"JUSTICE" FACTION MEETS

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ At its meeting on Monday, the faction of the "Justice" coalition (Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party and the Mongolian National Democratic Party) heard a report from M.Enkhsaikhan, a former director of the "Mongolian Railways" state-owned company. It was triggered by some controversy over the new railway line between Enkhsaikhan and some Ministers and a plan to exploit a big amount of money from "Chingis" bonds for projects of railways. M.Enkhsaikhan claimed that it will be extremely useful to run the new railway between Tavan tolgoi deposit and the Gashuunsukhait border checkpoint, which is very close to China. "Otherwise, to construct the 1,800 km railway dam to the east will be just waste of money," Enkhsaikhan said. A head of the faction N.Battsereg said it is necessary to export coal to the southern market because trasporting coal by trucks is badly influencing an ecology and abolishes the price competitiveness. "One ton of coal costs 25 US dollars when carried by vehicles, but when transport it by railway, the price may go up by 2-3 times," he said, adding that the matters need more consideration. After this, a draft amendment was discussed to the law on State Great Khural, and its clause was backed on augmenting number of each Standing committee up to 21 members. "One MP shall belong to two Standing committees, whereas a member of cabinet--to one," the faction said. In addition, the faction considered a draft amendment to the law on National Security Council and a draft law on media freedom and united their opinions. B.Khuder