Report in The Kathmandu Post, April 14, 2023The much-awaited Cabinet expansion is unlikely to happen before the by-elections in Tanahun, Chitwan and Bara that are scheduled for April 23. Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal will appoint new ministers only after the by-elections, leaders of the ruling alliance said on Thursday quoting Dahal and Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba. Earlier, Prime Minister Dahal had expanded the Cabinet on March 31 for the seventh time in…
Posts published in “Nepal”
by Rejaul Karim Byron , Mohiuddin Alamgir in The Daily Star, Apr 13, 2023The poverty rate in Bangladesh has dropped significantly but income inequality is at an all-time high, according to the latest version of the Household Income and Expenditure survey — in a puzzling development that raises questions about the nature of economic growth seen in recent times. “If we take the HIES 2022 data highlights at their face value, there is both good…
Report in The Kathmandu Post, April 13, 2023The Rastriya Swatantra Party expelled its lawmaker Dhaka Kumar Shrestha from the party on Wednesday. “The party scrapped the general membership of Shrestha. His lawmaker post has gone vacant and the party has nominated Bindabasini Kansakar to replace Shrestha,” party chair Rabi Lamichhane said after the central committee meeting held at the party’s central office in Kathmandu. Within six months of establishment, the party emerged as the fourth…
By Anil Giri in The Kathmandu Post, April 13, 2023Amid a financial crisis so serious that the government is struggling to pay its employees, the Pushpa Kamal Dahal-led government is pushing ahead with its decision to dole out Rs200,000 each to the former Maoist combatants disqualified for integration into the Nepal Army for being underage or late recruits during the UN verification in 2007. Home Secretary Binod Singh confirmed to the Post that a working…
By Tika R Pradhan in The Kathmandu Post, April 11, 2023In the last week of January, the prime minister’s chief advisor Haribol Gajurel told the Post that Pushpa Kamal Dahal wanted to become prime minister for a third time mainly with the aim of concluding the protracted peace process. Dahal, the chair of the third-largest party in parliament, the CPN (Maoist Centre), became prime minister on December 25 with the support of the CPN-UML, the…
By Anil Giri in The Kathmandu Post, April 12, 2023Nepal has not had a dedicated foreign minister since February 27 after the CPN-UML exited the Pushpa Kamal Dahal government. Experts said not having a foreign minister for such a long time gives a message that the Nepal government is not serious about safeguarding national interest—at a time of fast-changing geo-political shifts around the globe. For the past month and half, Prime Minister Dahal has himself…
By Prithvi Man Shrestha in The Kathmandu Post, April 12, 2023A complaint has been registered at the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) to investigate an alleged attempt by the Rastriya Swatantra Party Lawmaker Dhaka Kumar Shrestha to ‘buy’ for himself the post of health minister. In a leaked audio, a voice, allegedly of Shrestha, demands Rs20 million from another person, presumably the controversial medical entrepreneur Durga Prasai, so that Shrestha can become…
By Nishan Khatiwada in The Kathmandu Post, April 11, 2023The leakage of an audio recording where the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) lawmaker Dhaka Kumar Shrestha is purportedly asking for a bribe has caused a stir. The party has suspended Shrestha and its central discipline committee has been entrusted with completing an “in-depth investigation” into the matter within three days. In the audio conversation from January 15 which was leaked on Sunday, the person believed to…
by Tika R Pradhan in The Kathmandu Post, Apr 8, 2023The main opposition CPN-UML has taken a stance against endorsing the bill to amend the transitional justice law through a fast-track process in Parliament, even as the ruling coalition wants to pass it without any further delay. Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Sher Bahadur Deuba, president of Nepali Congress, the largest parliamentary party, held talks with the leader of the opposition KP Sharma Oli…
Report in The Kathmandu Post, Apr 8, 2023 at 15:28 hrsSenior CPN (Unified Socialist) leader Mukunda Neupane has quit the party. Neupane, who comes third in the party hierarchy after Madhav Kumar Nepal and Jhalanath Khanal, announced deserting the party at a press meet in the Capital on Saturday. Addressing the press meet, Neupane said the party is trapped in the quagmire of the ruling coalition, accusing the party leadership of being guided by closed-door…