Good morning!
The Nepali edition of our website published some significant stories after we closed on Tuesday night. Here’s a quick summary of important, ignored and interesting reports to start your day:
Important
NAC to fly to Osaka thrice a week
The national flag carrier Nepal Airlines will fly three fights to Japan from August 29 onwards. NAC’s Executive Chairman Madan Kharel said that all necessary arrangement had been made and the NAC was ready to cater to both Nepali and Japanese passengers. As of Tuesday, a total of 90 seats had been booked for its first flight. The NAC will be flying its wide-body aircraft A330-200 which will take six hours and 30 minutes to reach Osaka. Until 2007, the NAC used to regularly flow to Osaka via Shanghai. The NAC is planning to fly its aircraft on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday and has trained a total of 25 pilots. Out of the 25, 10 are Nepali nations while 15 are foreigners. The two-way price for the fight is Rs 75,000. Talks are also ongoing about flying to Tokyo.
PM Oli calls for togetherness in the all-party meeting
PM KP Sharma Oli has called for all parties to come together to make the country a better place. Speaking to leaders from various parties, PM Oli said that all parties needed to come together to protect democracy and the federal constitution.
In the meeting, he said that royalists and other forces (including Biplav) were trying to end democracy in the country and those who still believed in the democracy should come together to save it.
In reply, Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba and leaders from Rastriya Janata Party also showed solidarity with PM Oli.
Ignored
Chinese company to be given remaining Melamchi work
The remaining work of Melamchi Drinking Water Supply Project is being given to Chinese company Sino Hydro. Sino is currently working on tunnel works at Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower Project. Along with that it has also previously worked on Kulekhani III project as well. Works on Melamchi has stopped after Italian contractors CMC left the country. Since CMC left, many have shown interest to complete the work. However, the Water Supply Ministry is looking to give the project to Sino.
Govt looking to import sugar
With major festivals approaching, the government is planning to import sugar to meet the ever-growing demand. The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supply has sent a request to the Cabinet to seek permission to import sugar. The ministry states that sugar will be imported and distributed by a government company. Even though sugar traders in Nepal say they have enough sugar to meet the demand, the ministry says it does not want to take any chance. But traders say that the government needs not import sugar as it had enough to sustain until the festivals. According to the president of Federation of Nepal Sugar Producers, Shashikant Agrawal, traders have approximately 85,000 metric ton sugar in warehouses. Agrawal stated the sugar would be enough and if the government was adamant to import, he urged them not to import more than 15,000 metric ton.
PM Oli to spend at least 10 days in Singapore
Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli who is going to Singapore again for his health check-up on Thursday is likely to spend at least 10 days in Singapore. PM Oli on Tuesday told party members that he was healthy and news of him being ill was false. He said he had to check the effectiveness of his medicines. Earlier, PM Oli had left for Singapore on August 3 and came back on August 12.
Interesting
President appoints non-residential ambassadors to Iraq and Indonesia
President Bidya Devi Bhandari has appointed two ambassadors as non-residential ambassadors for Indonesia and Iraq. Udaya Raj Pandey, who is Nepal’s ambassador to Malaysia, has been made non-residential ambassador to Indonesia whereas Durga Prasad Bhandari, who is Nepal’s ambassador to Kuwait, has been made non-residential ambassador to Iraq.
Rabi Lamichhane to be kept in custody for five more days
The District Court of Chitwan has given permission to keep TV presenter Rabi Lamichhane, journalist Yuvaraj Kandel and nurse Asmita Karki in custody for five more days. The court has asked the police to keep them in custody to investigate the mysterious suicide of journalist Shalikram Pudasaini. Pudasaini in a video had blamed the three of them for his suicide. The court on Friday had asked the police to keep them in custody for five days.
Nepal avoids all-party meeting called by PM
NCP senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal on Tuesday avoided the all-party meeting called by PM KP Sharma Oli. All senior leaders of NCP were present in the meeting whereas Nepal, whose rank was decreased by PM Oli, decided to skip the meeting. According to a source close, Nepal said he did not attend the meeting as he was told about it in the last moment. He was told about the 5 PM meeting at 4 PM.
