Newspapers published in Kathmandu on Wednesday have given priority to a range of political, social and economic issues such as the alleged smuggling of merchandise worth billions of rupees, the charging of exorbitant fees by private schools and the preparations provincial governments are undertaking to present their budget for the new fiscal. Here’s a roundup of important, ignored and interesting reports that made it to the press on Wednesday.
Important
Who will head the police force now?
Rajdhani reports that IGP Prakash Aryal is set to retire in three weeks. It says that three DIGs are in the race to become the new police chief. The paper says that DIGs Sarbendra Khanal, Ramesh Kharel and Pushkar Karki are in the race for the top job. Rajdhani says that Sarbendra Khanal is currently the senior-most DIG. All three of them joined the police force in 1990
Prime Minister under pressure to replace Chief Secretary
Nagarik says that Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli is under pressure from the members of the ruling coalition to replace Chief Secretary Lok Darshan Regmi, who was appointed to the job by then Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba. The paper says that leaders from the UML and the Maoist centre claim that Regmi is aligned with the Nepali Congress and may not cooperate with the new government.
Ignored
Goods worth Rs 7 billion smuggled into Nepal
Annapurna Post reports that at a time when the government is finding it difficult to allocate resources to the provinces, it has been found that goods worth over Rs 7 billion were smuggled into Nepal in the last five months of 2017. The paper says that a comparison between customs data obtained from both India and Nepal showed that Rs 6.88 billion worth of goods were unaccounted for in Nepal.
EU calls for more transparency in Election Commission
The European Union’s election observation mission has called on the Election Commission to take steps to become more transparent, Rajdhani and Nepal Samacharpatra report. The papers say that the report, prepared over five months, criticises the Election Commission for not making the number of invalid votes public even months after the results were announced.
Interesting
Budget ceiling likely to be Rs 1,500 billion
The Himalayan Times reports that the National Planning Commission and the Ministry of Finance have reached an understanding to keep the budget for the fiscal 2018-19 below Rs 1,500 billion. The budget for the fiscal 2017-18 was Rs 1,278 billion. The paper says that the new budget would be based on the government’s policy and programmes and the ministry would finalise the budget ceiling within this week.
