BIRATNAGAR: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Health, Upendra Yadav today said he has not thought of quitting the government immediately.
Speaking to journalists in Biratnagar today, Minister Yadav said his party would continue to serve from within the government.
On the occasion, he justified the government’s decision to ban the activities of the Biplab-led faction saying that it was the duty of the government. He said no group, in any pretext, will be allowed to terrorize people.
In another context, Minister Yadav, who is also the Chairperson of Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum Nepal, asserted that the term ‘referendum’ has not been mentioned anywhere in the agreement with CK Raut adding that referendum and people’s mandate are two different terms.
KATHMANDU: Minister for Communications and Information Technology Gokul Baskota today dismissed claims that the new information technology bill was aimed at curtailing people’s rights to expression.
Minister Baskota said the bill was brought to manage digital medium adding that the bill does not question the rights to expression. He added that the bill was brought to develop digital signature.
According to him, the bill aims at discouraging cyber bullies and crimes as well as curbing the flow of indecent contents on the internet.
Speaking at a program in the capital today, Minister Baskota said operation of social media without registration, and those media posing threat to national independence and social security would be banned.
Minister Baskota also stated that social networks like Google, Facebook and Twitter have evaded tax in Nepal. “Therefore, they have to be made systematic,” he added.
KATHMANDU: Rastriya Janata Party (RJP)-Nepal lawmakers obstructed Sunday’s parliamentary proceedings demanding the government to release the report prepared by Girish Chandra Lal commission.
The probe commission was formed to investigate into the alleged cases of human rights violations during the Madhes agitations.
No sooner had the session commenced, the RJP-Nepal lawmakers stood from their respective seats as a gesture of protest. The lawmakers said they would not allow the parliamentary session to run until the report was made public.
Party lawmaker Laxman Lal Karna demanded that the report be unveiled immediately.
The commission was formed by the erstwhile Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur-led government on September 18, 2016 to probe into the Tharuhat and Madhes agitation. According to RJP-N lawmakers, the commission has already submitted the report to the government on February 12, 2018.
KATHMANDU: Minister for Foreign Affairs Pradeep Gyawali is leaving for Argentina on Monday to attend the Second High-level United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation to be held in Buenos Aires from 20 to 22 March 2019.
Foreign Minister Gyawali is scheduled to deliver Nepal’s national statement at the plenary of the Conference on the role of South-South Cooperation and the Implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: Challenges and Opportunities, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA).
A statement issued by MoFA said Gyawali is also scheduled to participate in a High Level Dialogue with Asian Countries to be organized by the Argentinean Foreign Minister on 21 March.
He will also engage in bilateral meetings with his counterparts from various countries on the sidelines of the conference.
He is scheduled to leave for Kathmandu on March 23.
The United States Department of State in its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2018 has included Nepal’s freedom of expression, freedom of the press, and human rights issues.
Even though Nepal’s constitution guarantees freedom of expression and press, the report has referred journalists, NGOs, and political activists who said that the government restricted media freedom by threatening journalists and news organizations that criticized the government.
Attributing journalists and NGOs, the report added that the new criminal and civil codes and Privacy Act criminalized normal media activity, like reporting on public figures and triggered a significant increase in self-censorship by the media.
“Human rights lawyers and some journalists stated that both the constitution and civil code enable the government to restrict freedom of speech and press in ways they considered vague and open to abuse,” the report said adding that citizens believed they could voice their opinions freely and often expressed critical opinions in print and electronic media without restriction.
The report has also mentioned the voice of several editors and journalists who reported they faced intimidation by police and government officials and that vague provisions in new laws and regulations prompted an increase in self-censorship by journalists.
The report has mentioned the barring of the accredited private media journalists from covering the swearing-in ceremony for newly appointed governors of the seven provinces in the president’s office.
Likewise, it has further stated about the firing of a talk show host who in May 2018 had asked Minister of Communications and Information Technology Gokul Baskota about the source of his wealth and how it was reported to the public.
The report has referred to the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ), which said that the government did not make efforts to preserve the safety and independence of the media and rarely prosecuted individuals who attacked journalists.
KATHMANDU: The government has stepped up security measures alongside scrutinizing the activities of the Biplab-led faction.
The Home Ministry has intensified surveillance on the group’s activities after the government announced the Biplab-led group as a criminal and violent outfit.
Security organs, including the Nepal Police, Armed Police Force Nepal and the National Investigation Department (NID) have adopted high alertness following the government’s directives.
According to police spokesperson Uttam Raj Subedi, high alertness has been maintained in all districts. Subedi informed that security personnel, who have been deputed for security of designated personalities, have also been directed to adopt high alertness.
The government last week announced the faction as a criminal group and decided to take action against any organization, group or person involved with it.
Likewise, the Home Ministry has issued a 35-day notice on March 15 to the group to submit all illegal weapons to the government.
KATHMANDU: On March 6, police raided a house at Kapilvastu and seized a huge cache of arms and ammunition, including an SMG rifle, bullet, magazine, and a pistol.
Prior to this, police acting on intelligence input confiscated illegal arms from Itahari and Pokhara stored in a house.
Police suspect that these illegal arms are intended to be used to intensify bombing as well as kidnapping operations in the country.
They have been using the arms to extort money, getting huge contracts, killing or poaching of endangered animals, kidnapping or demanding ransom, and carrying out illicit trade, among others.
“It is high time that the government stepped up vigilance and security measures to counter the use of illegal weapons,” Jay Bahadur Chand, a former additional inspector of police said.
He said that such a tendency could even lead to the possibility of misuse of legal arms. The use of illegal arms has been a growing problem in the country.
Police suspect that people with criminal background acquiring a license to possess arms has seen a rise with several of them changing their behavior and seeking out arms in a different manner.
They have been using the arms to extort money, getting huge contracts, killing or poaching of endangered animals, kidnapping or demanding ransom, and carrying out illicit trade, among others.
Says Uttam Raj Subedi, spokesperson of Nepal Police, “These weapons fuel criminal activities while spawning a culture of violence. Reports suggest ninety-five percent of the criminal activities in the country have been carried out by using such weapons.”
After the downfall of the Ranas in 1950, the government passed a law aimed at controlling the use of arms forbidding license to citizens for possessing small arms. However, during the Panchayat regime, some influential people having nexus with the palace started possessing small arms.
Currently, Nepali citizens can legally possess 12 bore guns along with one hundred bullets, 22-bore guns with 200 round bullets, and air-guns only.
The number of such ‘influential people’ acquiring license to possess small arms increased significantly after the restoration of democracy in 1990. The then cabinet authenticated the possession of such arms to a few influential and high-ranking individuals citing ‘security reasons’.
Currently, Nepali citizens can legally possess 12 bore guns along with one hundred bullets, 22-bore guns with 200 round bullets, and air-guns only.
However, the Home Ministry does not have the actual data of how many people have obtained the license to possess guns in the last three years. According to a Home Ministry statistics, a total of 34 thousand 314 arms, including pistol, revolver, improvised or home-made, and other guns have been found to be registered until 2015.
According to Ram Prasad Acharya, Chief District Officer of Kathmandu, a total of 11 thousand registered arms are in Kathmandu alone. He said the number of people applying for a license is overwhelmingly on a rise.
If the number of license seekers and arms possessors is to be considered, it will exceed the number of security forces in the country. Most of the arms make their way into the people’s hands and are made in the USA, Singapore, United Kingdom, Italy, and Germany.
According to Home Ministry data, a significant number of industrialists, political leaders, upper-class people, a few dons and political cadres are found to be possessing arms legally.
Likewise, all banks have acquired the license to possess guns. Each bank can own five to eight guns, according to the Home Ministry.
According to the Arms and Ammunition Act, any person wanting to acquire the license should submit an application in the prescribed form to the Chief District Officer (CDO).
However, the CDO may issue the license only if he/she deems it appropriate to issue the license with the prescribed terms and conditions.
BIRATNAGAR: Prime Minister KP Oli has ruled out immediate cabinet reshuffle.
Dismissing rumors of cabinet reshuffle, PM Oli said there will be no cabinet reshuffle at the moment.
The Prime Minister, however, said he will appoint a new tourism minister, which has been lying vacant after the demise of Rabindra Adhikari, who died in a helicopter crash in Taplejung in February.
In another context, PM Oli said the government was compelled to label the Biplav-led outfit as a “criminal group” due to the latter’s violent activities. “There is no looking back now. We cannot tolerate criminal activities in a democracy,” he asserted.
KATHMANDU: Populace in rural area is still deprived of banking facilities. Of 79 local levels in Karnali province, only 64 have got direct bank service.
Bank services are yet to reach a total of 42 local levels of the country. According to the latest economic details made public by Nepal Rastra Bank, branches of commercial banks have opened in 711 units of total 753 local level in the country.
The government plans to extend banking services to all the local levels within this fiscal year.
KATHMANDU: Leader of the Alliance for Independent Madhesh (AIM), CK Raut has called a national council meeting of his organization today.
The meeting is meant for discussing the 11-point agreement the leader inked with the government on March 8 and to chart AIM’s future course.
The two day meeting takes place at Lahan, the headquarters of Siraha district. Raut has announced the meeting venue and dates on social media.
In the message posted on social media, Raut has asked all AIM national council members to be present with their citizenship certificates.
The message reads that Raut feels sorry as the meeting was unable to incorporate the entire members of AIM. However, a meeting of all AIM members shall take place following this meet, reads the message.
The meeting is meaningful given the controversy surrounding the debate on the wording of the agreement. While the Raut side claims that the agreement mentions of a referendum, the government refutes the claim.