All national dailies published in Kathmandu on Friday carry reports on the NCP leaders’ plan to impeach CIAA commissioner Raj Narayan Pathak. The dailies also carry reports related to PM KP Oli inauguration of Nepal’s first shipping office. Similarly, the government’s announcement that it will use public funds for hydro projects has also received attention. The discovery of 18 kg gold inside a house in Kanchanpur has also received considerable attention.
Here is a summary of important, ignored and interesting stories from the front pages of national broadsheets:
Important
PM says government has laid foundation for development
The Kathmandu Post, Annapurna Post, Naya Patrika, Nepal Samacharatra, Republica and Rajdhani report on Prime Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s address to the nation on Thursday. The papers quote the Prime Minister as saying that his administration has laid a solid foundation for Nepal’s prosperity.
The Nepali Congress is going organise a press conference in Kathmandu on Sunday to counter the government’s claims.
CIAA commissioner to be impeached
Kantipur, Republica, The Kathmandu Post, The Himalayan Times, Naya Patrika, Nagarik and Rajdhani report that Parliament is expected to impeachRaj Narayan Pathak, a commissioner at CIAA, for allegedly receiving a bribe from a management committee official of an engineering college in Bhaktapur in return for a promise to resolve an ownership row.
Various news outlets broke the story about Pathak, who was caught on camera receiving the bribe. The ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) said on Thursday that it was preparing to register an impeachment motion against Pathak.
Law Minister Bhanubhakta Dhakal confirmed that NCP lawmakers would begin the process to initiate an impeachment motion against Pathak. Lawmakers will start collecting signatures on Friday to move the impeachment process forward. As per the constitution, at least 69 lawmakers are required to move the impeachment motion in the 275-member House.
18 kg gold found in Kanchanpur
Kantipur, The Himalayan Times, Annapurna Post and Nepal Samacharpatra report that police seized 18 kg gold from a house in Punarbas Municipality-2, Kanchanpur district on Thursday.
A team from the Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police, with the support from local police, raided a house in Dasharathpur settlement and seized the gold, buried inside a house.
Police also arrested Laxman Tiruwa of Shuklaphanta Municipality-11, Kanchanpur, on the charge of possessing contraband gold. Senior Superintendent of Police Bikram Chand said Tiruwa stashed the gold at the in his father-in-law Shankar BK’s house.
Police officers involved in the investigation suspect that the gold might have been smuggled into the country through India. The confiscated gold includes 108 biscuits, each weighing 166.67 grams. The CIB has informed that the gold biscuits contain stamps which link the smuggled gold to ASEAN countries.
Ignored
Government doesn’t have data on public land
Rajdhani reports that the government, which has been telling its citizens that it will protect all public land, does not have proper data on the size of public land under its jurisdiction. Due to this reason, thousands of pieces of public land have been encroached upon by businessmen and other stakeholders. The last time the government measured its land was in 1999 and since then there has been no effort to cross-check .
Row in parliamentary committee
Nagarik reports that a row broke out between MPs from Industry and Commerce and Labour and Consumer Welfare Committee at the House of Representatives on Thursday regarding the Malaysia labour issue. After getting into an argument with committee chairman Bimal Prasad Shrivastav, many MPs left the meeting before it ended. The argument started when Elpi Limbu and Krishna Prasad Shrestha highlighted that there weren’t enough members present at the meeting to discuss the issue. Both Limbu and Shrestha argued that the committee was trying to resolve the issue unethically and urged other members to walk out.
Food Corporation takes money for sacks
Kantipur reports that the food corporation has been earning more than 15 million by selling empty sacks. The corporation has been charging people from remote areas for both the rice and the sack, which it gets for free from Japan. However, the corporation doesn’t charge for the sack when selling items in Kathmandu but charges Rs 20 per sack when selling it in remote areas. The corporation has been charging for the sacks since its formation in 1975.
Interesting
Govt trying to bring back Italian contractors to complete Melamchi project
The Kathmandu Post reports that Water Supply Minister Bina Magar on Thursday informed the Finance Committee of Parliament that the government was still working on bringing back the contractor, Cooperativa Muratori e Cementisti di Ravenna.
Magar told the committee that even though the contract has been terminated, the government and the ministry are ready to work with the CMC if it is ready to come back.
After nearly two months of failed negotiations—and following the contractor’s failure to respond to the 14-day window period—the government had sent a letter of termination to the CMC on February 7.
The government’s intention to bring back the Italian contractor even after terminating the contractor had become clear after the ministry sent a team of officials to Singapore to hold discussions with CMC officials. The talks, however, failed to yield any results.
INGOs might be financed by terrorist organisations
Rajdhani reports that a hi-level investigative commission formed to look into the financing of INGOs has suspected that many INGOs in Nepal are being financed by terrorist groups like ISIS and Al Qaeda. The commission has kept all INGOs under its watch. The commission says that Rs 42 billion was brought into Nepal last year and has asked the government to seek clarification from INGOs asking them to clarify where they get their money from.
