As the dates for provincial and federal parliamentary elections are coming closer, major Nepali and English broadsheet dailies published from Kathmandu have prioritised issues related to elections. Many newspapers have published stories focusing on specific constituencies where the competition will be interesting to watch due to different reasons. The leftist alliance of CPN-UML and CPN-Maoist Centre officially unveiled their election manifesto yesterday though some contents of the documents were leaked through media some days ago and the manifesto has also received prominent attention from the papers.
Important
Leftist alliance assures stability, prosperity in election manifesto
Chairmen of UML and Maoist Centre, KP Sharma Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal respectively, made the manifesto of their electoral alliance public on yesterday and almost all newspapers have covered the issue in the front page today. According to Gorkhapatra, the alliance has prioritised good governance and prosperity. For Nagarik, the priorities are political stability and economic progress. Naya Patrika says the parties have assured that they will increase the per capita income upto Rs 500,000 within next 10 years.
Annapurna Post, Rajdhani and Republica have listed key points of the manifesto in the front page.
Naya Patrika lead story for the day compares election manifestoes of major parties prepared for all parliamentary elections since 1990 and concludes that some major agendas are present every time.
According to Nepal Samacharpatra, some sections of the manifesto are quite different from the version, which unofficially came to the public through some media last week.
Karobar has published a three-column story with a picture about the manifesto of Rastriya Prajatantra Party that was made public yesterday. The newspaper has covered the left alliance’s manifesto in the second page only.
Dr KC seeks updates from President on Medical Education Ordinance
Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital’s senior orthopaedic surgeon and medical education reform activist Dr Govinda KC on Tuesday filed an application at the President’s Office seeking information on what progress is being made towards issuing the Medical Education Ordinance, according to Republica. The government had forwarded the ordinance to President on October 23.
Meanwhile, Annapurna Post says Dr KC has warned of taking the issue to streets if the President does not enact the ordinance within one week. Dr KC says that President Bidya Devi Bhandari is trying to thwart the ordinance under the influence of CPN-UML, of which she was a member before being elected to the top post, according to the report.
Ignored
Melamchi tunnel breakthrough in two months
Naya Patrika anchor story for the day says the Melamchi Water Supply Project is likely to complete the construction of tunnel within next two months. So far, around 96 per cent of the tunnel has already been constructed.
While around 1,200 metres are yet to be dug up, the per day progress rate is currently 18 metres. Therefore, the breakthrough can be achieved within the end of December, the Project’s Executive Director Ram Chandra Devkota has informed in the report.
The report also informs that a dispute between an Italian contractor and Nepali entrepreneurs, which had affected some works under the project, has now been peacefully settled.
Susta folks demand citizenship for votes
As political parties and candidates have expedited campaigns for elections, locals of Susta in Nawalparasi district on the Nepal-India border have demanded that they be provided with citizenship certificates at first, reports the lead story in Kantipur today. The report informs that many locals in this year do not have citizenship certificates, due to which they have been unable to register marriage and childbirth, to get land acquisition certificate and other state facilities.
Poll officials may be allowed to cast votes
According to The Himalayan Times, the Election Commission is thinking of plans to let government employees deployed on election duty cast votes in the upcoming elections scheduled for November 26 and December7. Earlier, while refusing to issue a stay order, the Supreme Court had drawn the attention of Commission towards likely violation of the staff’s fundamental rights.
In response to the court order, the Commission has formed a committee under the leadership of Joint-Secretary Dinesh Ghimire to study possibilities, according to Commission’s spokesperson Nawaraj Dhakal.
Interesting
Chinese team in Nepal for cross-border railway feasibility study
China has sent a team to carry out the feasibility study for proposed Nepal-Tibet railway, reports Karobar in its lead story for the day. The report informs that the 23-member team from the National Railway Administration has begun its assignment from Rasuwagadhi border point on Tuesday. Representatives of Nepal’s Department of Railway have also accompanied the team.
The Department’s Senior Divisional Engineer Prakash Bhakta Upadhyaya informs the paper that the team will go to Pokhara and Lumbini within this week for the study.
