All major Nepali and English broadsheet dailies published from Kathmandu on Sunday have given the top priority to the death of Nepali and Korean nationals in a snowstorm on Gurja Himal of Dhaulagiri range. The newspapers, however, have reported different death tolls, from seven to nine.
Death of former minister and former ambassador Chakra Prasad Banstola has also received significant attention on the front pages of daily newspapers published from the capital. Nagarik and Republica have published banner news stories on the death of their publisher company’s founder Hemraj Gyawali. Kantipur and The Kathmandu Post have also covered the incident on their front pages as Gyawali also worked as the chairperson of their publication. As the biggest festival of Nepalis, Dashain, is currently underway, many newspaper reports concentrate on different dimensions of the celebration.
Few other political, sociocultural and economic issues have been featured on the front pages of Kathmandu newspapers today.
Important
Congress leader Chakra Banstola passes away
After spending past six years in a coma, Nepali Congress leader Chakra Prasad Banstola passed away on Saturday, according to newspaper reports. Though some media reported his death quite earlier, Rajdhani lead story quotes his private aide Radha Krishna Kafle to inform that he breathed his last at 9:20 pm.
Banstola had suffered brain haemorrhage on December 29, 2012 while attending a programme in Morang, and he remained comatose ever since, reports The Himalayan Times.
Another girl murdered after rape
Kantipur, Annapurna Post, Rajdhani and The Himalayan Times report that a 10-year-old girl was founder murdered after her rape in Aaurahi Rural Municipality of Dhanusha district.
Manisha Kumari Yadav had left her house to observe a religious function nearby her house on Friday evening and was missing since then, Rajdhani reports, adding that her body was recovered at a paddy farm during a police search the next day.
KMC provides additional Rs 50 million for Kashthamandap reconstruction
Kathmandu Metropolitan City has allocated additional Rs 50 million to the reconstruction of historic Kashthamandap that collapsed in the 2015 earthquake, according to Nepal Samacharpatra.
Kathmandu Mayor Bidya Sundar Shakya handed over a cheque worth this amount to Kashthamandap Reconstruction Committee chairman Rajesh Kaji Shakya.
Earlier, the local government had provided Rs 5 million to the project.
Ignored
Province 2 endorses law that contracts constitution
The Province 2 Assembly on Saturday endorsed a law on the formation of provincial police organisation, Kantipur reports, adding this law contradicts the constitution and related federal laws.
The Nepal Communist Party, which leads the federal government but is an opposition force in the province, had been objecting to key provisions of the bill. Therefore, it took around four months to endorse the bill, according to the report.
Provincial speakers complain of human resource crisis
Speakers of provincial assemblies of different provinces have complained that the Federal Parliament Secretariat deployed unskilled and insufficient human resources to the provincial assemblies, and it has directed affected effective functioning of provincial legislative bodies.
Further, frequent transfer of key staff has also affected the efficiency, according to a report published in Annapurna Post.
Probe panels finds irregularities in Sikta
A government team has found that consultants, while designing the multibillion rupee Sikta Irrigation Project, failed to carry a special test of soil, and it resulted in the construction of a fragile canal, The Kathmandu Post reports in its anchor story.
The government had launched the probe after reports of repeated collapses of the main canal.
Interesting
153 new industrial enterprises in 2.5 months
Karobar reports in a two column story that total 153 industrial enterprises have been registered with the government in past 2.5 months. Among them, 47 are tourism businesses, 47 service oriented, 40 production oriented, seven information technology, seven agriculture and forestry, four energy and one construction, according to the report.
The total capital of these businesses is Rs 6 billion.
