Nepali Congress district presidents have warned of launching a signature campaign against the party president Sher Bahadur Deuba, and it has been featured in most national dailies along with news of Nepal Bar Association getting a new president and general secretary. News of those involved in the SEE paper leak being arrested has also made to the front pages on Friday.
Few other issues from political, sociocultural and economic spheres have been featured on the front pages on Friday. Here is a summary of important, ignored and interesting stories from the cover pages of national broadsheets:
Important
Nepali Congress district presidents to launch signature campaign against Deuba
Nepal Samcharpatra and Annapurna Post report that district presidents of Nepali Congress (NC) have prepared to start a nationwide signature campaign if the provision that allows automatic election of central committee members as general convention representatives is not revoked. The district presidents are also demanding a review of the central committee decision about positive discrimination.
Participants in the two-day meeting of the district presidents that started in Kathmandu on Wednesday have said that the signature campaign aimed at putting pressure on the central leadership to revoke the central committee decision, allegedly taken against the spirit of mahasamiti meeting.
The district presidents have been opposing the provision that was kept in the party statute despite NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba and senior leader Ram Chandra Paudel during the recent mahasamiti meeting expressing commitment to ensure that all general convention representatives will have to be elected.
Shrestha elected NBA chair
Rajdhani and Nepal Samacharpatra report that candidates loyal to the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) won 23 out of 25 posts of office bearers of Nepal Bar Association, including the post of the president and seven out of eight vice-presidents. Chandeshwar Shrestha won the NBA presidency with 4,022 votes. His nearest rival Sunil Kumar Pokharel, a loyal of Nepali Congress, secured only 3,873 votes. The post of NBA General Secretary, however, went to the democratic candidate Lila Mani Paudel who secured 4,178 votes against his NLA rival Surendra Bahadur Thapa’s 3,701 votes.
Ignored
Newborn and mother suffering due to lack of proper diet in Bara
The Himalayan Times and Nepal Samacharpatra report that lactating mothers in the storm hit Bara’s Pheta Rural Municipality have been surviving on noodles and have urged the authorities concerned to provide them with nutritious food for the sake of survival of new-born babies.
Shairu Nesa Khatun, 21, of Pheta Rural Municipality said she had been sharing noodles with her one-year-old son. Due to lack of nutritious food, babies in the camps for the storm hit victims have grown lean and dull. Pheta Rural Municipality ward Chairperson Zakir Hussain said most post-partum women and their babies were falling sick for want of nutritious diet.
Govt to rebuild houses before monsoon
Annapurna Post reports that the Cabinet has said it will put a roof for all the families who had lost their house in the storm that occurred in Bara and Parsa. The responsibility to construct the houses will be given to Nepal Army. All houses will carry design used during the People’s Home Programme. The responsibility to oversee the project has been given to the main secretary of Province 2.
Earlier, Province 2 government had also said it would construct houses for them.
6 kg gold nabbed at TIA
Nepal Samacharpatra reports that the officials at the TIA have captured four women bringing 6 kg gold into Nepal. Officials believe the gold smugglers were using new methods to smuggle gold to Nepal by using women. Babita Garg, Sarita Jain, Japin Jait and Sunita were arrested by the customs officials at TIA on Thursday. Those arrested were coming from Bangkok.
Interesting.
VIP’s visiting hospitals does more harm than good, say doctors
The Kathmandu Post reports that doctors and health officials have said that they find it tough to treat patients due to a flurry of visits from high profile politicians, who, after inspecting the storm-affected areas reached the hospitals to enquire about the health of the injured.
Doctors say that the entire focus shifts to VIP visits, when it should have been fixed on treating the patients. Former prime minister and chair of ruling Nepal Communist Party Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Health and Population Upendra Yadav, Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba, chief ministers of provinces, ministers of the federal government as well as provincial government, lawmakers of federal parliament and the provinces and bureaucrats who travelled to the districts also visited the hospitals. But medical workers said that did more harm than good.
Despite profits, NOC doesn’t reduce fuel prices
Kantipur reports that the Nepal Oil Corporation, despite making a daily profit of Rs 28 million, has not reduced fuel prices. According to the rate issued by the Indian Oil Corporation, the NOC will make a profit of Rs 420 million from April 1 to April 15. However, the NOC hasn’t adjusted the price for the past two months, earning a profit of Rs 2 billion during that time.
