Nepali press freedom week will be held in the French capital Paris, a newspaper report said.

Reporters Without Borders is organizing the program remembering the struggle that the Nepali press had to face after February 1st and for its freedom.

Reporters Without Borders is preparing hoarding boards to display the condition of Nepali press.

A newspaper report quoted Vicent Brosel as saying that around 800 hoardings as big as any other hoardings that are in display in Paris, in this matter, would be displayed.

Nepali press sector is facing hardships following the February 1 royal takeover by the King.

The Election Commission (EC) has distributed election symbols to the candidates competing for the municipal polls slated for February 8.

According to EC, a total of 3,654 candidates are contesting for the posts of 4,146 representatives in one metropolitan city, three sub-metropolitan cities and 53 municipalities.

The candidates representing the parties received an official icon while the others received symbols as independent candidates.

The Commission has given approval to 72 parties to contest the polls. Of the total 3654 candidates, 1502 are party candidates while 2152 are independent ones.

According to EC it has distributed a total of 136 symbols for voting purpose. These symbols include cap, bicycle, airplane, matchbox, bucket, elephant, pitcher, trident, umbrella, telephone set, book, and spectacles.

Talking to Nepalnews on Sunday, Tej Muni Bajracharya, spokesman at the EC said the EC distributed symbols on the independent basis for parties that had not received the status of National parties.

“We fixed symbols of mayors, deputy mayors, ward chairmen and members on different categories,” he added.

The election symbol of national parties, which secured three percent votes in the previous election, will be secure for purpose of municipal polls as well.

All four National parties are not contesting in the municipal polls.

According to EC, it will publish a new timetable for the positions without any nominations once the first rounds of elections were held.

According to the Commission, there are a total of 1,942,999 voters in 58 municipalities.

The Commission has taken a decision to permit domestic and international organisations to observe the municipal elections. It has sought applications from those interested in observation to ensure free and fair election despite the call of seven party alliance to boycott it.

Two prominent professional organizations – the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ), the umbrella organization of Nepalese journalists and the Nepal Bar Association (NBA) – have announced to observe February 1 as ‘black day’.

Organising a press meet in Kathmandu today, FNJ officials said a national conference has been planned in the capital followed by a demonstration at New Road, a restricted area, in protest against the government curb on the independent press. Journalists from different parts of the country, who have faced arrests and torture from the state, are also scheduled to participate in the conference, they informed.

The FNJ also asked its branch offices in the districts to organise programs to mark February 1 as ‘black day’.

Speaking at the press meet, FNJ president Bishnu Nisthuri said that as press freedom is related to political freedom, it should not be isolated from the ongoing movement for democracy.

On February 1 last year, King Gyanendra sacked a four-party government led by Sher Bahadur Deuba and assumed direct power. Restriction on political rights and press freedom has been tightened since then.

Meanwhile, the NBA, the umbrella organization of Nepalese law professionals, today announced to mark February 1 as ‘black day’, saying that people’s rights and the rule of law deteriorated in the country after the February 1 royal move.

Issuing a statement, the NBA directed its 81 units around the country to organise programs as part of marking February 1 as ‘black day’.

Eight student unions affiliated with the agitating political parties and professors working at the Tribhuvan University (TU) have denounced the university administration’s decision to extend the winter vacation in all affiliate campuses in Kathmandu Valley by 11 days.

After a meeting in Kathmandu, the eight student organizations stated that the decision of the TU administration was taken “at the behest of the government” which is conducting municipal elections on February 8 despite boycott from major political parties. A joint statement issued by the student unions said the TU’s decision is against the rights of students..

They also warned to launch protest programs if the decision was not withdrawn immediately.

The TU administration on Sunday announced to extend the winter vacation, which ended today (Sunday), until February 9, considering the upcoming municipal polls. There are over 50 thousand students studying in the university campus and various affiliate public and private colleges.

Meanwhile, the Free Students Unions (FSU) of various campuses in the Kathmandu Valley including Tribhuvan University, Nepal Commerce Campus and Patan Multiple Campus also opposed the TU administration’s “politically-motivated” decision, demanding withdrawal of the decision.

Similarly, the TU unit of the Nepal University Teachers’ Association (NUTA) in a statement said the administration’s decision is against the interest of students.

“The politically-biased decision of the TU administration will also affect the academic calendar,” a statement issued by NUTA’s TU unit said.

Two Maoists were killed in a clash with the security forces in Likawapokhari of Khotang District on Saturday afternoon, the Defence Ministry said Sunday.

A statement issued by the ministry said the dead bodies of the Maoists were found during a search in the area. Security forces assume that number of casualties on the rebel side could be much higher, it added.

Some pistols, socket bombs, ammunition for different weapons, detonators and logistic materials were discovered from the incident site, the ministry said.

Friends Club (FC) beat Sankata Club (SC) 2-0, Armed Police Force (APF) beat Brigade Boys Club (BBC) 2-1, New Road Team (NRT) thrashed Jawalakhel Youth Club (JYC) 4-0 while Mahendra Police Club (MPC) were held to a goalless draw against Rani Pokhari Corner Team (RCT) in the matches played in the ANFA Martyrs’ Memorial “A” Division League Football Tournament today.

Mahendra Police Club continued its woeful form as they could not score any goals against RCT and the match ended in a goalless draw at Dashrath Stadium. MPC did press for a goal, but RCT were stubborn enough to tide their attacks.

In the other game played at the same stadium, NRT thrashed JYC 4-0 to provide some hopes to eye the top four position in the league. Yougal Kishor Rai scored an opener in the 14th minute and then there was no turning back. Sunil Subedi struck twice in the 22nd and 38th minute while Binod Lama completed the rout in the 59th minute. JYC were completely hapless against NRT.

Elsewhere at Halchowk Stadium, APF barely managed to outclass BBC that saw a late goal from defender Dhan Bir Chowdhary to seal the match. Ganesh Lawati put APF ahead in the 79th minute, but leading goal scorer Obagbemiro Junior scored an equalizer late in 90+1 minutes. The game was surely heading for a draw, but Dhan Bir Chowdhary sealed the match scoring through a spot kick in 90+2 minute.

In another match at the same venue, Friends Club rode the crest of Nigerian import Chuka and Chandra Tamang to beat Sankata Club 2-0. Sankata Club continued its pathetic show with three consecutive losses.

The Supreme Court on Friday issued show cause notices to the Prime Minister’s Office, the Cabinet of Ministers, the Ministry of Water Resources and the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), demanding reasons for the cause of ongoing load shedding across the country.

Acting upon a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by advocate Bhupendra Prasad Pokhrel on Thursday challenging the NEA’s decision to impose 17 hours of load-shedding every week, a single bench of Justice Pawn Kumar Ojha issued the order.

The bench has also put the case on its priority list for hearing. The bench, however, did not issue a stay order as demanded by the petitioner.

The petitioner had sought an apex court order to nullify the Nepal Electricity Authority’s notices issued to inform about the 17-hour power outage.

“The authorities do not have the right to cut off power once they have distributed electricity lines as per the Electricity Act, Nepal Electricity Authority Act and Regulation,” the petitioner claimed.

The petition claims that load shedding was been enforced against clause 19 of NEA Act 2049 and clause 23 of NEA Act 2041.

NEA is enforcing load shedding 17 hours a week across the country, citing shortage of electricity.

Photo source : akhtiyar.org.np
The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), has said that it had registered 540 corruption cases and claimed about 3.5 billion rupees as reimbursement in the last three years after the second amendment to the CIAA Act, which further empowered the anti-corruption body.

Of the total, 339 had been finalised while 201 were under consideration.

“The charges against public office holders include amassing property through illegal means, fiscal crime, fake certificates, and other corrupt activities like abuse of passports, vehicle registration and bribery,” reports quoted Laxman Kumar Pokharel spokesperson of CIAA as saying.

Those charge-sheeted include, among others, ministers, secretaries, police inspector generals and other high ranking government officials, he said.

“Of 60 government officials accused of amassing property through illegal means, five were ministers, two special class secretaries, three IGPs, 17 first class joint secretaries, ten assistant secretaries, four junior officials and 19 assistant clerks,” he added

Pokhrel said that the number defendants on charges of fiscal crime was 111, including a general manager and his deputy of Agriculture Development Bank and a deputy general manager of Nepal Bank Limited.

Likewise, 233 persons, including two first class, nine second class and 59 third class officials, were charged with using fake certificates to enter public services.

He said that the Commission would take action against the alleged as soon as it received complaints through any means. Stating that there was always room for improvement, he said that the Commission would be better equipped once it would shift to its new building, which is being constructed in Tangal at 150 million rupees.

The Nepal Teachers’ Union (NTU) has issued a 35-day ultimatum to the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) to fulfill its 16-point educational demands.

Submitting the memorandum to the Minister for Education and Sports Radha Krishna Mainali, the NTU has demanded that the government implement the agreement it reached with the NTU a year ago, or else the teachers’ body would launch further protest programmes.

The 16-point educational demands include providing free education to all students upto grade 8; free secondary education for women, dalits and disabled; and the establishment of a national and district level monitoring mechanism to monitor remunerations of the private and community school teachers.

Other demands are: providing full scholarships to the children of the teachers killed during the conflict, ensure safety of all the teachers, 25 percent reservation for lady teachers and adjustment of teachers’ salaries as per market inflation.

Reports quoted Keshab Prasad Bhattarai, president of the NTU, as saying that if the government did not pay heed to their memorandum within the next 35 days, they would have no choice but to announce further ‘decisive’ protest programmes.

Mohan Gyanwali, president of Nepal Teachers’ Association, said the government needed to join hands with the teachers as the latter’s demands were focused on increasing the quality of education.

Hira Prasad Nepali, president of Nepal National Teachers’ Union (NNTU), said that the teachers wanted to solve all problems related to the educational sector through dialogue. He, however, alleged that the government was bent on creating further unrest by arresting teachers.

In order to create awareness among the teachers and other stakeholders, the NTU will organise a rally from New Baneshwor on January 30 and hold an interaction programme on February 23 at the central level, while, at the district level, it will organise meetings and carry out various awareness programmes on February 14, the Union officials said.

Former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Surya Prasad Shrestha has alleged that the Election Commission (EC) has been carrying out its activities related to municipal polls under pressure from the government.

Speaking at an interaction in the capital on Friday, Shrestha said the EC had the authority to suggest the government whether or not the polls could be held but the EC could not take a correct decision in this regard and started the election process “technically.”

“If I was in the post, I would have suggested the government against holding polls,” said former CEC.

He further said that the elections could not be held at a time when nationally recognized parties were boycotting it.

“The main objective of the EC is to hold parliamentary election and form a legitimate government, ” he added.

According to Shrestha, it is useless for the government to claim conducting municipal elections as an achievement, or for the parties to create a storm against it, as it was only a small and local event. No international body would show interest in monitoring municipal elections,” he said.

Speaking at the same programme, NC leader Dr Ram Sharan Mahat said, “In the present context, there is no utility of municipal election,” adding, ” The civic election, as a political exercise, has turned out to be a total failure.”

“No one with political and social image came up for nomination in the election, even though the whole state mechanism had worked on war-footing for the same,” he said.

“It is like a wedding ceremony without a bride and a bridegroom,” he added.

Devendra Mishra of the Nepal Sadbhavana Party said, “Despite the murder of its candidate from Dhanusha, the party will participate in the election.”

Parashuram Khapung of RPP said the party would not participate in the poll due to what he called the government ’s irresponsible behaviour towards political parties and EC ’s freezing of his party ’s election symbol “illegally.”.