KATHMANDU: The government has not disclosed property details of the prime minister and ministers until seven months after the new fiscal year started. A provision has it that the prime minister and ministers have to furnish their property details within three months of the fiscal year.

Sources said that the ministers have already submitted their property details at the Office of the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers. (Naya Patrika)

KATHMANDU: The Department of Drug Administration has recently issued a directive to stop the production sales, distribution and import of at least 16 drugs until further notice, saying that they do not meet the minimum standard.

Nepali medicines such as Povine (seven batches) of Curex Pharmaceuticals, Lotemp (three batches) of Ohm Pharmaceuticals, Monamol of Manoj Pharmaceuticals, Polar of Chemidrug Industries and Megafol of Sumy Pharmaceuticals have been listed by the drug administration as sub-standard.

Indian Drugs such as Zylo-P of Leben Laboratories, Reldine of Real Hygience and Kelvin of Leben Laboratories are also included in the list. (The Kathmandu Post)

KATHMANDU: It has been six months since the rape and murder of Nirmala Pant, a 13-year-old girl from Kanchanpur, but the government appears clueless on the status of the investigation as Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa failed on Wednesday to furnish a concrete answer to the House.

During the question-answer session in Parliament, opposition lawmakers asked Thapa about the investigation into Pant’s rape and murder and the progress officials have made so far. “Sincere efforts are being made to solve the case, but I cannot give you a timeline when the investigation will be completed,” Thapa told the House.  (The Kathmandu Post)

 Tourism Ministry, Aviation Authority cross swords over operational modalities

KATHMANDU: The Tourism Ministry and the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal are crossing swords over the operational modalities for Gautam Buddha International Airport in Bhairahawa.

While the ministry plans to appoint Germany’s Munich Airport to provide consultancy services for the operational readiness and airport transfer operation of the news airport which is expected to open by the end of 2019, its line agency has invited bids to operate ground handling and catering services at the airport.  (The Kathmandu Post)

KATHMANDU: In a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Ncell and Axiata companies to pay capital gains tax amounting to over Rs 61 billion to the government.

A five-member larger full bench of Chief Justice Cholendra SJB Rana and Justices Meera Khadka, Bishwambhar Shrestha, Ananda Mohan Bhattarai and Tanka Moktan has issued a mandamus order to the defendants—Ncell and Axiata—to pay the huge tax they avoided paying when Ncell shares changed hands three years ago.

Issuing the mandamus order in response to a writ petition filed by civil society members including Dwarika Nath Dhungel, the bench directed the two private sector telecommunications service provider companies to cough up the tax. (Republica)

KATHMANDU: In what could be the biggest incident of trafficking of Nepali citizens in a month, authorities in Manipur, a state in northeast India, and activists said that as many as 301 Nepali men and women might have been smuggled into other countries using the India-Myanmar border.

The rescue operation of Nepali citizens being trafficked to Southeast Asian and Gulf countries, which started on Friday morning, has gathered more pieces of evidence that show these Nepali citizens were trafficked into Myanmar via Moreh-India-Myanmar border-between December and January. (The Kathmandu Post)

The formation of a new think tank by the government last September is being watched by many as to how it will function and how its relationship with other similar entities within the government machine will evolve.

While government officials claimed the objectives and work scope of Niti Anusandhan Pratisthan, which literally means Policy Research Academy, would be completely different from the National Planning Commission, many have foreseen a turf war between the two entities .

The National Planning Commission is the government’s apex advisory body for formulating a national vision, periodic plans and policies for development.  (The Kathmandu Post)

Most of the advocates have asserted that TeliaSonera that has left the company after selling its shares must pay the Ncell tax. The case which is sub judice at the Supreme Court is at the final phase of hearing.  (Kantipur)

How much does a train set for the Janakpur-Jayanagar Railway cost? The answer is tricky as the unit cost stated by officials of the Government of Nepal and the unit cost figure forwarded by the Government of India differs hugely.

Officials of the Nepal government have stated that a set of five coaches (including double engine) cost Rs 500 million while the unit cost quoted by the Indian government is US $ 3.67 million. (The Kathmandu Post)

When Rosha Pokharel came across the Kathmandu Post’s report detailing Bodha ‘Basu’ Tripathee’s sexual abuse of students at Lalitpur Madhyamik Vidyalaya, it brought back horrific memories of her own. Rosha was also in the third grade at Lalitpur Madhyamik, nine years old at the time, when a teacher put his hands inside her tunic, rubbed her thighs, and occasionally reached up to her vagina. Only, in her case, the teacher who abused has wasn’t Basu Tripathee. It was a Nepali teacher at the same school.

Rosha, who is 32, now, graduated from Lalitpur Madhyamik in 2003 and works as a data scientist in the United States, but she said the memories of what she went through continue to haunt her.  (The Kathmandu Post)

A parliamentary sub-committee has wrapped up its month-long study of status of hospitals in Kathmandu making a sweeping statement that leading health care service providers in the country’s capital have not met government-set standards or criteria without providing evidences to back its claims. (The Himalayan Times)