Almost all newspapers published in Kathmandu on Friday have devoted their front pages to issues related to the elections, and the beginning of the ‘silent’ period in areas where polls are to take place on Sunday. A handful of newspapers have, however, given importance to other social and economic issues that do not have a direct bearing on the elections. The Himalayan Times has a report on how more than 200 Nepali students’ future is in limbo in Bangladesh, and Naya Patrika reports on how an Indian firm assigned to prepare the DPR for the Kathmandu-Terai Fast Track may have submitted an incomplete report.
Here’s a summary of stories making the headlines today:
Important
Govt orders arrest of top CPN leaders
The Kathmandu Post reports that the government has ordered Nepal Police to arrest top leaders of the Netra Birkram Chand-led Nepal Communist Party as the group tries to disrupt polls scheduled for Sunday. The report says that special teams have already been deployed to identify and arrest members of the party. The paper quotes a Ministry of Home Affairs official as saying that it would be easier to get a grip on the activities of the party if the central leaders are arrested. Security has been beefed up in different parts of the country after a series of IED attacks on leaders of different political parties ahead of the elections.
Silent period begins today
Republica in its anchor for the day says that the ‘silent period’ for phase-I polls has begun. It says that as part of the normalising the heated poll campaigns and letting the voters decide their choice of candidates, the EC enforces a silent period of 48 hours before voting begins. The same report says that all preparations for voting for Sunday are over.
Ignored
Fate of 200 medical students in Bangladesh uncertain
The Himalayan Times reports that more than 200 Nepali students are enrolled in over 30 medical colleges in neighbouring Bangladesh, where the colleges have been ‘blacklisted’ for various reasons. The paper says that while some of the colleges do not meet the government criteria, some are not even registered with the government. It says that the Nepali Embassy in Bangladesh recently wrote to Nepal Medical Council on the issue. However, there has been no word on the fate of the students who have already spent a huge sum of money to go to Bangladesh.
DPR prepared by Indian firm ‘incomplete’
Naya Patrika reports that the Indian firm ILFC may have submitted an incomplete DPR for the Kathmandu-Terai Fast Track project to the Nepal government. The government needs to pay the company Rs 60 million for the report. The Sushil Koirala government had handed over the project to ILFC under the BOOT model but the deal was later scrapped after the company put forward a series of demands. The paper quotes experts as saying that it takes at least three years to prepare the DPR for the 70-odd km road which includes tunnels and bridges, but the Indian firm completed the work in three months.
