Good morning!
Here’s a quick summary of important, ignored and interesting stories from Saturday to kickstart your Sunday.
Important
Will ask US about MCC’s Indo-Pacific Strategy link: Dahal
Ruling Nepal Communist Party’s executive chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has assured his party leaders that the government would talk to the United States government to clarify if the Millennium Challenge Corporation grant that it has extended to Nepal is a part of its Indo-Pacific Strategy. Dahal’s assurance comes after the party remained divided over whether to endorse the already-signed grant agreement from Parliament as some leaders suspected that the American government wanted to woo Nepal to support the controversial strategy with the grant.
Dahal said the government should not accept the grant if it was a part of the strategy, otherwise, the support should not be missed.
Is Oli’s Twitter account ‘hacked’?
Prime Minister’s official Twitter handle unexpectedly retweeted a video about Indian opposition leader Sonia Gandhi’s message to the nation about the ongoing citizenship protest. As the retweet was made without any comment, the followers considered it to be PM KP Sharma Oli’s solidarity with the opposition party of India about the law. Later, Oli’s press advisor Surya Thapa said some people hacked Oli’s handle and an investigation was underway. However, many people have not believed him.
The retweet was also undone later.
President consults NCP leaders without informing party
President Bidya Devi Bhandari reportedly summoned some leaders of the ruling Nepal Communist Party to her office in Sheetal Niwas on Saturday without informing Prime Minister and NCP chair KP Sharma Oli and the party’s executive chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal. It has been learned that standing committee members Barsha Man Pun, Janardan Sharma, Devendra Paudel, Surendra Pandey, Pradeep Gyawali and Shankar Pokhrel met Bhandari on Saturday morning.
When the standing committee meeting began, the leaders were not there. When they arrived there together after some minutes, Dahal objected to the move.
Ignored
88% of Nepali households have access to drinking water
A government report has found out that around 88 per cent Nepali households have access to drinking water. The report based on a two-year-old survey conducted by the Department of Water Supply says 51.69 per cent of the total householders rely on pipe systems for drinking water whereas 33.33.38 per cent on tube-well. Likewise, 2.70 per cent households have other ‘safe’ sources of water but 0.11 per cent rely on rainwater.
Raut confident that NCP-RJPN agreement won’t topple his government
Province 2 Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party Nepal’s leader Lalbabu Raut has said a recent agreement made between the Nepal Communist Party and the Rastriya Janata Party Nepal would not topple his government. Raut leads a coalition government of his party and the RJPN, but some analysts believe that the last week’s agreement could form a new NCPN-RJPN coalition thereby making Raut lose the majority support.
Meanwhile, Jitendra Sonal, a minister representing the RJPN in the provincial coalition government, says he will not comment over the issue.
Interesting
Govt listing ‘game-changer’ projects
In preparation for the next periodic (five-year) plan of the country, the government has begun listing some big and effective development projects that would have the potential of changing the country’s economic landscape.
National Planning Commission’s member Sushil Bhatta says the commission finalised six criteria for a game-changing project and circulated the information to federal and provincial ministries, asking them to propose their projects to consider as game-changers.
