report in The Island, Apr 27, 2023Two of the seven Senior DIGs suddenly transferred by police headquarters have refused to abide by the directive, demanding the immediate intervention of the National Police Commission (NPC). Retired IGP Chandra Fernando heads the NPC. The senior officers transferred with effect from 25 April, included Lalith Pathinayake, Ajith Rohana, S.C. Medawatte and W.K. Jayalath on what police headquarters called, service requirements. Senior DIG of the Southern Province Ajith Rohana,…
Posts published in “Nepal”
By Nishan Khatiwada in The Kathmandu Post, April 27, 2023At first blush, the byelection in Bara-2 was a straight shootout between Janata Samajbadi Party chair Upendra Yadav and Janamat Party’s candidate Shiv Chandra Kushwaha. But dig a little and it was so much more, as Madhesh observers had commented in the lead-up to the polls. It was a contest for prestige, a battle between a Madhesh veteran, Yadav, and newly emerged popular leader CK Raut,…
By Binod Ghimire in The Kathmandu Post, April 27, 2023Top leaders of the political parties represented in parliament had on Monday agreed to constitute a Parliamentary Hearing Committee, as well as a special committee to finalise the amendment bill on the Enforced Disappearances Enquiry, Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act. They also agreed on the panels’ composition in terms of the number of lawmakers from each party. Based on the agreement, the Parliament Secretariat on Tuesday…
By Dipendra Shakya in The Kathmandu Post, April 27, 2023The writer is the Sankhuwasabha correspondent for Kantipur Publications.Food shortage is looming large in the Bhotkhola area of Sankhuwasabha, a hill district in Koshi Province. The villagers, who live near the border with China in Bhotkhola Rural Municipality and are dependent on Tibetan markets for daily supplies, are facing a shortage of food grain and other essentials after the border closed by China since the Covid…
Report in The Kathmandu Post, April 26, 2023Nearly two weeks after the Rastriya Swatantra Party’s decision to expel its lawmaker Dhaka Kumar Shrestha from the party and as a lawmaker, he lost his position as a member of the House of Representatives. Speaker Dev Raj Ghimire, on Tuesday, stripped Shrestha as a member of the lower house, based on his former party’s recommendation. “The position of member of the House of Representatives Dhaka Kumar Shrestha…
By Tika R Pradhan in The Kathmandu Post, April 25, 2023As the counting of votes of Sunday’s by-elections continued with candidates of new parties leading those from more established ones, a meeting of three major parties on Monday agreed to share among them the leaderships of various thematic committees of Parliament. They also agreed to work together to pass major bills including on transitional justice. The main opposition CPN-UML agreed to discuss the long-awaited bill…
By Anil Giri in The Kathmandu Post, April 25, 2-23With the final results of by-elections in Tanahun-1 and the initial vote count in Chitwan-2 and Bara-2, the message is clear to the traditional forces and parties—either you change your work approach or suffer further losses in coming elections. The largest party Nepali Congress, whose candidate Ramchandra Poudel, was elected from Tanahun-1 with a good margin last November, lost the seat to the new Rastriya Swatantra…
by Swasti Gautam in The Kathmandu Post, Apr 24, 2023The writer holds a Masters’s Degree in Gender, Media and Culture from the London School of Economics.Crossing Nepal’s border alone, either by road or air, as a Nepali woman is often, if not always, an unpleasant experience. Questions asked by border security or immigration officers are downright derogatory, reflecting the patriarchal mindset of the state vested with the power to decide a woman’s mobility. In the…
by Anup Ojha in The Kathmandu Post, Apr 24, 2023It’s been nearly two weeks since the Kathmandu Metropolitan City stopped collecting garbage from Singha Durbar and other VIP addresses such as the Office of the President at Sheetal Niwas and prime minister’s residence at Baluwatar. On April 9, Mayor Balendra Shah had announced his decision on social media, saying the move was made “not on a whim” but was rather a result of the “neglect,…
by Tika R Pradhan in The Kathmandu Post, Apr 24, 2023Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who held over an hour-long meeting with CPN-UML chair KP Sharma Oli at Singha Durbar on Friday, said efforts were on to revive the Nepal Communist Party. Dahal, who was one of the two chairs of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) which was dissolved by a March 2021 Supreme Court decision, said although the NCP was “caught in an accident…