Major Nepali and English newspapers published from Kathmandu on Sunday have covered a host of issues on their front pages. Like always, politics has dominated the coverage, with reports about the expected Cabinet reshuffle and internal conflicts within the ruling Nepal Communist Party and the main opposition Nepali Congress. The NCP has been unable to appoint leaders for its internal departments and it is making headlines for a past few days. Likewise, a new dispute has emerged in the main opposition party about the next general convention.
Few other issues from socioeconomic and cultural issues have been featured on the cover pages today. Here is a summary.
Important
PM preparing a ‘big reshuffle’
Nepal Samacharpatra lead story reports that Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli is preparing to reshuffle his Cabinet. The reshuffle will be quite big as he is in the mood to give continuity to four ministers only, the report claims attributing anonymous sources close to him.
According to the report, the four lucky ministers who will be retaining their jobs are Defence Minister Ishwar Pokharel, Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa, Foreign Affairs Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali and Communications Minister Gokul Baskota.
Congress likely to extend CWC term
Nagarik reports in its lead story for the day that the main opposition party, Nepali Congress, is planning to extend the term of current Central Working Committee by one year.
The five year term of the CWC is set to expire in March 2021. The report claims that all factions of the party are ready to extend the term.
On the other hand, Rajdhani reports that the leaders are divided on how to form party structures at various levels before the convention. The Himalayan Times further adds that while the Sher Bahadur Deuba faction wants to form interim structures first, rival faction led by Ram Chandra Paudel want the party to announce the date of the general convention and prepare a calendar of events first.
Court staff found misusing vehicles
Many staff of the judicial system of the country are found misusing government vehicles, Rajdhani claims in a four column box story. The staffers have removed the government number place, put the private ones and used the vehicles for personal and family purposes, the report claims.
It shows six vehicles with private number places claiming they in fact belonged to various judicial bodies and courts.
Ignored
58% decline in FDI commitment
The amount of pledges made for foreign direct investment in Nepal has decreased by 58 per cent in the fiscal year 2018/19, Abhiyan reports in a story. Paradoxically, the government had hosted an investment summit that year, but it could receive the commitment for Rs 24 billion only, according to the report.
The FDI of Rs 55.76 billion was pledged in the year before that.
Mismanagement mars NAC
The state-run Gorkhapatra national daily rarely publishes any report about weaknesses of the government. However, the newspaper’s lead story for Sunday is about how the government’s failure to efficiently manage the national flag carrier Nepal Airlines Corporation is giving it a trouble. The report says the Corporation is bearing a loss of around Rs 320 million every month, suggesting introduction of a strategic partner as the best option to end the crisis.
Govt ignores provinces in forming Forest Corporation
The federal government has announced the formation of a Nepal Forest Corporation Limited without consulting provincial governments, reports Kantipur in a snippet. The move comes at a time when a number of disputes have surfaced about the supply of forest products including timber and firewood.
Further, the Forest Policy of the government has a provision that the forest-related programmes would be carried out by three levels of governments jointly.
Will new British PM make retired Gurkhas happy?
Retired British Gurkha soldiers have hoped that new Prime Minister Boris Johnson will meet their long-standing demands as he had promised so during his time as London mayor and foreign minister, The Kathmandu Post reports in its lead story.
“When Boris was the mayor of London in 2012, a team from the Gurkha Human Rights Group had met him with our demands,” a veteran Gurkha Gyanu Rai has been quoted in the report, “He had assured us that if he was in power, he would have fulfilled the demands of the Gurkhas.”
Samajbadi Party-RJPN merger talks unlikely to show results
Reports about the conversations between Samajbadi Party Nepal and Madhes-centric Rastriya Janata Party Nepal come to the press very often, but they have not shown any result yet. Once again, the parties are said to be in conversation in a bid to merge, but they are not going to achieve any result soon, reports Republica in a two column story.
It has been almost two years since the merger was first proposed, but formal negotiations are yet to take off, the report claims. The RJPN’s precondition that the Samajbadi Party should walk out of the government first is hindering the development, according to the report.
Interesting
New law to ban ‘disrespect’ of national symbols in ads
Kantipur reports in a snippet that a committee of the House of Representatives has proposed that the government put a ban on the ‘disrespectful use’ of various ‘national symbols’ of the country including the national flag and the national anthem in advertisements of products.
The committee discussed putting a ban on the use entirely, but later revised the proposal to limiting the disrespectful use only considering practicality, according to the panel member Divya Mani Rajbhandari.
