Almost all broadsheet dailies published in Kathmandu on Wednesday have given priority to reports on the arrest of murder convict Maoist leader Bal Krishna Dhungel. Similarly, election-related stories have also received attention from the editors.
Here’s a summary of the stories published on the front pages of today’s edition of broadsheet dailies:
Important
Murder-convict Maoist leader Dhungel arrested
Almost all newspapers have reports on their front pages on the arrest of murder-convict Maoist leader Bal Krishna Dhungel. Kantipur states that Dhungel will have to serve a sentence of 12 years, five months and 22 days.
Rajdhani reports that Dhungel (prisoner number 576) will share his prison cell with Uday Sethi, who is doing time in an abduction case.
Republica takes a different look at the story relating it to the recent trend of using ‘contempt of court’ as an effective weapon for enforcing court verdicts. In the report, the paper says that senior advocate Dinesh Tripathi had filed a contempt of court case against Nepal Police chief Prakash Aryal for not arresting Dhungel even as the court ordered the police to do. This piled pressure on the police to arrest the Maoist leader, who had been on the run for over eight years. The report says that the Dhungel case and the recent ballot paper case show that ‘contempt of court’ can be used to press the parties concerned to enforce judgements.
UML to contest 81 seats, Maoist Centre 77
The left alliance has finally reached a deal on the seat-sharing arrangement for the 165 parliamentary and 330 provincial constituencies under the first-past-the-post elections scheduled for November 26 and December 7. The Himalayan Times says that the UML will contest 81 seats and the Maoist Centre in 77 in the federal elections. Similarly, independent candidates backed by the alliance will contest for seven seats. Similarly, according to Kantipur, for the provincial seats, the UML will field candidates for 198 seats and the Maoist centre will field candidates in 128 constituencies.
Ignored
Four people still missing in the Trishuli
Four people are still reported missing in the Trishuli river, three days after a bus plunged into the river killing 31 people. Rajdhani reports that an infant and the bus driver is among the missing. Police have intensified efforts to look for the missing.
Interesting
TIA expansion resumes after one year
The expansion work at Nepal’s only international airport, the TIA, has resumed after a year-long hiatus. According to Karobar, work related to the building of a new terminal and the expansion of the runway has resumed a year after the Spanish construction company San Jose Constructors was penalised for not completing the project on time. A Chinese construction firm Xiangxi Construction won the contract for the work. While the Chinese contractor will expand the runway a JV of three Nepali companies will build the new terminal.
Key hydropower station to start generation by July
The much-awaited Upper Tamakoshi hydro project (456 MW) is likely to start generation by the end of the fiscal year, The Kathmandu Post reports. After the project comes online, Nepal will have surplus electricity in the rainy season for the first time in decades. The national pride project was scheduled to be completed in July 2016, but the earthquake and the Indian trade blockade forced the project to push its deadline.
