Major Nepali and English dailies published from Kathmandu Valley on Friday have given the top priority to different issues. Like on past few days, discussions and decisions of various committees in the Federal Parliament have received significant attention from the newspaper editors. Meanwhile, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli returned home after attended the United Nations General Assembly’s 73rd session and paying an official visit to Costa Rica and newspapers have published statements of Oli on their front pages.
The Kathmandu Post lead story reviews activities since then two major parties—CPN-UML and CPN-Maoist Centre—decided to unify into the single party around one year ago. Rajdhani and Naya Patrika have published reports about internal politics in the main opposition Nepali Congress.
Important
Minister forces House committee to change decision
Annapurna Post, Nagarik, Kantipur, The Kathmandu Post, Republica and The Himalayan Times report that Minister for Communications and Information Technology Gokul Baskota interfered in discussions of the Development and Technology Committee of the House of Representatives and made the Committee chairperson Kalyani Khadka to change the decision.
While chairperson Khadka was sharing the decision about issuing a directive to the government for the appointment of Nepal Telecom’s Managing Director through open competition, Baskota interrupted and forced her to remove the phrase ‘free competition’ citing it was mentioned in the law, according to Annapurna Post.
Meanwhile, Baskota also expressed dissatisfaction with media and journalists during the meeting, inform Kantipur and Nagarik.
Public Accounts Committee begins probe on sugar price hike
The Public Accounts Committee of Parliament has formed a subcommittee to investigate into a sudden rise in the price of sugar in the market in the run-up to Dashain and Tihar festivals.
Naya Patrika reports that the panel has assigned lawmaker Lekharaj Bhatta to carry out a probe and submit the report. Bhatta has assured that the report will be submitted within next one week.
In the same newspaper, Industry, Commerce and Supplies Minister Matrika Yadav has expressed commitment to cooperate with the probe.
Meanwhile, the Committee directed the government to limit the price within Rs 63 per kilogram, according to Nagarik, Kantipur and The Himalayan Times.
Oli claims he will rule for full term
Upon his arrival back home, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli reiterated that his government would rule for the full term of five years, adding his party would become stronger in the next election and would get another change to lead the country, according to reports in Kantipur, Annapurna Post and Naya Patrika.
In another context, Oli assured that he would address the dissatisfaction raised by his party’s senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal within few days, adds Naya Patrika.
Ignored
ADB to provide Rs 21 billion to upgrade East-West Highway
Asian Development Bank has decided to extend a loan assistance of Rs 21 billion to Nepal for the upgrading of East-West Highway, according to Nagarik anchor story.
Nepal has been lobbying with the ADB for the support since a long ago, and a meeting of the board of directors held in Manila on Thursday made the decision, the report informs.
Citizenship law amendment bill drawn into controversy
A bill that the government recently tabled in Parliament for the amendment to existing citizenship law has been drawn into controversy as it has been revealed that Defence Minister Ishwar Pokharel signed on the bill as the Home Minister, reports Nepal Samacharpatra in its lead story.
Citing anonymous sources, the report claims Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa had denied signing the document expressing his objection to some of the provisions.
Supreme Court leaves fate of 1,700 medical students uncertain
Questioning the fairness of entrance exams, the Supreme Court recently ordered the Tribhuvan University Institute of Medicine not to admit 1,736 students who have recently passed the exams for different medical courses. Therefore, their fate has turned uncertain, reports Republica.
Around 15,000 students had appeared in the tests in the third week of September.
Urge to promote govt media
The Kathmandu Post reports in a snippet that government has directed all government entities to prioritise state owned media while distributing information and selling advertisements in order to support and help sustain the government publications.
Radio Nepal, Nepal Television, Gorkhapatra and Rastriya Samachar Samiti will benefit from the recent instruction of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, according to the report.
Interesting
Nepali sugar factories to produce electricity
Nepal Electricity Authority is at the final step of preparations for signing a power purchase agreement with sugar factories of the country to buy the electricity they produce, reports Karobar in a five column story.
The PPA will mention that five per cent of income collected from the sale of electricity will be provided to sugarcane farmers, according to the report.
