Onlineparasi.com: April 2020

Thursday 30 April 2020

सीमा पर पहुंचने वाले मजदूर, छात्रों को उनके जिले तक पहुंचाएगी बिहार सरकार

बिहार में सीमा पर पहुंचने वाले प्रवासी मजदूरों और छात्रों की सबसे पहले मेडिकल स्क्रीनिंग की जाएगी और उसके...

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उत्तराखंड के पर्यटन उद्योग पर लॉकडाउन की मार, 800 करोड़ का नुकसान!

उत्तराखंड में नैनीताल समेत अन्य पर्यटन स्थलों के बड़े होटलों से लेकर छोटे गेस्ट हाउस और पर्यटन क्षेत्र से...

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Brazil’s President wants football to return, says players ‘less likely to die’ from Covid-19

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Inaugural season of The Hundred postponed to 2021

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Andy Murray’s cursing, muttering highlight virus video tennis

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Human rights monitoring panel formed in all districts

Kathmandu, April 30

Joint Human Rights Situation Monitoring committees have been formed in all 77 districts of the country to carry out monitoring of human rights situation during the adverse situation created by COVID-19 pandemic.

The committee comprises representatives from the National Human Rights Commission, Nepal Bar Association, Federation of Nepali Journalists and NGO Federation of Nepal.

Issuing a press release today, the rights body said high level, central level and provincial level committees had been formed.

According to the NHRC, the committees were monitoring the overall rights situation with special focus on the actions taken by the government to combat COVID-19, arrangement of medical treatment for COVID-19 and regular patients, consumer rights, freedom of expression, access to the judicial administration and citizens’ duties, among others.

The NHRC said the committee had already started functioning and would submit its report to the government along with suggestions. The rights bodies have repeatedly called upon the government to ensure that human right is at the centre of their emergency response to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Even as cases of COVID-19 are increasing at an alarming rate, the government has yet to take effective measures aligned with human rights standards to safeguard people, particularly the vulnerable and marginalised, read the release.

Meanwhile, the NHRC has called on the government to ensure protection of the rights of jailbirds, students and migrant workers. It had conducted monitoring of the human rights situation of detainees and prisoners in detention centres and the prisons in Kathmandu and Lalitpur earlier this week.

The monitoring team led by NHRC member Sudip Pathak found prisons and detention centres not implementing mandatory social distancing due to lack of adequate space.

The Sundhara-based Central jail is crammed with 3,164 detainees and prisoners against its capacity of 1,250. However, there was access to sanitation facility, health check-up, sanitiser, water supply and other measures against the spread of COVID-19.

“Though no case of COVID-19 has been detected in prisons so far, they are highly vulnerable to infection in all 72 prisons across the country due to their dilapidated infrastructure and poor sanitation,” the NHRC said.

It warned many Nepali migrants were facing problem of livelihood as they had been rendered jobless due to COVID-19 and were prone to the pandemic.

“Nepali trainees and students in various countries, including Bangladesh and Qatar, have been stranded and are facing difficulties. The NHRC has received complaints through telephone, email and information disseminated by mass media. Thus, we draw the attention of the government, especially the ministries of foreign affairs, health and population, and labour, employment and social security to resolve these problems in a human rights-friendly manner,” it said.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on May 1, 2020 of The Himalayan Times.

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Oli’s twin offer creates ripples in ruling NCP

Kathmandu, April 30

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s offer to make Madhav Kumar Nepal the third co-chair of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) and Bamdev Gautam the new prime minister has created ripples in the party, but it is not yet clear whether the PM, who made the offer in a bid to end the bonhomie between Co-chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal and senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal, will succeed.

The Dahal and Nepal factions have been pressuring the PM to quit at least one post — party co-chair or the prime minister. Oli had told the party Secretariat meeting that he would tender his resignation from the post of prime minister after the threat of coronavirus pandemic subsided, paving the way for ‘Gautam to become the new PM’.

Standing Committee member Raghuji Pant, who is close to Nepal, told THT that Nepal was not keen on Oli’s offer to make him the third chair, as its sole motive was to expose and weaken him. “I am for upholding the rule of law within the party and I am not for fulfilling my political ambitions through unfair means,” Pant quoted Nepal as saying.

Pant said Gautam had told the PM yesterday that he should resign as PM and let the party decide who should be the new prime minister. Pant said the PM’s offer was only a bid to weaken the Dahal and Nepal factions that had sought his resignation from either the post of party co-chair or the prime minister. Oli’s decision to bring two controversial ordinances recently has riled NCP leaders. Oli has fallen into minority in the party’s Secretariat, Standing Committee and Central Committee after Nepal, Gautam and Jhalanath Khanal sided with Dahal. Party leaders said Oli didn’t have majority even in the parliamentary party.

Another Standing Committee member Mani Thapa, who is close to Dahal, told THT that Oli’s offer to Gautam might help him avert the political crisis that threatened to dislodge him from power. The proposal to make Gautam the PM was first floated by Dahal so it would be difficult for Dahal to oppose it now or else Gautam could switch sides, Thapa argued.

Standing Committee member Mukunda Neupane, who is close to Madhav Kumar Nepal, said Oli’s assurance to make Gautam the new PM was not credible, as the chapter had already closed. He said Oli had no power to make anybody the party’s third chairperson and only the party’s Central Committee had that power.

Another Standing Committee member Ganesh Shah said none of the arguments of the factions led by Oli, Dahal or Nepal held water.

“At a time when we are dealing with COVID-19 pandemic, the party should not change its prime minister. Nor should the PM offer anyone party’s chair,” he said, adding the number of chairs would go against the spirit of unity between former CPN-UML and UCPN-Maoist Centre. “If the party leaders decide to go for third co-chair, then that could give rise to demand for more co-chairpersons in the party,” Shah added. Gautam could not be contacted for comments.

Oli is likely to face tough questions from NCP leaders on May 2 when the party’s Secretariat meets.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on May 1, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.

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Cyber Bureau arrests journo for social media post

Kathmandu, April 30

The Cyber Bureau of Nepal Police has arrested journalist Deepak Pathak on the charge of violating some cyber laws, after he posted an ‘outspoken remark’ about some top leader of the ruling party.

Pathak was arrested from his residence at Jadibuti in Kathmandu today morning.

Senior Superintendent of Police Nabinda Aryal of the Cyber Bureau said Pathak was arrested on the basis of first information report filed against him.

“Two persons had filed a complaint about Pathak regarding his outspoken remarks about a top leader of the ruling party,” SSP Aryal said. He however did not reveal the name of the petitioners saying it might affect the investigation. We have just begun our investigation and will be able to say something on the case after a few days.

Pathak, who is also a board member of Radio Nepal, according to a police source, was close to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and had posted a damning opinion about Nepal Communist Party (NCP) Co-chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal.

Meanwhile, Kathmandu District Court has given permission for the police to investigate the case, remanding Pathak to two days in judicial custody.
Pathak has been charged under section 47 of the existing Electronic Transaction Act, for dealing with issues related to cyber crime, since the country still lacks a separate act.

The Electronic Transaction Act prohibits Nepalis from publishing or displaying content on social media that goes against public morality or decent behaviour or spreads hate or prejudice against anyone or jeopardises harmonious relations subsisting among peoples of different castes, tribes or communities.

Those found violating the act are liable to be slapped with a fine not exceeding Rs 1 lakh or with imprisonment not exceeding five years or both.

A few days ago, the bureau had also arrested a former Nepal government secretary Bhim Upadhyay on the charge of cyber crime using the same clause of the act, on the basis of four of his posts on facebook and twitter. Upadhyay was later released on bail of Rs 25,000.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on May 1, 2020 of The Himalayan Times.

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Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin tells Putin he has coronavirus

MOSCOW: Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin told President Vladimir Putin on Thursday that he had been diagnosed with the new coronavirus and was temporarily stepping down to recover.

Mishustin, 54, suggested that First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov serve as acting prime minister in his absence.

Putin, who was listening on a televised video conference, sighed when he heard the news, wished Mishustin a speedy recovery and said he agreed with the proposed replacement.

Mishustin, who has been one of the main coordinators of Russia’s response to the new coronavirus, is the first high-ranking Russian official to publicly say they have the virus. He broke the news hours after the number of confirmed cases of the virus in Russia surged past the 100,000 mark.

“I have found out that the coronavirus tests I had done returned with a positive result,” said Mishustin, who was appointed by Putin in January. “I need to self-isolate, and follow doctors’ instructions. This is necessary for the safety of my colleagues.”

Mishustin said he would remain in contact with members of the government and Putin by phone and video conference despite his condition.

“What is happening to you can happen to anyone,” Putin replied matter-of-factly. “When you get to the hospital, call me. I’ll be waiting for your call.”

The broadcast of the meeting, which showed the men on split screens, lasted just under four minutes.

Mishustin will spend his self-isolation period at a hospital under the supervision of doctors, his spokesman Boris Belyakov said, without disclosing the exact location where the prime minister would be treated.

Belyakov added that all those who had been in contact with Mishustin would go into self-isolation and be tested for the virus.

Russia’s nationwide tally of confirmed coronavirus cases surged past the 100,000 mark earlier on Thursday after a record daily rise in new infections.

Russia this week overtook China and Iran in the number of confirmed cases arising from the global pandemic.

Russia has so far reported 1,073 coronavirus-related deaths, a figure far lower than many of the hardest-hit countries however.

Putin has warned the peak of the outbreak has yet to come, and the authorities have said there could be a new spike in cases if the population flouts lockdown measures during public holidays in early May.

The world’s largest country by territory, Russia has been on lockdown since Putin announced the closure of most public spaces in late March to limit the scope for the virus to spread.

Putin and the cabinet have been holding remote meetings to avoid contact.

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FNJ seeks aid for media houses

Kathmandu, April 30

The Federation of Nepali Journalists today submitted an 11-point memorandum to Minister of Communications and Information Technology, seeking relief package for media sector which is reeling under severe financial crisis in the face of COVID-19 pandemic.

The umbrella organisation of journalists has drawn the government’s attention towards the need to fulfil the 11-point charter of demands at a time when media fraternity is facing myriad challenges like never before.

FNJ urged the government to allocate necessary budget to all media outlets for dissemination of information, education and communication materials to raise awareness about novel coronavirus.

It also demanded that the government grant full exemption to media outlets on royalty and renewal fee, taxes and electricity, telephone and internet tariffs, concession in purchase of newsprint and other press materials, in addition to announcement of relief package.

“Some media houses have been resorting to lay-offs, paycuts, non-payment or delayed payment of salary due to economic downturn caused by COVID-19 crisis. We urge the government to take necessary initiatives to resolve the crisis,” reads the memorandum.

FNJ also demanded action on the part of the government to strictly enforce the existing Working Journalists Act-1993 and Rules-2007 and guarantee facilities provisioned therein.

Other demands put forth by FNJ include immediate formation of Advertisement Board and implementation of proportional distribution of advertisements, recognition of media as an industry, implementation of clean feed policy and guarantee of press freedom.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on May 1, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.

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‘We have no information’ on Kim Jong Un’s health: UN chief Guterres

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‘Yes, yes I have’: Trump claims to have proof that coronavirus originated in Wuhan lab

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पंजाब: केंद्र पर सौतेला व्यवहार करने का आरोप, आज कांग्रेस का ‘हर घर तिरंगा’ अभियान

पंजाब कांग्रेस की ओर से केंद्र सरकार पर राज्य के साथ सौतेला व्यवहार करने का आरोप लगाया गया है....

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कोरोना पर दिल्ली ने बदली रणनीति, हॉटस्पॉट जोन में अब 14 दिन में 3 बार स्क्रीनिंग

राजधानी दिल्ली में अब हॉटस्पॉट इलाके में रहने वाले हर व्यक्ति की स्क्रीनिंग होगी. सरकार की ओर से अगले...

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Horoscope Today, 1 May: जानें कैसा रहेगा आज आपका दिन?

किन राशि वालों का दिन बेहद अच्छा गुजरेगा, किसे चुनौतियों का सामना करना पड़ेगा और किस राशि में यात्रा...

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कोरोना: ट्रंप का WHO पर बड़ा हमला, बताया चीन की PR एजेंसी

डोनाल्ड ट्रंप ने गुरुवार को व्हाइट हाउस में पत्रकारों से बातचीत के दौरान WHO पर बड़ा हमला बोलते हुए कहा...

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मरीज बनकर एंबुलेंस से गया गाजियाबाद, निकाह करके ले आया दुल्हन

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महाराष्ट्र: CM की कुर्सी बचा पाएंगे राज्यपाल? SC पहुंच सकता है केस

महाराष्ट्र विधान परिषद की रिक्त 9 सीटों पर चुनाव आयोग की महत्वपूर्ण बैठक आज हो सकती है. मुख्य चुनाव आयुक्त...

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जब इस टनल के भीतर से गुजरते हैं तो कैमिकल की पतली फुहारें पड़ती हैं. ये कैमिकल किसी वस्तु को तो...

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Govt launches relief package targeting workers

Kathmandu, April 30

With the country still locked down and businesses shut for more than a month, the government has introduced the second phase of stimulus relief package targeting the public and also businesses hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

The stimulus package which was approved by the Cabinet meeting on Sunday and was released today has basically focused on providing relief to workers in both the formal and informal sectors, relaxation on tax payment period and availability of loan facility for businesses.

The government has decided to deploy informal sector workers who have been unemployed due to the ongoing crisis in public works that are carried out by the local, provincial and federal governments. Such workers will either be paid in cash on a daily basis or provided with food. The local governments will fix the wage for such workers. Meanwhile, unemployed workers who refuse to work in the designated areas will be paid 25 per cent of the relief or wage that a worker who decides to work gets.

According to the government, necessary resources for providing jobs to unemployed workers in the informal sector will be mobilised through the Prime Minister Agriculture Modernisation Project, development projects under local governments and the COVID-19 Relief Fund of the government.

For workers in the formal sector, the government has directed firms to immediately issue 50 per cent of workers’ salary till Baisakh and gradually pay the remaining 50 per cent salary after their businesses resume. In case firms face liquidity problem in doing so, the government has asked Nepal Rastra Bank to ensure that such firms get loans from banks and financial institutions at subsidised rates. Moreover, the government has also asked the central bank to manage loans from its refinancing facility for firms facing liquidity issues.

The government has also asked businesses in the tourism sector that have been shut to pay 50 per cent of the workers’ salary till Baisakh. It has assured firms facing difficulty in paying workers the remaining 50 per cent salary subsidised loan facility through BFIs or through refinancing fund of NRB.

For bigger business houses facing difficulties in paying workers, the government has said subsidised loan facility will be provided to them on collateral basis. In a bid to ensure refinancing facility for businesses hit by the pandemic, the government has also directed NRB to raise the size of its refinancing fund to Rs 100 billion. The central bank had raised the size of the fund by Rs 10 billion to Rs 60 billion immediately after the lockdown was imposed.

The government has also directed NRB to further reduce the interest rate on refinancing loans and ensure working capital loans required for the operation of small and medium scale enterprises at subsidised rates.

The government has also asked the central bank to extend the period for repayment of loans from businesses.

While the government has continued its earlier decision to offer 25 per cent rebate on electricity tariff to customers who consume up to 150 units, it has also announced 15 per cent rebate on electricity tariff for those consuming up to 250 units a month throughout the lockdown period. The government has also asked Nepal Electricity Authority to provide necessary subsidy on demand charge and electricity tariff to industries that have remained shut during the lockdown.

In addition, the government has also deferred tax payment period of all taxes — income tax, excise duty and value added tax — for the public and businesses for the months of Falgun and Chaitra till June 7.

The government has also deferred the payment of electricity, water and telephone bills for the months of Falgun and Jestha till Ashad (mid-July). The government has also decided to give 25 per cent subsidy on transportation cost to farmers to transport their produce to nearby markets. The government has also decided to monitor through local levels the implementation of its previous decision that asked landlords to exempt rent for tenants for the month of Chaitra.

On the health front, the government has assured special treatment to all medical workers and other related staff working on the frontline to combat the spread of coronavirus in the country and treat patients infected with the virus. Biswo Poudel, an economist, said relief measures announced to support businesses and the public seemed positive and timely and urged the government to effectively implement them.

“However, businesses are not just facing problem regarding payment, but also disturbance in supply chain and unavailability of raw materials. The government has failed to address these issues,” he said, adding that the government should also come up with concrete plans on ways to allow businesses to gradually resume operations.

Highlights

Unemployed in the informal sector to be deployed in public works
Subsidised loan facilityfor businesses facing liquidity problem
Size of refinancing fund to be expanded to Rs 100 billion
Clearance period for all taxes deferred to June 7
Deferred payment of electricity, water and telephone bill for the months of Falgun and Jestha till Ashad (mid-July)
25 per cent subsidy on transportation cost to farmers

A version of this article appears in e-paper on May 1, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.

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Trump threatens new tariffs on China as US mulls retaliatory action over Covid-19

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J-K: बॉर्डर पर बौखलाया पाकिस्तान, फायरिंग में भारतीय नागरिक की मौत

पाकिस्तान बॉर्डर पर अपनी हरकतों से बाज नहीं आ रहा है. गुरुवार को जम्मू और कश्मीर के पुंछ सेक्टर...

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Wednesday 29 April 2020

दीपिका ने बताए उत्तर रामायण के मायने, कहा- सीता विश्व की पहली सिंगल मदर

दीपिका ने कहा कि सही मायने में सीता विश्व की पहली सिंगल मदर है. ज्यादातर लोग रामायण में सीता को...

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Data on Gilead drug raises hopes in pandemic fight, Fauci calls it ‘highly significant’

The top US infectious disease official said Gilead Sciences Inc’s experimental antiviral drug remdesivir will become the standard of care for COVID-19 after early clinical trial results on Wednesday showed it helped patients recover more quickly from the illness caused by the coronavirus.

Preliminary results from a US government trial showing that patients given remdesivir recovered 31% faster than those given a placebo, were hailed by Dr. Anthony Fauci as “highly significant.”

“This is really quite important,” Fauci told reporters at the White House, likening it to a moment in 1986 “when we were struggling for drugs for HIV and we had nothing.”

“This will be the standard of care,” he said.

The US Food and Drug Administration said it has been in discussions with Gilead about making remdesivir available to patients as quickly as possible, but the agency declined to comment on any plans to grant the drug regulatory approval.

“I want them to go as quickly as they can,” President Donald Trump said, when asked if he wanted the FDA to grant emergency use authorization for remdesivir. “We want everything to be safe, but we would like to see very quick approvals, especially with things that work.”

The closely watched drug, given by intravenous infusion to hospitalized patients, has moved markets in the past few weeks following the release of data from several studies that painted a mixed picture of its effectiveness, and Fauci cautioned that the latest data still needs to be analyzed.

Gilead’s shares rose more than 5% on Wednesday to close at $83.14 and are up 27% so far this year.

Interest in remdesivir has been high as there are no approved treatments or preventive vaccines for COVID-19, and doctors are desperate for anything that might alter the course of the disease that attacks the lungs and can shut down other organs in severe cases.

Doctors have been eager for results from the NIH study because it is a large trial in which patients were randomized to treatment with the drug or a placebo without participants or doctors knowing which group they were in – the gold standard for clinical trials.

Gilead earlier this month said it was prepared to donate to hospitals its existing supply of 1.5 million doses of remdesivir, which it said was enough for more than 140,000 patients, although that number would increase if the drug could be given for a shorter duration. Regulatory approval of the drug would clear the way for commercial sales.

“We are working to build a global consortium of pharmaceutical and chemical manufacturers to expand global capacity and production,” Gilead Chief Executive Daniel O’Day said in an open letter on Wednesday.

He also said Gilead is looking at ways to potentially bring the treatment to a broader patient population by investigating other formulations and means of delivery.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, said partial results from its 1,063-patient trial show that hospitalized COVID-19 patients given remdesivir recovered in 11 days, compared to 15 days for patients given a placebo.

The study showed a trend toward better survival for remdesivir – 8% of patients given the drug died compared with 11.6% in the placebo group – but the difference was not statistically significant so may not be due to Gilead’s drug.

The trial’s lead researcher told Reuters on Friday that full results could come by mid-May.

“The full dataset will provide more clarity on how remdesivir can best be used,” said Dr. Aneesh Mehta, a researcher on the NIH trial from Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta.

‘GLIMMER OF HOPE’

Despite the excitement, Dr. Lawrence K. Altman, global fellow at The Wilson Center in Washington, DC, was not ready to celebrate the preliminary findings.

The new data “offers a glimmer of hope” that remdesivir has an effect against COVID-19, but more scientific analysis is needed “comparing them to other studies of the drug that have shown mixed results,” he said in a statement.

Also on Wednesday, results were published by the Lancet medical journal of a trial conducted in China that concluded remdesivir failed to improve patients’ condition or reduce the pathogen’s presence in the bloodstream. Gilead said previously that those findings were inconclusive because the study was terminated early.

“The drug seems to have antiviral activity – how much is as yet unclear,” Dr. Daniel McQuillen, an infectious disease specialist at Lahey Hospital & Medical Center in Burlington, Massachusetts, told Reuters. “Seems likely that it might need use with another antiviral agent.”

Combination antiviral treatments have proven highly effective against other diseases.

Gilead also provided data on a study in severe COVID-19 patients it has conducted in dozens of medical centers, which does not have a placebo comparison but tested the drug under five-day and 10-day regimens.

In that 397-patient trial, Gilead said clinical improvements were similar regardlesss of treatment duration, and patients treated early on with remdesivir did better than patients who were treated later in the course of infection.

Remdesivir, which previously failed as a treatment for Ebola, is being tried against COVID-19 because it is designed to disable the mechanism by which certain viruses make copies of themselves and potentially overwhelm their host’s immune system.

The company is also studying the drug in patients with less severe COVID-19, but those results are not expected until later next month.

The post Data on Gilead drug raises hopes in pandemic fight, Fauci calls it ‘highly significant’ appeared first on The Himalayan Times.

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WFP sounds food crisis warning

Kathmandu, April 29

World Food Programme Nepal has launched its first update report to track Nepal’s food security situation as the novel coronavirus and its secondary economic impacts are felt in the country.

As per the COVID-19 Food Security and Vulnerability update recently published by WFP Nepal, national food stocks in markets are sufficient to last three months overall as of mid-April, while national rice stocks with Nepal Food Management and Trading Company stand at 23,675 metric tonnes with procurement planned for another 10,000 metric tonnes.

Preliminary advance estimates of wheat production in the country show a slight increase from last year, driven by favourable rainfall during the planting and maturity periods of crop growth in December-February. March-April marks the start of the wheat harvest, but restrictions on movement of people, combined with absence or shortage of daily agricultural wage labour and machinery from other regions could impact the final harvest. Significant reductions in the harvest of wheat and winter crops, and in the planting of rice and summer crops could have serious implications for food security in the coming months, read the report.

The nationwide lockdown and slowdowns induced by COVID-19 in all major sectors of the economy is expected to affect Nepal’s most vulnerable and food insecure populations. Massive slowdown in tourism, service and manufacturing sectors have resulted in widespread work stoppages and layoffs. Around 62 per cent workers in Nepal are employed in the informal sector, with little recourse to social insurance.

According to the report, markets continue to remain open in most cases at reduced hours (2-4 hours per day) across the country. Food commodity prices have increased during the lockdown period. In most of the districts surveyed, increases in cereals and pulses prices were moderate, rarely exceeding 20 per cent. However, vegetable prices more than doubled in several districts. The price rise is attributed to slowdown in market supply, as low circulation of goods leads to scarcity, and supply cannot keep up with demand. Other perishable food items such as dairy products and eggs are encountering similar hardships, with many instances of stocks spoiling at the farms as farmers struggle to market their goods.

While overall market supplies are sufficient for the time being, if this situation continues beyond a month, subsequent depletion of cereal and pulses stock, especially in remote markets, could push staple prices even higher in the absence of decisive government intervention.

The lockdown is creating market failure, with instances of farmers having goods spoil at the farm even as market prices soar. Households affected by the lockdown, work stoppages and movement restrictions are in most instances resorting to coping strategies. This includes relying on less preferred, less expensive foods, borrowing money or food from friends/relatives, and reducing the number of meals per day.

“If the present trend continues, food insecurity is expected to increase among households engaged in informal labour, precarious labour, service sector and daily wage work, as well as households with returnee migrants and income losses,” the report warned.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on April 30, 2020 of The Himalayan Times.

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Cities face 100 million ‘new poor’ in post-pandemic world: experts

BOGOTA: About 100 million people living in cities worldwide will likely fall into poverty due to the coronavirus pandemic, urban experts said on Wednesday, calling for mapping tools to identify vulnerable communities and investment focusing on slum areas.

Densely populated cities are poised at the frontline of the contagious outbreak, hard hit where people live in poverty with little or no running water, sewage systems or health care access, said experts at the World Bank, the World Resources Institute (WRI) and other urban-study groups.

“Within cities we need to focus on those who need help the most, the poor and the vulnerable have been very seriously affected,” said Sameh Wahba, global director for the World Bank’s urban, disaster risk management, resilience and land global practice.

“Our estimate is that there will be possibly upward of a 100 million so-called ‘new poor’ on account of loses of jobs and livelihoods and income,” Wahba told a webinar with members of the media.

He warned that cities will see a drop of between 15% to 25% in tax revenues next year, making it difficult for authorities to invest in improving slum areas.

Many cities lack accurate data about slum areas, making it difficult to know where investments should be targeted, the experts said.

A World Bank mapping tool using artificial intelligence, high-resolution satellite imagery and three-dimensional images is helping cities find areas with communal water taps and toilets or where social distancing is impractical because of overcrowding, Wahba said.

So far the tool has been used to produce such maps for Cairo, Mumbai and Kinshasa.

Without data, government food and financial aid is not reaching slum areas where about one billion people live worldwide, said activist Sheela Patel.

“Whether you are a slum dweller, or a pavement dweller, a squatter or a homeless person, and if you are migrant, you are presently completely excluded from any form of entitlement in the city,” said Patel, head of the Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centers, an Indian non-profit that campaigns for land and slum dweller rights.

Reaching vulnerable communities during and after the pandemic means recognizing how systems such as water, health, housing, transport and the economy are connected, said Ani Dasgupta, global director of the WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities.

Investments must ensure that systems are integrated and not be “simple top-down central projects,” he said.

“We have to learn from this,” said Dasgupta. “We actually have to do things differently.”

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Sapkota urges PM to call budget session

Kathmandu, April 29

Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota today met Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and urged him to call the budget session of the Parliament.

According to Sapkota’s Press Adviser Shreedhar Neupane, the speaker discussed with the PM three issues — budget session of the Parliament, principles and priorities of the national budget and the government’s policies and programmes.

Sapkota, Oli and Chair of National Assembly Ganesh Prasad Timilsina today went to the Parliament building to observe the preparation for the next session where social distancing rules will have to be applied due to the threat of coronavirus.

Spokesperson for the Parliament Secretariat Dasharath Dhamala told THT that the budget session of the Parliament should be called within a few days as regulations governing proceedings of the House of Representatives and the National Assembly mandated that prebudget discussion should end 15 days before the presentation of the new fiscal budget in the HoR.

The constitution stipulates that the budget shall be presented in the House every year on Jestha 15 (May 28 this year). Dhamala said prebudget discussion would take at least three to four days and, therefore, the government would have to call the new session of the Parliament in a manner that would allow lawmakers to end their prebudget discussion by May 10. Dhamala said the government would also have to give at least a week’s time to lawmakers to gather in Kathmandu, considering the threat of COVID-19 and extended lockdown.

Dhamala said the PM visited the Parliament building to assess the secretariat’s preparation for holding parliamentary meetings and expressed satisfaction. The Parliament Secretariat will ensure that lawmakers sit at a gap of at least two feet from each other in the HoR and maintain a gap of two-and-a-half feet in the National Assembly. “Since the NA hall is more spacious than the HoR hall, we have more space between chairs in the NA,” Dhamala said. He added that the secretariat was also mulling over establishing a disinfectant gate on the Parliament premises.

“Secretariat staff will also screen lawmakers for fever and any other visible signs of infection,” Dhamala said.

A Parliament Secretariat staff said all parties needed to ensure that sick lawmakers did not attend Parliament.

Last year, President Bidhya Devi Bhandari had summoned the budget session of the Parliament on April 29.

The budget session endorses the government’s policies and programmes and fiscal budget.

As per the constitutional provision, the government is required to present the fiscal budget on May 29 every year.

Minister of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Shiva Maya Tumbahangphe told THT that the government was dwelling on calling the budget session. “We’ll have to take into account the ongoing lockdown, the situation in our neighbourhood and other foreign countries. The government may call the new session around May 7. We still have to shorten the length of pre-budget discussion to meet the legal requirement,” she added.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on April 30, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.

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Secretariat of ruling party to meet again on Saturday

Twenty Standing Committee members have sought SC meet, but Sectt fails to fix date for the same

Kathmandu, April 29

A meeting of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP)’s Secretariat today failed to agree on a date for calling the Standing Committee meeting to put pressure on Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli to resign.

Twenty members of the Standing Committee close to party Co-chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal and senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal have sought a meeting of the party’s Standing Committee pronto.

Party Spokesperson Narayan Kaji Shrestha told THT that the meeting failed to fix a date for Standing Committee meeting. “We have decided to hold the next Secretariat meeting on May 2. We’ll be discussing Standing Committee issues on May 2,” Shrestha said. He said all nine office bearers of the Secretariat put forth their views in today’s meeting.

When asked if any Secretariat member sought the PM’s resignation in today’s meeting, a member close to Dahal said, “Majority members of the Standing Committee want the PM to resign.”

Rift between Oli and leaders close to Dahal and Nepal has widened after the PM brought two controversial ordinances — one to facilitate split in parties and the other to allow the Constitutional Council to take decisions on the basis of majority. The Dahal and Nepal factions have accused the PM of taking unilateral decisions without following the party’s directives.

Oli has fallen into minority in the Secretariat, Standing Committee and Central Committee. He is trying hard to muster enough support in the Parliamentary Party to stay on as the PM. The ruling NCP has 174 members in the House of Representatives and the PM needs to have the backing of at least 88 members in the PP to continue to hold the PM’s post.

The PM’s faction today started collecting signatures of lawmakers to prove majority in the Parliamentary Party. Both sides are trying to pull lawmakers of the rival faction into their camp. Oli succeeded in bringing Minister of Industry, Commerce and Supplies Lekhraj Bhatta into his camp. Bhatta, a former Maoist leader, was with Dahal not long ago.

Ruling party member of the House of Representatives Til Bahadur Mahat told THT that he and some other NCP lawmakers met the prime minister today at his official residence and signed a document expressing their support to Oli.

“As the prime minister was appointed for a period of five years, he should be allowed to complete his tenure. We went to the PM to express our support,” Mahat added. More than 92 lawmakers from both the houses – the HoR and the National Assembly — have voluntarily signed the solidarity book at the PM’s residence.

Another ruling party lawmaker, Khagaraj Adhikari, told THT that the PM should be allowed to rule for a full five-year term, adding that if he was removed, it could invite political instability. He said he had not been asked to sign the document expressing his support to the PM yet, but if the PM asked him to do so, he would sign the document without any hesitation.

NCP leader Beduram Bhusal, who is close to Madhav Kumar Nepal, said the signature campaign would not help the PM as the party’s bodies could always take a decision to censure him.

Meanwhile, the Dahal and Nepal factions have asked lawmakers on their side to come to Kathmandu. In fact, most of them have already arrived in the capital.

The post Secretariat of ruling party to meet again on Saturday appeared first on The Himalayan Times.

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UK death toll 27,241, Labour leader Starmer says

LONDON: The United Kingdom’s COVID-19 death toll is probably higher than 27,241, making it one of the worst-hit countries in Europe, Labour Party leader Keir Starmer said on Wednesday as he questioned the government’s response to the outbreak.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government is facing growing criticism for its response to the outbreak as the death toll continues to rise.

While the government’s chief scientific adviser said last month that keeping the death toll below 20,000 would be a “good outcome”, the hospital toll passed that milestone last week.

Broader data published on Tuesday showed fatalities topped 24,000 nine days ago, but Starmer said his calculations showed 27,241 had died.

“We are possibly on track to have one of the worst death rates in Europe,” Starmer told parliament. “Far from success, these latest figures are truly dreadful.”

Starmer appears to have added the latest hospital death toll of 21,698 to the most recent English care home death toll of 4,343 and the non-hospital COVID-19 death tolls in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

If his calculations are accurate, the United Kingdom would have the second or third worst official death toll in the world after the United States and possibly Italy.

The United States has a death toll of 58,605, Italy 27,359, Spain 23,822 and France 23,660, according to a Reuters tally.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, standing in for the prime minister during questions in parliament, said it was “far too early” to make international comparisons.

“If they are to be done, they should be done on a per capita basis,” he said.

Other countries measure death numbers in different ways, he added.

‘TOO SLOW’

Starmer, after speaking to Johnson, said in a letter to the prime minister that mistakes had been made in the government’s response – including being too slow to impose a lockdown – and called for Johnson to publish an exit strategy.

“We were too slow to enter the lockdown, too slow to increase the uptake of testing and too slow to get personal protective equipment to frontline NHS and care staff,” Starmer said in the letter.

“We have already seen the consequences of poor planning and preparation. This cannot happen again.”

Johnson initially resisted introducing the lockdown but changed course when projections showed a quarter of a million people could die.

Since the lockdown started on March 23, his government has faced criticism from opposition parties and some doctors for initially delaying measures, for limited testing capabilities, and for a lack of protective equipment for health workers.

Government, party and scientific advisers are divided over how and when Britain should start returning to work, even in limited form. The government is next due to review social distancing measures on May 7.

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Clarifications sought from Radio Nepal chief Karki

Asked why and how he allowed invectives against PM
Told to justify his performance

Kathmandu, April 28

The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has sought clarification from Executive Director of state owned Radio Nepal Suresh Kumar Karki, over his efficiency and a recent interview with former prime minister and Samajwadi Janata Party-Nepal leader Baburam Bhattarai.

Bhattarai, who was a guest on a live radio talk show called ‘Antarsambad’ hosted by its news chief Nawaraj Lamsal yesterday, had termed Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli a Bhasmasur, a Hindu demon king having the power to reduce anyone to ashes. In the interview, he had also appealed to all and sundry to erase him from the history of Nepal in response to Oli’s move promulgating two controversial ordinances.

Under mounting pressure from the government, Karki had removed the interview from Radio Nepal’s archive and issued a public apology for the language used by Bhattarai against Oli. However, the public apology was not enough and the MoICT sought two separate clarifications from Karki for itself and the Council of Ministers.

A letter seeking clarification from the MoICT refers to its objection to the interview with Bhattarai, while another letter questions Karki’s ‘below the mark performance’ as executive director of the state-owned media. “You are requested to furnish clarification within three days as to why and how you invited former prime minister Bhattarai to the live radio programme in which he used invectives and slanderous language against Prime Minister Oli,” read yesterday’s letter from the MoICT.

Another letter sent on behalf of the Council of Ministers today has served Karki one week to furnish clarification on the level of his performance. The Council of Ministers has accused him of failing to meet the annual targets of Radio Nepal as per the performance contract he entered into with MoICT Secretary Deepak Subedi. The question regarding his efficiency has been viewed as an excuse for the government to sack Karki from the post over the live interview with Bhattarai.

“In addition, you didn’t fix the minimum rental rate of 42 ropani land owned by Lalitpur-based Khumaltar Transmitting Station of Radio Nepal in line with the prevailing market price while renting it out to various organisations. It seems you, as executive director of

Radio Nepal, are not working in the interest of the state-owned corporation. Therefore, you are requested to submit your clarifications on these issues within seven days,” read the letter issued on behalf of the Council of Ministers.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on April 29, 2020 of The Himalayan Times.

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CIAA raids Bharatpur Corona Hospital Staff caught on camera stealing equipment

Chitwan, April 28

A team from Hetauda office of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority raided Bharatpur Corona Special Hospital today.

The anti-graft body raided the hospital after CCTV footage showed hospital staff stealing medical equipment from the health facility.

The team led by CIAA Hetauda Chief Shiv Kumar Karki seized documents from the hospital. “We are in the preliminary phase of investigation,” said Karki. He suspects financial anomalies at the hospital.

Bagmati provincial government had provided Rs 10 million to make the hospital operational. Medical equipment were brought from private and government hospitals to the corona hospital. It is learnt that medical equipment and materials were procured randomly without following even the basic procedures of procurement.

Irregularities were suspected after theft involving hospital staff was caught on CCTV.

Following the raid, Bharatpur Corona Control Taskforce formed a probe committee to investigate the incident. Raju Poudel, coordinator of the probe committee, however, resigned before the committee could start functioning, alleging political interference. Bharatpur Metropolitan City had established the hospital to treat COVID-19 patients.

The CCTV footage shows Bharatpur metropolis accountant Phadindra Khanal, Bharatpur Hospital’s employee Sanjay Baral and Bharatpur metropolis Health Department Officer Surya Tiwari taking the equipment and materials from the hospital’s store room at night. They face theft charge.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on April 29, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.

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Bomb blast kills 40 people in Syrian town of Afrin, Turkey says

ANKARA: At least 40 civilians were killed, including 11 children, when a bomb detonated in the northern Syrian town of Afrin on Tuesday, the Turkish Defence Ministry said, blaming the attack on the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia.

In a statement on Twitter, the ministry said the blast occurred in a crowded area in Afrin’s centre. A video shared by the ministry showed black smoke billowing in the air while ambulance and police sirens wailed in the background.

The United States condemned the attack late on Tuesday, which State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said claimed “the lives of dozens of people shopping in the central market as they prepared to break the Ramadan fast.”

“Initial reports indicate many victims were civilians, including children,” she said in the statement, reiterating a U.S. call for a nationwide ceasefire in Syria. “Such cowardly acts of evil are unacceptable from any side in this conflict.”

Ankara views the YPG as a terrorist group linked to Kurdish militants on its own soil and has mounted military operations in northern Syria to push it back from the border.

Turkey’s military and its Syrian rebel allies seized Afrin, a mainly Kurdish district, from the YPG in March 2018 in a major offensive.

Tuesday’s blast was one of the deadliest to hit a region under the control of Turkish-backed forces. Ankara frequently blames the YPG for the attacks, while the militia says it does not target civilians.

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JSP-N MP’s abduction case a hot potato

Kathmandu, April 28

The Kathmandu District Government Attorney Office has also refused to register complaint against ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) lawmakers Mahesh Basnet and Krishna Kumar Shrestha and former inspector general of Nepal Police Sarbendra Khanal.

Leaders of the newly formed Janata Samajwadi Party–Nepal had reached the district attorney’s office in Babarmahal to file a complaint of ‘abduction’ of their fellow lawmaker Surendra Yadav allegedly by the trio.

A few days ago on April 26, Metropolitan Police Range, Teku, had also refused to lodge a first information report against the two lawmakers and Khanal, stating ‘the case did not fall under their jurisdiction’.

Top leaders of the party today pleaded with chief of Kathmandu district’s Government Attorney Office, Hari Prasad Regmi, to register their complaint but he turned a deaf ear towards them.

Rajendra Mahato, a senior leader of the JSP-N, said, “Today we went to seek justice from legal experts after we were failed by the police. But, we did not get justice even from them.” He added, “It shows how rule of law is dying in the country while arbitrary rule and totalitarian system is flourishing.”

However, District Attorney Regmi, refuted the allegation that he refused to register the case, saying, “I had just a few days to study the case, gather prima facie evidence and make sure whether or not the case could be registered.” He added that, “Petitioners have left a copy of their complaint, which we will study for a few days and act accordingly.”

In the draft of the FIR, top leaders of JSP-N, including former prime minister Baburam Bhattarai, Hisila Yami, Upendra Yadav, Rajendra Shrestha and Rajendra Mahato, had accused the trio (Basnet, Shrestha and Khanal ) of forcibly bringing him from his house in Mahottari district on April 23 and holding him hostage at Marriot Hotel in Kathmandu. The accused, however, have been insisting that they had gone to Mahottari on the request of some lawmaker close to Yadav and that Yadav travelled to Kathmandu with them on his own will.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on April 29, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.

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US coronavirus deaths surpass Vietnam War toll as Florida governor meets Trump

Not as hard hit as some others, Florida to ease restrictions
Number of known US COVID-19 infections tops 1 million

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK: The US coronavirus death toll reached a grim milestone on Tuesday, surpassing the number of American lives lost in the Vietnam War, as Florida’s governor met with President Donald Trump to discuss easing shutdowns aimed at curbing the pandemic.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is weighing whether to join other states moving to relax workplace restrictions and stay-at-home orders that have battered the US economy even though health experts credit the measures with slowing the contagion.

The meeting at the White House came as Florida announced its highest single-day death toll from the coronavirus and two days before Florida’s stay-at-home order is due to expire.

Despite a high proportion of elderly residents, who are especially vulnerable to the virus, and having waited until early April to lock down its economy, Florida has averted the worst of the health crisis seen in other states such as New York and New Jersey.

“I mean, you go from D.C., Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois – you name it – Florida’s done better,” DeSantis said during his meeting with Trump, a fellow Republican.

“And I’m not criticizing those states, but everyone in the media was saying Florida was going to be like New York or Italy, and that has not happened because we understood we have a big, diverse state,” DeSantis added, touting “a tailored and measured approach” that “did less damage to our state going forward.”

About a dozen states were forging ahead to restart shuttered commerce without being ready to put in place the large-scale virus testing or means to trace close contacts of newly infected individuals, as outlined in White House guidelines on April 16.

Public health experts have warned that a premature rollback of social-distancing policies could trigger a resurgence of infections just when those restrictions are showing signs of bringing the outbreak under control.

While DeSantis’ state has so far been spared the worst of the pandemic, Florida reported a record 83 new deaths and more than 700 new infections from the previous 24 hours on Tuesday. The state has so far tallied 32,846 cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, including 1,171 deaths.

“Apparently Trump and DeSantis find it appropriate to slap each other on the back while Floridians struggle to stay safe during this pandemic and navigate a broken unemployment system,” Florida Democratic Party Chair Terrie Rizzo said.

The number of Americans seeking jobless benefits over the past five weeks has soared to 26.5 million – nearly one in six US workers – and the Trump administration has forecast an April unemployment rate exceeding 16%.

DEADLIER THAN WAR

The human toll has likewise been staggering. As of Tuesday, 58,233 have died of COVID-19 in the United States, according to a Reuters tally, eclipsing in 12 weeks the total number of Americans killed during 16 years of US military involvement in Vietnam. US coronavirus deaths have averaged about 2,000 a day this month.

The number of known US coronavirus infections has doubled over the past 18 days to more than 1 million. The actual count is believed to be higher, with state public health officials cautioning that shortages of trained workers and materials have limited testing capacity, leaving many infections unrecorded.

As further evidence that caution may still be in order, an influential University of Washington research model often cited by White House officials and public health officials revised its projected US coronavirus death toll upwards on Tuesday to more than 74,000 by Aug. 4, against its previous forecast of 67,000.

The model showed that while most states appeared to have reached the crest of the pandemic, seven others including Mississippi, Texas, Utah and Hawaii, may be just peaking now or in the coming weeks.

About 30% of American cases have occurred in New York state, the epicenter of the US outbreak, followed by New Jersey, Massachusetts, Illinois, California, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

In California, Governor Gavin Newsom said curbside retail, manufacturing and other “lower-risk workplaces” should reopen within weeks as testing and contact-tracing improve.

He also said California’s public education system could welcome students back as early as July to make up for a “learning loss” during school closures and to allow parents in the broader workforce to return to work.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott said on Monday he will allow his stay-at-home order to expire on Thursday and start a phased exit from social distancing.

The virus was first reported late last year in China. The earliest-known US deaths came in February on the West Coast.

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इंदौर में 3 तीन पुलिसकर्मी कोरोना पॉजिटिव, 15 दिन पहले हुआ था टेस्ट

15 दिन बाद आई रिपोर्ट में एक एसआई, एक जवान और एक ड्राइवर कोरोना संक्रमित पाए गए.सवाल इंदौर पुलिस पर...

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Monday 27 April 2020

दिल्ली के मंत्री पर लॉकडाउन उल्लंघन का आरोप, पुलिस के साथ बहस

लॉकडाउन के बीच दिल्ली सरकार के मंत्री इमरान हुसैन सदर बाजार इलाके में पहुंचे थे. यहां पुलिस के साथ उनकी...

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नकवी बोले- राष्ट्रभक्त मुसलमानों ने दिया प्लाज्मा, ये तबलीगी नहीं

मुख्तार अब्बास नकवी ने कहा है कि भारत में कोरोना फैलाने वाले तबलीगी अपने आपको कोरोना वॉरियर्स बता रहे...

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Afghanistan: Civilian casualties down, but hundreds still killed, despite US-Taliban deal

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Is Brazil the next big hot spot as other nations ease up?

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Donald Trump has ‘very good idea’ about Kim Jong Un’s health

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Trump rules out changing date of Nov presidential election

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Southern Sindh province Governor in Pakistan tests positive for coronavirus

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Standing Committee meet call grows shriller

Kathmandu, April 27

Internal feud within the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) has deepened lately, with Co-chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal and senior leaders, including Madhav Kumar Nepal, pressuring Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli to call a meeting of the Standing Committee. But the PM is trying to delay the meeting and has intensified efforts to win the confidence of Nepal, whose support can tip the balance in the PM’s favour.

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, who has fallen into minority in the party’s key bodies — Secretariat, Standing Committee and Central Committee — due to Nepal’s tie-up with Dahal, held a meeting with Nepal in a bid to win his confidence.

Nepal’s support is considered crucial for both Oli and Dahal in the party’s power dynamics.

Following a one-on-one meeting between Oli and Nepal, leaders representing both the factions met at Nepal’s residence in Koteshwar. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Ishwar Pokharel, Minister of Foreign Affairs Pradeep Kumar Gyawali, Nepal Communist Party General Secretary Bishnu Paudel and Chief Minister of Province 5 Shankar Pokharel of the faction headed by the PM held talks with senior NCP leader Madhav Kumar Nepal’s loyalists Raghu Ji Panta, Bhim Bahadur Rawal and Surendra Kumar Pandey at Nepal’s residence.

A ruling party leader who is close to Oli told THT that Oli had intensified talks with Nepal in a bid to win his confidence. “Oli has personally talked to Nepal and has also sent his loyalists to talk to him. Oli has held talks with both Nepal and Dahal, but more so with Nepal,” the source added.

The Oli faction intensified its efforts to win confidence of Nepal after a meeting of the Nepal faction held at Nepal’s residence yesterday decided that Oli had failed to run both the party and the government.

Nepal has been saying that the PM should adhere to one-person-one-post.

Meanwhile, Dahal met the party’s senior leader Jhalanath Khanal, at his Khumaltar residence. Khanal said they agreed to hold the party’s Secretariat meeting within a day or two. Khanal said one-third members of the Standing Committee had submitted a petition demanding a meeting of the Standing Committee as per the party’s statute and hence Oli, who is a co-chair of the party, had the obligation to call the meeting. Khanal said all the political issues, including the promulgation of two ordinances related to Constitutional Council Act and Political Party Act, and alleged abduction of Janata Samajwadi Party-Nepal lawmaker Surendra Kumar Yadav would be discussed in the Standing Committee.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on April 28, 2020 of The Himalayan Times.

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