BANKE: The Banke National Park (BNP) has put a ban on the usage of elephants for personal purpose. The BNP has made the rule following the Act related to elephant management.
Yubaraj Ragmi, Chief Conservation Officer at BNP informed, “We have stopped leasing the park’s elephants after the government’s ban. They will be used only for tasks and activities of the Park and conservation area”.
The Park has four elephants at present and domestic tourists would be charged Rs 5,000 each for a ride of six hours. Likewise, the charge would be Rs 10,000 each for tourists of SAARC countries, and Rs 20,000 each for tourists of other foreign countries, said Bishnu Thapaliya, Information Officer at the BNP.
KATHMANDU: Prime Minister KP Oli celebrated his 68th birthday by planting a mango sapling at the premises of the Prime Minister’s official residence in Baluwatar today.
PM Oli’s father Mohan Prasad Oli, his spouse Radhika Shakya and others, including Nepal Communist Party spokesperson Narayan Kaji Shrestha joined the celebration at Baluwatar. PM Oli also cut a cake on the occasion.
Meanwhile, Shakya planted a guava sapling at the PM’s official residence premises.
JITPUR: A woman died under mysterious circumstances at Banganga municipality-4 of Kapilvastu last night. The deceased is identified as Anita Poudel, 32. Since the body has wound on many parts of the body the incident is mysterious, said Superintendent of Police Achyutam Pudasaini, adding that details of the incident would be known after postmortem.
KATHMANDU: Road accident claimed a life at Basundhara this morning. The deceased is identified as Pradeep Neupane, 39 a teacher at a private school. The accident occurred as a public vehicle (Ba 4 Kha 8407) en route to New Bus Park from Maharajgunj hit his two-wheeler (Ba 55 Pa 299) at Basundhara. Neupane was rushed to the nearest hospital where breathed his last.
KATHMANDU: One person died from the injuries sustained during the bomb blast at the Ncell headquarters at Bhainsepati, Lalitpur last night. Singh Prasad Gurung seriously injured in the incident died while undergoing treatment at B&B Hospital this morning.
According to police spokesperson Uttam Raj Subedi, other two injured are undergoing treatment. Ayusha Manandhar is receiving treatment at Mediciti Hospital and Pratiksha Khadka is receiving treatment at Alka Hospital.
JUMLA: Snow deposits on mountain passes of Gamgadhi-Nagma section of the Karnali highway have forced the closure of the highway for the past one month. Around five feet thick snow deposits on the road has rendered vehicular travel impossible. Attempts to open the highway by removing the snow using bulldozers have failed.
Umakanta Adhikari, Chief District Officer of Mugu district said that the efforts to open the road were hampered by the latest spell of snowfall. This has led to the shortage of daily supplies including edible products and cooking gas in Gamgadhi market, the district headquarters.
Kalakadha road that connects to Khatyad rural municipality is also obstructed due to snow deposition since the past one month. To the consequence the health post at the municipality is facing shortage of medicines.
Foot trails to the district headquarters from Khatyad through Rara and Jeude is also blocked due to snow.
Kathmandu: Pradeep Kumar Gyawali, Minister for Foreign Affairs is leaving for Geneva to participate in the 40th Session of the UN Human Rights Council today evening.
Gyawali and his delegation will attend the inaugural session of the Council on 25th February. He will address the Council on the 26th of February. The foreign minister will have a bilateral meeting with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, H.E. Ms. Michelle Bachelet On the 27th February.
During his visit, Foreign Minister Gyawali will also have a bilateral meetings with his counterparts from different friendly countries as well as heads of the UN agencies based in Geneva. He will also visit the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva.
Minister Gyawali is scheduled to have an interaction with Non-Resident Nepali Association and Nepali community leaders there.
The delegation comprises of the Chairman of the Law, Justice and Human Rights Committee of the House of Representatives and senior officials from the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs and Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Nepal is a member of the UN Human Rights Council. Minister Gyanwali is scheduled to return home on the 28th of February.
The government’s new controversial bill on information technology has raised serious suspicion from different quarters. The new bill tabled today is passed by the House of Representatives (HoR) for discussion.
The bill shall replace two existing bills on information and technology. Many have viewed the bill as the government’s move towards authoritarianism by curtailing press freedom, the most important tenet of democracy.
However, defending the government’s move, Minister for Communication and Information Technology, Gokul Prasad Baskota said that the bill is not promoted by “vengeance against any individuals or parties” and that the motive of the bill remains to regulate the IT sector and to control cyber-crime.
International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its local affiliates have been repeatedly condemning the arrests of journalists on cyber-crime charges but Nepal police continue to arrest journalists on charges of cyber-crime charges.
However, media persons and human rights activists are least assured by the minister’s statement given the government’s record of attacks on the press and the freedom of speech.
Latest in the series is the government’s ban on Pashupati Sharma’s song titled, ‘Lutna sakay lut’ on YouTube. Famed folk singer was forced to withdraw his song from the YouTube that made a scathing attack on malpractices by those in power. While the government was not directly involved, it had used pro-government organizations to force Sharma into withdrawing the song.
The government had previously amended the Civil Code Act, Right to Privacy Bill and Criminal Code Act that is restrictive of rights being exercised by Nepali press.
The Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ)
On September 11, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology formed a 15-member committee to review and recommend press friendly codes within 45 days following FNJ’s threat to launch a nationwide agitation against newly endorsed codes. Despite the government’s promises of not interfering with the press freedom, the right to a free press has been repeatedly compromised.
Communication and Information Minister Gokul Baskota who is also government’s main spokesperson forced to shut down the 12-year old popular state-run Nepal Television (NTV) program ‘Sidha Prashna’ (direct question) after the presenter grilled the minister on a TV show over his property details. In the final episode of the show, the minister was in an embarrassing state for his lies on property detail and got highly proved over the interview.
Nepal Police have been harassing and interrogating journalists over news stories. This has seriously undermined the constitution right of press freedoms posing grave risks to journalists in collecting investigative stories and critical news against the government and ruling party leaders.
“I am not quite sure whether the government is tightening the grip on the social media users or the particular social platforms,” said Prof. P Kharel, a senior journalist. “I have not gone through the content of the bill. However, it seems that the government is hell-bent on curtailing the right to freedom of expression. Since Nepal’s constitution guarantees the freedom of expression than any other developed countries, restriction on social media will be unfortunate,” he stated.
On September 10, Nepal Police arrested Raju Basnet, Editor-in-Chief of ‘Khojtalas’ weekly on alleged cybercrime charges over a piece of published news about the ruling communist government’s powerful lawmaker, Pampha Bhusal.
Communication and Information Minister Gokul Baskota who is also government’s main spokesperson forced to shut down the 12-year old popular state-run Nepal Television (NTV) program ‘Sidha Prashna’ (direct question) after the presenter grilled the minister on a TV show over his property details. In the final episode of the show, the minister was in an embarrassing state for his lies on property detail and got highly proved over the interview.
Such government acts have only heightened the fears of the journalists regarding their rights to a free press. There are concerns that online media can fall easy prey to government’s action on the pretext of cyber-crime.
International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its local affiliates have been repeatedly condemning the arrests of journalists on cyber-crime charges but Nepal police continue to arrest journalists on charges of cyber-crime charges.
However, Kundan Aryal, Press Advisor to the Prime Minister, defends the move saying that the government does not have any intent to control social media users. “This is to see that Facebook and Twitter are registered in Nepal,” he said adding that even companies like Facebook and Twitter are interested to register their companies in Nepal. According to him, one of the intentions is to control the anti-social activities on social media. “Be assured, freedom of expression will not be controlled,” he stated.
Police administration has been overriding the jurisdiction of the Press Council of Nepal entrusted to see any complaints regarding the news related matters. However, Nepal Police have lost all court cases on cyber-crime charges against journalist as of yet. Nevertheless, its arbitrary arrests and intimidation of online journalist continue.
“The proposed new bill twists even the existing previous rights of the free press. The new provisions are regressive to Nepal’s democracy and if we fail to ensure press freedom at this moment it will eventually result in the demise the Nepali free press,” expressed Shiva Gaunle, Editor of the Centre for Investigative Journalism adding, “I don’t think they will register their companies in Nepal.”
In the last week of August police arrested Homnath Sigdel, 44, for posting a deformed image of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Facebook. He spent weeks under police custody.
“The communist government is indulged in massive abuse of the state power and is completely intolerant of dissenting views thereby restricting free press and liberal democratic values. It has also undermined freedom of religion and the rights of international non-governmental organizations, and the entire civil society. This hints of a grave danger ahead,” warns Dinesh Tripathi, a senior advocate, and human rights activist.
The communist government with a five-year mandate to rule the country is engaged in silently weakening the already fragile democratic institutions. This has raised alarming questions over Nepal’s democratic future and the future of press freedom, civil liberties, internet freedom, and human rights.
Nepal’s democratically-elected communist government has an almost two-thirds majority in both the houses – House of Representatives and National Assembly. On May 17, 2018, Nepal’s two main communist parties: Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist Leninist) and Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) merged to become Nepal Communist Party (NCP) to form the country’s biggest political party.
People had hinged their high hopes when the CPN came to power on February 15, 2018, since it signified political stability. This is because Nepal had witnessed 10 governments between 2006 and February 2018 as every government was a minority lacking a strong foundation to retain power. The current government headed by Prime Minister KP Oli is indeed the most powerful government in Nepal’s recent history. But its tightening grip over press freedom has spelled doom over the country’s future.
KATHMANDU: The Austrian government has announced of economic assistance for the conservation of Nepal’s cultural heritages conservation.
Visiting Austrian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dr Karin Kneissl, said Austria will provide an assistance for training related to the conservation of cultural heritages. She assured of immediate 120,000 Euros to take measures for the protection of heritages within the Lalitpur Durbar Square.
“The assistance reflects Austria’s goodwill towards Nepal,” she told reporters after meeting with Nepal’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Pradeep Gyawali today.
She also stated that the Austrian government was interested in supporting Nepal in the post-earthquake rebuilding efforts while expressing the desire to invest in energy production sector as well as to help in Nepal’s tourism promotion efforts.
On the occasion, she also labeled Nepal’s contribution to the United Nations peacekeeping missions ‘incomparable’ saying that Austria is committed to the promotion of multilateralism with Nepal.
Likewise, Minister for Foreign Affairs Gyawali expressed the happiness to get reassured by the Minister of Austria’s goodwill and support in Nepal’s development endeavors.
Minister Gyawali also apprised the Austrian Minister about the Government of Nepal’s plan to host the Investment Summit on 29-30 March 2019 and the 2020 Visit Nepal campaign.
KATHMANDU: Minister for Communication and Information Technology, Gokul Prasad Baskota said the Information Technology Bill is not prompted by any prejudices against anybody or any political parties.
Answering the questions raised by lawmakers over the IT bill at the parliament today, Minister Baskota clarified that the bill has no other motives than to regulate the IT sector.
“The IT bill does not intend to take revenge on any individuals or parties but to regulate digital information and curb cyber crime, said Minister Baskota.
Lower House of Representatives passed a proposal on the Information Technology Bill for a discussion on Friday.
Lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition parties had expressed their views on the IT bill.
Expressing his views on the bill, Nepal Communist Party Lawmaker, Nawaraj Silwal said the IT bill in question is timely and suitable in the context of the 21st century and added that the bill has been introduced to regulate social networking sites.
However, Nepali Congress lawmaker, Pushpa Bhusal has accused the government of bringing the bill to stymie the individual freedom guaranteed by the government.
Following the deliberation, the majority of the lawmakers passed the motion for discussion on the bill.
The next meeting will take place on Tuesday 11 am (February 26).