The news of people continuing to suffer due to government doctors protesting has again been featured in most newspapers along with news of the Tribhuvan International Airport letting Fly Dubai fly its plane after the 10 PM curfew.
Here is a summary of important, ignored and interesting stories from the cover pages of national broadsheets:
Important
People suffer as govt doctors’ protest continues
Kantipur, Nagarik and The Himalayan Times report that it has been six days since the doctors working for state-owned hospitals stopped seeing patients — except those who are brought to the emergency department — to exert pressure on the government to revise the decision to hand over the authority to transfer them to provinces and local levels.
But neither the government nor doctors have budged from their stances, affecting patients from low- and lower-middle income groups.
Doctors on Wednesday started seeing patients, but not in their cabins. At state-owned hospitals like Bir, doctors were seen attending to patients in open spaces on the premises of hospitals. This token gesture may have partially addressed problems of patients with minor health problems, but those who had to undergo laboratory tests and surgeries were left high and dry.
The police on Wednesday used force and opened the ticket counter at Bir Hospital — which receives nearly 1,800 patients a day — to provide medical services to patients. But doctors refused to provide complete service.
Doctors hired by the government have been protesting since Friday demanding that the federal government retain the authority to hire and transfer all doctors working in the country. The federal government, however, has transferred this authority to provincial and local governments as well following enactment of the Civil Servant Adjustment Act. The GODAN has been saying the permission granted to provincial and local governments to hire and transfer doctors will severely hit their career prospects as they will be restricted to certain provinces or municipalities for long.
TIA lets Fly Dubai take off, but grounds Nepal Airlines
Kantipur and The Kathmandu Post reports that a week after the country’s only international airport grounded a Nepal Airlines flight citing new flight time regulations, airport officials have allowed a Fly Dubai flight to take off past its flight deadline, displaying how haphazard the airport’s management has been ever since runway renovation began.
On April 2, Nepal Airlines flight RA231 was scheduled to take off from Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport for Dubai, but ended up being grounded overnight, for nearly 11 hours, because of new regulations regarding flight time limitations.
On Tuesday, Fly Dubai flight FZ574, which like the Nepal Airlines flight had crossed regulatory time limits, was permitted to take off. Despite similar situations, airport authorities appear to have taken an ad-hoc approach to flight time regulations.
Air traffic controller said that the airport’s general manager directed them to permit Fly Dubai’s flight on Tuesday.
Officials at the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal blamed mismanagement at Nepal Airlines for the April 2 fiasco, and the blame was further passed on to the airport authorities. The Tourism Ministry is conducting an investigation into this issue.
Airport authorities, however, said that Fly Dubai was allowed to take off precisely because of the April 2 incident, said Raj Kumar Chettri, General Manager of the Kathmandu airport.
Ignored
Nepal army wants to withdraw its troop from Libya
The Kathmandu Post reports that Nepal Army has said it would like to withdraw its troops deployed as peacekeepers in Libya as the security situation in the war-torn North African country continues to deteriorate. The Nepali contingent is currently guarding the headquarters of the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in the Libyan capital Tripoli, which houses Ghassan Salamé, special representative to UN Secretary General, among others top officials. The Nepal Army, through the Office of the Permanent Representative of Nepal to the United Nations in New York, has informed the UN about its willingness to withdraw its troops.
Province 3 minister locks secretary’s office
The Himalayan Times reports that Province 3 Minister of Social Development Yubaraj Dulal padlocked the office of Secretary Loknath Poudel on Wednesday. Dulal accused Poudel of not working and letting files pile ever since taking charge as secretary. The minister said he was forced to padlock Poudel’s office as he did not respond even after a clarification was sought from him. When contacted, Poudel declined to comment.
Over 50 per cent vehicles in Kathmandu fail pollution test
Republica reports that upon inspection by a team of officials from the Metropolitan Traffic Police Office (MTPO) and the Department of Transport Management (DoTM), 53 per cent of the vehicles checked for their level of pollution contribution failed the Public Vehicle Pollution Test.
Since April 4, the MTPO has been running the vehicle pollution check as a part of its nine-point working procedure for three months. According to the MTPO, the emission of 539 random vehicles in the valley has been checked as of Wednesday. Of them, 255 failed the pollution test. Of the checked vehicles, 248 were diesel-run vehicles while the remaining 291 were petrol-run vehicles.
Interesting
Banks issued loans with Lalita Niwas land as collateral
Nagarik and Republica report that new facts have emerged showing that nearly a dozen banks and financial institutions issued billions in loans and the collateral was the Lalita Niwas land that had passed illegally back into the hands of Rukma Shumsher Rana and others in 2060 BS and was subsequently sold onwards by them.
Sources at the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) and the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police, which are currently conducting investigations into the matter, said Nepal Investment Bank, Century Bank, Sanima Bank, Global IME Bank, Nepal Bank Limited, Prabhu Bank and Kasthamandap Development Bank, among others, issued the loans.
According to details provided by the investigation, these financial institutions loaned billions to promoter of Bhatbhateni Supermarket Min Bahadur Gurung and land brokers Shobhakant Dhakal and Ram Kumar Subedi — considered to be the two masterminds in the public land scam.
Investigation officials are currently looking into whether the loans have been settled or not. They are also looking into what the loans were meant for.
Provincial lawmakers get unknown invitations
Kantipur reports that Karnali provincial lawmaker Mina Singh Rakha since 2018 has been getting invitations from unknown sources from Japan, France and Germany. She isn’t the only minister to have gotten these invitations. There are plenty who have received invitations from unknown sources. The invitations are mostly sent to female lawmakers, however as they cannot be sure who has sent the invitations, the provincial government doesn’t let them travel.
SEE results to come out late
Nepal Samcharpatra reports that it is likely that the SEE exam results will come out late. The reason for the delay in result if due to a shortage of staff at the National Education Board. Due to staff adjustments, over 26 officials at NEB have been transferred to various districts. According to officials, many districts do not have a single staff to check the answer sheets.
