Most of major Nepali and English broadsheet dailies published from Kathmandu Valley on Sunday have given the top priority on a demonstration staged by supporters of medical education reform activist Dr Govinda KC in the capital on Saturday. Likewise, reports filed from Jumla, where the veteran doctor is staging a fast-unto-death, about his health conditions have also been featured on the front pages of major newspapers.
Another event that has received key attention is a meeting of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli with ministers and secretaries, during which he directed them to implement the budget plan for next fiscal year fully and effectively.
Some other political, sociocultural and economic issues have also been featured on the front pages of major newspapers today.
Important
Hundreds march in Kathmandu in support of Dr KC
Newspapers have published reports along with photographs that hundreds of supporters of medical education reform activist Dr Govinda KC in the capital yesterday demanding that the government meet his demands at the earliest. They also protested the government apathy to issues raised by Dr KC.
Meanwhile, Kantipur, Nagarik and Annapurna Post have published the transcription of Dr KC’s audio message to his supporters as it was played during the demonstration yesterday. In the address, he has demanded that his demands are for the people; therefore they should be fulfilled at the earliest. He has also made it clear that he will continue his hunger strike till all his demands are met.
In the meantime, the government has urged Dr kC to come to Kathmandu for talks, according to Gorkhapatra. Republica, however, reports that locals of Jumla as well as Dr KC’s supporters view that the government should form a talk team and send it to Jumla for the talks.
PM directs ministers, officials for effective budget implementation
Gorkhapatra lead story reports that Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli directed his Cabinet colleagues and secretaries to increase the pace of work so that the budget plan announced for the next fiscal year beginning this Tuesday will be implemented effectively and fully.
The Prime Minister spent seven hours of the weekend in meeting various ministers and secretaries to discuss the budget plans of individual ministries, according to the report. It was the second phase of the programme and ministers and secretaries of 13 ministries were present. The first phase was held on Wednesday, in which discussions were held about budget for 12 ministries.
Meanwhile, Oli also discussed during the meeting how budgetary programmes could be revised as per the government’s policies and programmes as he is stung byb his own party’s lawmakers allocations, according to the lead story in The Himalayan Times.
Thakur elected RJPN parliamentary party leader
The Madhesh-centric Rastriya Janata Party Nepal, one of the four ‘national’ parties represented in the Federal Parliament has elected its presidium member Mahantha Thakur as its parliamentary party leader, Gorkhapatra, Rajdhani and Republica have published on their front pages today.
The party’s presidium member Rajendra Mahato had proposed Thakur’s name for the position and a parliamentary party meeting held yesterday unanimously endorsed the proposal, according to reports.
Meanwhile, Rajdhani reports that the party has clarified that it will not join the incumbent KP Sharma Oli-led government till the assurance of constitution amendment.
Ignored
Speaker, Deputy working against constitution
Kantipur reports in a three-column story that Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara and Deputy Speaker Shiva Maya Tumbahamphe have violated the constitution as one between them has not resigned even after the merger of their parties. The constitution has it that the two positions should be held by lawmakers of different parties, but Mahara’s former CPN-Maoist Centre and Tumbahamphe’s CPN-UML have already merged making them a single party, the report explains.
The report adds that the ruling Nepal Communist Party should not cover its error, but make efforts to correct them.
Bajura family secluded from society for helping Dalit
The lead story in Rajdhani reports that a non-Dalit family in Bajura district of far-western Nepali is living outside its society for last six years after their neighbours mistreated them for offering water to drink for a Dalit person.
The report quotes the victim Jaya Lal Budha (60) to say that he wants to live with his children, but the community does not allow them.
Interesting
Congress leader Giri is teaching Marxism to communists
Currently, a nationwide training programme is being held for cadres of the ruling Nepal Communist Party and Mohan Bikram Singh-led CPN-Masal on Marxism and communism. Among the trainers is a non-Marxist and non-communist, but his job is to train leaders and cadres of the party to know more about Marxism and communism.
An intellectual leader of Nepali Congress, Pradeep Giri, is visiting many districts for the training organised by communist party cadres, according to a snippet in Naya Patrika.
There are 900,000 ‘third gendered’ people in Nepal
Blue Diamond Society, an NGO established to advocate for rights of sexual minorities, has claimed that the total population of third-gendered people or those belonging to various minority sexual groups is around 900,000. However, only 167 persons have acquired citizenship by mentioning their ‘other’ gender, a three-column box story in Nepal Samacharpatra says. It has been 11 years since the government began issuing citizenship certificates by mentioning ‘other’ gender.
