The Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) has refuted the news item headlined ‘Army erases CNN-IBN, Star News tapes” which appeared in Saturday’s edition of the Kathmandu Post.
A press statement issued by the Directorate of Public Relations (DPR) of the RNA said that no RNA soldier was posted at CPN-UML general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal’s residence and as such no tapes of journalists were taken into control and erased.
Chairperson of the then Rajsabha Standing Committee and present member of Rajparishad, Bedananda Jha passed away at the age of 94 on Saturday.
Jha also served as the Home, Industry and Commerce, Education, Supplies, Law, Labour and Social Welfare Minister.
He also served as Royal Nepalese Ambassador to India.
A leader of the Nepal Terai Congress, Jha served as the Chairperson of the Administrative Reform Commission. He was decorated with the Trishakti Patta First, Gorkha Dakhinbahu First and other national and international awards.
He is survived by eight sons and two daughters.
Jha was cremated at Pashupati Aryaghat on Saturday with military honours.
Chairman of Rajparishad Standing Committee Parshu Narayan Chaudhary and the Committee members paid their last tributes to late Jha at the Pashupati Aryaghat.
Meanwhile, an emergency meeting of the Rajparishad Standing Committee expressed profound sorrow over the demise of Raj Parishad member Bedananda Jha.
Ending the bullish trend of over a one month, the index of Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) posted a decline of 0.39 points over the week due to political turmoil in capital and flagging investment scenario.
According to weekly data of the Nepal Stock Exchange, the only secondary market of the country, the Nepse index opened at 305.66 points on Sunday and ended at 305.27 points on Thursday, the last trading day under the regular lot.
The weekly data released by the Nepse shows that a total of 147,068 unit shares worth Rs 48.32 million were traded over the week. Some 64,583 unit shares worth over Rs 29.8 million were traded on the previous week.
Group-wise share trading data shows that the commercial banks group, the largest group in the stock exchange, saw a marginal decline of 0.81 points, as its index declined to 328.42 points from 329.23.
The indices of trading and development banks group fell to 142.78 points and 227.29 points respectively, from 142.83 and 228.46 points.
However, hotel group registered an increase of 1.34 points, its index rising to 181.26 points from 179.92 points. The index of insurance group inched up to 330.82 points from 330.37. Finance group gained 0.71 points, as its index increased to 247.24 points from 246.53.
Manufacturing group did not see any change and its index remained static at 274.42 points. The index of the other group remained unchanged at 354.13 points.
Of the total transactions, commercial banks group accounted for 82.53 percent market share. Finance group made up 11.20 percent share. Development banks group covered 3.07 percent of the total transaction, followed by trading group with 1.91 percent share.
Opposition activists have taken out ‘dog rally’ in Pokhara and Jhapa as part of their campaign to boycott the forthcoming municipal polls.
According to Kantipur daily, opposition activists took out dogs, with banners ‘Vote Me’ wrapped around them, in a ‘rally’ in Pokhara calling upon people to boycott the municipal polls slated on February 8.
Opposition activists also felicitated dogs as part of protests.
Scuffles took place between the police and demonstrators as the former tried to snatch away the dogs. Police later released dogs they had seized.
Similarly, in eastern district of Jhapa, hundreds of people took out a rally with dogs in local Kerkha market calling for boycotting the municipal polls. The protest programme was organized by ‘Independent Artistes Forum’ of Jhapa.
Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has notified of further hours of load shedding beginning from Sunday.
From now onwards, each customer will face 17 hours of power shortage every week. Till now, they only suffered from three and a half hours of such power outage.
According to NEA, the load shedding has been expanded to cover morning as well as afternoon hours.
When asked about the extension of the load shedding hours, an official at the Load Dispatching Centre (LDC) of the NEA said that they were compelled to take such steps due to power shortage. He however did not elaborate.
The agreement reached between India and Nepal for the power purchase is yet to come into effect in absence of infrastructure for it.
This is the first time the country will be facing load-shedding since the 144 megawatt Kali Gandaki ‘A’ became fully operational in 2002.
NEA said that it is able to produce only 470 megawatts from the total capacity of 540 megawatts from various power projects, whereas the country’s demand in the winter season is over 600 megawatts
The country is already importing nearly 80 megawatts from India via Kalaiya in the east and Tanakpur in the west.
Within hours of the return of Their Majesties King Gyanendra and Queen Komal to Kathmandu, local administration has lifted the order of `house arrest’ of three senior leaders of the seven-party alliance including former Prime Minister and Nepali Congress leader Girija Prasad Koirala.
(From left) NC Chairman Koirala, UML leader Oli and NWPP Chairman Bijukchhe (File Photo)
(From left) NC Chairman Koirala, UML leader Oli and NWPP Chairman Bijukchhe (File Photo)
Koirala was released in the afternoon while Nepal Workers and Peasants Party chairman Narayan Man Bijukchhe and CPN (UML) standing committee member KP Sharma Oli were freed in the evening.
According to Koirala’s family sources, officials handed over a letter to Koirala at around 4:30 p. m. Friday saying that the earlier order of house arrest against him had been lifted.
“Am I a free man now?” Koirala asked officers. “Yes, you are,” they said.
NC leader Koirala, UML leaders Madhav Kumar Nepal, UML leaders Madhav Kumar Nepal, K. P. Sharma Oli, Bharat Mohan Adhikary and chairman of Nepal Workers and Peasants Party, Narayan Man Bijukchhe, had been placed under ‘house arrest’ since Friday.
Family sources of UML leader Nepal said ‘house arrest’ against him had not been lifted as yet.
Meanwhile, a medical team from the Center of Victims of Torture (CVICT), Nepal –a leading human rights group– visited Mr. Koirala’s residence on Sunday to inquire about his health.
According to CVICT, the 84-year-old leader told them that he was taking medicines as advised by the doctors. “Except the tension one comes across when placed under confinement, I am feeling well,” the CVICT team quoted Koirala as saying.
The CVICT team led by Dr. Gupta Bahadur Shrestha comprised Devendra Ale, Rajendra Ghimire and Fanindra Ghimire as its members. The team will also be visiting UML leader, Madhav Kumar Nepal, and other leaders under detention to inquire about their health conditions, according to CVICT.
Local authorities in Kathmandu and Lalitpur reduced the night curfew within the Ring Road area by one hour on Sunday, starting at 11:00 p.m.
The curfew will remain effective until 4:00 a.m. on Monday, notices issued by the district administrations of Kathmandu and Lalitpur said.
The government had imposed curfew in the capital last Monday– two days after one dozen security personnel were killed in simultaneous Maoist attacks on two police posts in Kathmandu and Bhaktapur districts.
The district administrations in their notices said the security forces have been allowed to shoot anybody trying to break the curfew orders.
Local administration has arrested Khem Bhandari, editor and publisher of “Abhiyan” daily newspaper, published from the far-western town of Mahendranagar on Saturday.
According to reports, Bhandari was manhandled and arrested as he was returning to his residence from office Saturday evening. No reason was given.
The Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) has condemned the arrest of Bhandari and said he was being tortured even in detention as per the order of Mahakali regional administrator, Ganesh Sherchan. The FNJ alleged that Sherchan is trying to take personal revenge with Bhandari in connection with the news reports published in the daily.
The authorities have not said any thing regarding the arrest of editor Bhandari.
Bhandari was also detained for nearly two weeks in February last year after the royal takeover.
Meanwhile, FNJ has said it is sending a fact-finding mission to the Far-Western region to monitor the violations of press freedom in the region. Vice president of FNJ, D. R. Panta, will be leading the mission.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said at least 17 Maoist rebels and six security personnel were killed during an overnight clash at Faparbari area of Makawanpur district in central Nepal on Saturday. The Maoists admitted that they have lost 22 of thir comrades in the clashes.
(Illustrator : annapurnapost.com)
A MoD statement issued on Sunday said 17 dead bodies of the Maoists were recovered from the clash site during a search conducted this morning.
The death toll on the rebel side could be much higher, according to the ministry. Those killed on the security side included five soldiers and a policeman.
The gun-battle had ensued at Faparbari after heavily-armed Maoists attacked the security forces on regular patrol in the area at around 6:45 p.m.
Quoting local residents, the MoD statement said scores of dead bodies were dragged by the Maoists themselves as the gun-battle went on. One INSAS rifle, four 3-0-3 rifles, socket bombs, ammunitions and Maoist documents were recovered from the incident site, the ministry said.
The Maoists, on their part, have claimed that casualty on the side of the security personnel has been much higher.
Analysts say it is usually next to impossible to verify the claims and counter-claims made by the warring parties in the conflict that usually takes place in difficult Nepali terrains.
Over 12,000 Nepalis have lost their lives in the ten year old insurgency.
Former Justice of Supreme Court Laxman Prasad Aryal. (Photo source : blog.com.np)
Former Justice of Supreme Court Laxman Prasad Aryal. (Photo source : blog.com.np)
Academicians and jurists have said restructuring of Nepali state needed urgently.
Addressing an interaction programme under the series ‘Dialogue for Democracy’ being hosted by Freedom Forum Nepal, political scientist Krishna Hachhethu said that restructuring of the state should focus not on some selective sectors but it should be a comprehensive one. He said new Nepal after restructuring of the state should not bear loopholes that provoke and encourage people to take up arms.
According to Hachhethu, pre-dominance of Nepali language, dominance of high-caste hill people in governance, lack of efforts to bring dalit, Madhesis and indigenous people to social mainstream were some of the reasons that gave birth to the armed rebellion. He said the political parties and their governments over the last 12 years had failed to address these fundamental issues that were essential to widen the horizon of democratic process in the country.
Former Justice at the Supreme Court, Laxman Prasad Aryal, said though political parties lacked comprehensive package to move towards inclusive democracy, they should not be blamed for the failure of the 237-year-old Nepali state.
Aryal– who was a member of the constitution drafting committee of 1990– said inclusive democracy was possible only when feudalism ends and supremacy of the people was ensured. Feudalism restricts discriminated groups to join social mainstream and acquire educational and economic opportunities, he added.
President of the Forum, Taranath Dahal, presided over the function.