The Nepal government on Sunday rejected UN’s appeal and decided to have polling booths in schools for the February 8 municipality elections.Booths have been set up in many residential private schools, putting the residents’ security at risk. According to the Association of Parents and Boarding Schools, at least 25 residential schools will be turned into booths. The UN High Commissioner’s special representative to Nepal Ian Martin, UNICEF and the Nepal office of the UN had appealed to the government against booths in schools in view of a Maoist threat during the polling. Education Minister Adha Krishna Mainali and Foreign Affairs Minister Ramesh Nath Pandey charged the UN system in Nepal was going beyond its mandate, and the government was not going to heed their advice.Meanwhile, Maoists guerrillas have been holding three executives of Surya Nepal, a subsidiary of the Indian Tobacco Company, after they were kidnapped from Birgunj on Friday night. The insurgents have made not made their demands public yet, although officials claim that the kidnapping was done for “ransom”.
