Good morning!
Here’s a quick summary of important, ignored and interesting stories from Monday to kickstart your Tuesday.
Important
Nepal wins 15 gold medals in one day
Nepal won 15 gold medals on Monday in various categories in the ongoing South Asian Games being played in Kathmandu, Pokhara and Janakpur. The host country won seven gold medals in various categories of karate, seven in taekwondo and one in triathlon. Nepal also won three silver and six bronze medals on the day.
With this, Nepal is on the top of the medal tally followed by India, which has won 14 medals including three gold, eight silver and three bronze medals.
Dahal cancels China trip
Ruling Nepal Communist Party’s executive chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal has cancelled his trip to China scheduled for the next week, citing the undergoing treatment of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, another chairman of the party. Dahal informed the Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Hou Yanqi that he withdrew the plan for now, according to NCP sources.
Oli is currently at Manmohan Cardiothoracic Vascular and Transplant Centre after an operation for appendicitis last week.
Meanwhile, doctors are preparing to transplant yet another kidney of Oli, the sources claim. Oli’s one kidney was transplanted around 12 years ago. Of late, he has been undergoing rounds of dialysis regularly after the transplanted kidney stopped working properly.
Ignored
NOC hikes fuel prices
The government-run fuel distribution monopoly, Nepal Oil Corporation, has hiked the price of petrol, diesel and kerosene to be effective from Tuesday. As a part of the corporation’s regular price adjustment, the corporation hiked the price of each litre of the fuel by Rs 2. Now, a litre of petrol costs Rs 9 whereas diesel and kerosene Rs 97. The corporation says the prices of aviation fuel and cooking gas have not been revised.
Congress claims bypoll results showed dissatisfaction with govt
In its official response to the results of the by-elections held in various constituencies of federal, provincial and local levels on Saturday, the main opposition party Nepali Congress says the results proved that people are not satisfied with the government. The party claims the voters had told the ruling Nepal Communist Party and the government either to correct themselves today or to get destroyed tomorrow.
The opposition party’s spokesperson Bishwa Prakash Sharma says his party, in overall, is happy with the votes it received during the polls.
Budget crisis puts outer ring road project in limbo
The ambitious project to construct another ring road covering three districts of Kathmandu Valley has been put in limbo once again, this time citing budget crisis. The Ministry of Urban Development says the project has been put on hold now.
Sources in the ministry say they had forwarded a proposal to the Ministry of Finance seeking the funding, but the Finance Ministry did not pay any attention.
Interesting
PM says he is recovering well
Prime Minister Oli, who is currently recovering at a hospital in Kathmandu after a major appendicitis operation last week, posted a two-minute video on his Twitter profile on Monday afternoon, claiming he is recovering well, he can talk to people and walk around inside the hospital. The prime minister posted the video after rumour-mongers claimed that Oli was critical. Hence, in the video, Oli said he was able to check news updates.
Oli also said he was happy about the grand opening of the South Asian Games in Kathmandu this Sunday.
