Major dailies published from Kathmandu on Tuesday have carried Nepali Congress Central Working Committee meeting in the front page. The beginning of 11th fast-unto-death of Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital’s senior orthopaedic surgeon Dr Govinda KC has also received significant attention by the Kathmandu Press. The fact that Nepal-China trade point in Tatopani has been disconnected from Kathmandu after a landslide destroyed a bridge over Bhotekoshi has also bee covered significantly.
Important
Congress wants to put amendment bill to vote
The lead story in The Kathmandu Post says the Central Working Committee meeting of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s Nepali Congress party concluded on Monday, deciding to put the constitution amendment bill to vote in Parliament as soon as possible. The decision was taken on the basis of deliberations and suggestions received from leaders and cadres of Province 2, which will hold local level elections on September 18.
The meeting also urged the government to add 22 local units to Terai districts as proposed by the previous government so as to convince the agitating Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal to participate in the September 18 elections, according to the lead story in The Himalayan Times. Earlier, the Supreme Court had stayed the government decision in this regard.
This winter may witness load shedding again
The lead story in Naya Patrika says Kathmandu Valley and other places of the country are likely to bear the brunt of power outage again in this winter as all attempts of Nepal Electricity Authority to avoid the power crisis failed.
The news report has listed four causes that are likely to bring darkness back to the daily life of Nepali citizens. They include failure to complete construction of big hydropower projects including Kulekhani III, obstruction in purchase of LED bulbs from India, incomplete construction of Dhalkebar sub-station and failure to launch a 25-megawatt solar plant.
Meanwhile, a front-page story in Republica blames Chinese government-owned company Central Power Grid International Economic and Trade Corporation for the likely power crisis. The company, responsible to build the Dhalkebar sub-station has threatened to terminate the contract if its demands are not met, according to the report.
Ignored
Kathmandu Valley heritage sites skip UNESCO danger list
According to the lead story in Nepal Samacharpatra, the United Nations’ cultural agency, UNESCO, decided not to keep World Heritage sites of Kathmandu Valley on its danger list.
A recent meeting of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee held to revise the List of World Heritage in Danger did not put Nepali sites on the list after Nepal convinced around 160 UN member states, according to the report. Earlier, the UN agency was reportedly preparing to keep Hanumandhoka Durbar Square among other sites on the list owing to the delay in their reconstruction following the 2015 earthquake.
Secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Shankar Prasad Adhikari, Nepali Ambassador to France Ambika Manandhar Luintel, Director General at Department of Archaeology Bhesh Narayan Dahal among others had attended the meeting held in Poland from June 30 to July 12 and argued that the reconstruction works were going on at a speed.
58 government websites hacked on a single day
The anchor story in The Kathmandu Post says as many as 58 websites belonging to Nepal’s government agencies were hacked by a group introducing itself as Paradox Cyber Ghost on Sunday. The hacked locations included officials sites of Ministry of Defence, Office of the Auditor General and Nepal Law Commission. While some sites could be browsed on Monday morning, many had remained suspended till then, according to the report.
The story says the hackers claimed that the act was just a vulnerability test and they did not have any other ill intention. The group says it has five members and they hacked all the sites within three minutes.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Science and Technology formed a three-member committee to look into the issue. The team has been mandated to make necessary recommendations to prevent such incidents in the future, within next three days.
Interesting
1,300 obstacles in expanding 12-kilometre road
According to the anchor story in Annapurna Post, the government has listed out 1,363 obstacles against the expansion of 12.5-kilometre Tripureshwor-Nagdhunga road. The Kathmandu Valley Road Expansion Project says there are 341 electricity utility poles, 33 transformers, 237 telephone wire poles, 19 telecom manholes, one water tank, 135 trees, 22 road lights and 575 houses, huts and walls, which should be removed for the expansion. The obstacles were listed when a team led by Minister for Urban Development Prabhu Sah monitored the construction works going along the road.
Though the Minister assured to remove the obstacles at the earliest, stakeholders have not been convinced, according to the report.
Nepal courts will have own flag and logo
Rajdhani has published a story in its front page today which says the Supreme Court has introduced new regulations for functioning of courts across the country.
The regulations have a provision that Nepali courts will have their own flag and logo. A full court meeting of Supreme Court justices has already endorsed the regulations. Till now, all the courts were using the government stamp as their logo and the national flag as their flag.
The regulations also introduced other significant changes in functioning of the Supreme Court and other courts, the report reads.
