Report in The Kathmandu Post, February 15, 2023Whenever there are high-level visits from New Delhi, the media, political circles and talking heads in Kathmandu are eager to know what message the visiting dignitaries passed on to the Nepali political leadership. Accordingly, Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra’s two-day visit (Feb 13-14) to Kathmandu got a lot of attention. Kwatra, who served as Indian envoy to Kathmandu until February last year, is someone familiar with the…
Posts published in “Nepal”
by Sangam Prasain in The Kathmandu Post, Feb 12, 2023updated at 22:41 hrsA months-long import ban on several products described as luxury items caused revenues to plunge so sharply that the government has been forced to slash the budget for lack of cash, officials said. The government lifted the embargo after eight months in early December following pressure from the private sector and the International Monetary Fund, but by then it had left lasting repercussions…
by Tika R Pradhan and Purushottam Poudel in The Kathmandu Post, Feb 13, 2023As differences persist between the CPN (Maoist Centre) and the CPN-UML over the candidate for President, ruling alliance parties have started doubting the longevity of their partnership. A meeting of the ruling parties held at the prime minister’s residence at Baluwatar on Sunday failed to make any headway in the dispute with Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal sticking to his proposal of…
by Purushottam Poudel in The Kathmandu Post, Feb 12, 2023The 7.8-magnitude earthquake that rocked Turkey and Syria earlier this week has killed over 24,000 people as of Saturday afternoon—and the death toll is still rising. The jolts in Turkey and Syria bring to mind similar quakes Nepal witnessed on April 25 and May 12, 2015 that took the lives of around 9,000 and injured over 22,000. The 7.8m quake and its aftershocks destroyed or damaged…
by Anil Giri in The Kathmandu Post, Feb 12, 2023The Nepali Congress, encouraged by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s proposal of electing the new President based on ‘national consensus’, has made a two-pronged strategy for the March 9 vote. After the Congress extended its vote of trust to Dahal on January 10, he floated the “consensus” idea. Congress leaders see their early success in the ‘suspicion and doubt’ that they have been able to sow…
by Tika R Pradhan in The Kathmandu Post, Feb 11, 2023Differences between the major two coalition partners—the CPN-UML and the CPN (Maoist Centre)—resurfaced even at the meeting of the High-level Political Mechanism (HLPC) on Friday. At the heart of their disagreement is UML chair KP Sharma Oli’s insistence that he will not accept a consensus candidate for President. The long-awaited meeting of the political mechanism led by Oli, the chairman of the largest party in…
by Nishan Khatiwada in The Kathmandu Post, Feb 10, 2023In what is a major blow to the ruling coalition, Nepali Congress provincial parliamentary party leader Kamal Bahadur Shah was appointed chief minister of Sudurpaschim Province on Thursday. Provincial head Devraj Joshi appointed Shah as chief minister after the incumbent, Rajendra Singh Rawal of the CPN-UML, failed to secure the confidence of the provincial assembly earlier in the day. “As the number of lawmakers saying ‘no’…
by Nishan Khatiwada in The Kathmandu Post, February 9, 2023Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and CPN-UML chair KP Sharma Oli have agreed to hold a meeting of the High-Level Political Mechanism, a body comprising the chiefs of the seven parties in the ruling coalition, soon. The two top leaders, who held a one-on-one at Oli’s residence in Balkot on Wednesday morning, also agreed to discuss the presidential election at the upcoming meeting of the mechanism,…
Report in The Kathmandu Post, Feb 8, 2023On her first day of Nepal visit, US Agency for International Development Administrator (USAID) Samantha Power announced that the agency would provide up to $58.5 million to advance democratic progress in Nepal, subject to the availability of funds. According to the US Embassy in Kathmandu, $40.2 million of this announcement is part of the $659 million development objective agreement announced in 2022. Power arrived in Kathmandu on Tuesday…
by Arjun Poudel in The Kathmandu Post, Feb 8, 2023Renuka Nepali, a local from Ritthe village in Ramechhap’s Doramba Sailung Rural Municipality-6, wakes up at 3 am everyday and walks for one-and-a-half hours to a nearby stream to fetch water. This wasn’t always the case. The problem emerged after the source supplying drinking water to Nepali’s village dried up due to a prolonged dry spell. As a result, Nepali and other villagers have been forced…