ITC seeks option to Nepal’s troubled Terai

September 18th, 2009 NEW DELHI - A narrow patch of forest, critical for movement of tigers and elephants in Nainital district of Uttarakhand, has been blocked due to an infrastructure project resulting in a serious man-animal conflict, conservation organisations said here Friday. The narrow patch of forest across the Gola river near Lalkuan area is the only critical corridor for movement of tigers and elephants between Terai Central and Terai East forest divisions.

September 9th, 2009 Not-for-profit public option part of health planWASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says a not-for-profit public option needs to be available as part of any health care overhaul. He says it would keep insurance companies honest.

September 5th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Under immense pressure from home and abroad over the attack on two Indian priests at the hallowed Pashupatinath temple here, Nepal's three-month-old government received a fresh blow Saturday with over a dozen disgruntled MPs threatening to withdraw support. A total of 15 Terai lawmakers belonging to the ethnic Madhesi Janadhikar Forum-Loktantrik (MJF-L) party warned they would withdraw support to the Madhav Kumar Nepal government.

August 13th, 2009 KATHMANDU - The use of the Hindi language for official work was dealt a second blow by the Nepal government Thursday with most of the ruling parties saying that Vice President Paramananda Jha, who triggered a controversy by taking his oath of office in Hindi, should be sworn in again in the Nepali language. Ahead of his five-day visit to India starting from Aug 18, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal had Thursday called a meeting of the 22 parties in the coalition government to discuss political developments.

June 24th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Within 72 hours of Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon's visit to Nepal to give a push to the stagnating peace process, the political deadlock gripping Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal's nearly one-month-old government eased Wednesday with the Terai parties reining in disputes and sending representatives to the cabinet. With the induction of six new ministers, Nepal's expanded council of ministers now has 28 ministers, including himself.

June 17th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Even three weeks after assuming office, Nepals new Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal Wednesday failed to reach an understanding with his major allies, being forced to induct only 10 new ministers after sharp criticism at home and mounting international concern. The protracted squabble with allies over power-sharing continued with the parties from the Terai not sending any new faces to the cabinet despite three days continuous negotiations.

June 17th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Nepals Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal Wednesday expanded his 11-member cabinet to induct 10 new ministers. However, the protracted squabble with allies over power sharing continued even three weeks after Nepal assuming office with the parties from Terai not sending any new faces to the cabinet.

May 10th, 2009 KATHMANDU - A 56-year-old veteran politician, whose forefathers came to Nepal from the border district of Sitamarhi in India's Bihar state, could become Nepal's new prime minister, succeeding caretaker Maoist premier Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda. Madhav Kumar Nepal, the diminutive and softspoken communist leader known for his trademark Nepali cap, has been proposed for the top executive post by his Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (UML), Nepal's third-largest party, that said it would try to form a new coalition under its leadership.

April 23rd, 2009 KATHMANDU - Dasharath Sawant, a 55-year-old soothsayer from India's Maharashtra state, had hoped to visit the famed Pashupatinath shrine in Kathmandu with seven members of his family. On the way, the group had also planned to do a bit of business, predicting fortunes and selling auspicious stones and herbal remedies.

April 22nd, 2009 KATHMANDU - About a dozen Indians were detained by locals in southern Nepal Wednesday and thrashed severely on the suspicion that they were kidnappers. Six of the victims were taken to Lahan Hospital in Siraha district in the Terai plains, a private radio station said.

February 13th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Within 48 hours of celebrating the 14th anniversary of their armed insurrection, Nepal's Maoist party Saturday expelled a top leader from the Terai plains following a split in the once underground party. Matrika Prasad Yadav, once the chief of the Maoist party in the Terai region and two times minister, was expelled for criticising party supremo and Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda and accusing the party of corruption and nepotism.

February 6th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Once regarded as Nepal's food bowl, the fertile Terai plains along the border with India were hit Saturday by a two-day shutdown as the Tharus, an indigenous community who claim descent from the Buddha, began protesting against the government's quota policy that allegedly clubs them with people of Indian origin. The Tharus, who were among the first residents of the southern lowlands but were evicted from their own land by migrants and reduced to landless slaves, have called the closure that will affect over two dozen districts in southern Nepal to oppose the new state reservation policy that they say lumps them with Madhesis.

January 17th, 2009 KATHMANDU - Lawmakers of an ethnic party from the Terai plains of Nepal Sunday began protests in the interim parliament, saying that the arrest of a fellow legislator Saturday in a double-murder case smacked of political vendetta. The Nepal Sadbhavana Party (Anandi Devi), a fragmented Madhesi party from the Terai plains in southern Nepal, told the house it would start a protest movement if Babban Singh, the 40-year-old MP from the plains, was made a victim of political vendetta by the ruling alliance.

January 3rd, 2009 KATHMANDU - Mulayam Singh Yadav, former Indian central minister and chief of the Samajwadi Party, arrived Sunday in Nepal at the personal invitation of President Ram Baran Yadav. Mulayam Singh Yadav, a former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, is accompanied by the general secretary of his party, Amar Singh, during the one-day visit.

December 25th, 2008 KATHMANDU - Nepal's Maoist-led government Friday held formal talks with an armed rebel group active in the southern Terai plains and signed an agreement as part of its ongoing effort to restore law and order in the troubled lowlands. Peace and Reconstruction Minister Janardan Sharma, a former deputy commander of the Maoists' guerrilla army, who is heading the talks with over a dozen armed groups, said after the nearly two-hour dialogue in pilgrim city Janakpur Friday that the talks were 'positive'.