Inset: Nihita Biswas]

The 20-year-old is receiving threats that she will be kidnapped and tortured if she doesn’t call off her engagement to the 64-year-old and continues to visit him in Kathmandu’s Central Jail, where Sobhraj is serving a 20-year jail term for the murder of an American tourist.

The first menacing message on her mobile phone arrived five days ago. “There could be other ways to get famous,” the chilly note written in English said. “You are not famous. In fact, you are infamous. You know the meaning of infamous?” A second one arrived the next day. “I don’t know you,” the message said.

“I am spending Re 1 that is not given by criminals. Don’t try to find me, dear. You are going to be caught badly. So sad to say but be ready to face storm.”

More than a decade after Charles Sobhraj, once wanted by Interpol for crimes in over a dozen countries, put his past life behind him to try and become a successful businessman in France, the dangers and intrigues that he had hoped to bury have come back to haunt him — via Nihita Biswas, the 20-year-old Nepalese high school student who fell in love with him and got engaged to him last month.