Major English and Nepali newspapers published from Kathmandu on Friday have given prominence to the Election Commission’s consent to hold both provincial and federal elections together. Likewise, follow-up stories on recent floods in various Terai districts have continued to appear in the front page today.
Important
Election Commission proposes poll dates
Nepal’s Election Commission has said it can support the government decision to hold both elections—to the Provincial Assembly and the federal House of Representatives—in one go. Further, it has also proposed two dates–November 20 and December 7—for the polls, reports Gorkhapatra.
Earlier, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and major political parties had agreed to hold both the polls together as they have less time in preparations for the two polls as the deadline set by the constitution—of January 2018—comes closer. The Commission had been arguing that doing so would involve a number of technical, logistic and legal difficulties.
But, the Commission proposed the two dates during a meeting with three major political parties on Thursday evening, reports Nagarik. The first date is for 31 districts of mountainous and hilly areas whereas the second is for remaining districts of hills and plains, according to Rajdhani.
Meanwhile, the Commission demanded that the government announce the dates by Saturday so that if can formally begin preparations, Annapurna Post has reported.
Hundreds of industries shut in flood-hit areas; victims still await relief
The Himalayan Times has reported that 600 big and small industries, which have been shut due to incessant rainfall since Friday, are yet to open after floodwaters entered their premises in the Sunsari-Morang industrial corridor and the Hetaunda industrial area.
The report has quoted businesspersons and entrepreneurs as saying that recent floods have damaged materials and equipment worth millions of rupees.
Meanwhile, flood victims of various districts are still awaiting relief from the government and other concerned organisations. Major newspapers have given prominence to reports filed from various districts explaining plights of the victims.
Rajdhani‘s lead story for the day says new mothers and children of a Dalit settlement in Jitpur Simara of Bara district are surviving on noodles for last few days. Likewise, Nepal Samacharpatra reports from Rautahat that the flood victims in Pipara Bhagawanpur are living on roads for the want of some safer temporary settlements.
Ignored
Supreme Court stays bar on plotting of arable land
Around a week ago, the government had decided to impose a ban on plotting of arable land for selling purpose in a bid to preserve fertile land. However, the Supreme Court on Thursday, stayed the decision, reports Abhiyan in its anchor story for the day.
A single bench of Chief Justice Gopal Parajuli made the order not to implement the decision till a final verdict in response to a writ filed by advocate Jagadish Acharya.
Acharya in his writ had claimed that the decision of Ministry of Land Reforms and Management contradicted with the constitutional provision on right to property. The government had argued that the decision was made in order to ensure the constitutional right to food security and food sovereignty. But, many real estate traders had criticised the decision.
2,000 children went missing in past one year
Nepal Samacharpatra‘s anchor story says more than 2,000 children were missing in last fiscal year 2016/17.
Balbalika Khojtalas Samanwaya Kendra, a government body formed to document reports of children’s disappearance cases and coordinate their search operations, says as many as 2,772 children aged 13 to 18 went missing in one year. Of them, only 720 were found.
“Though we do not know their whereabouts, we never stop searching for them,” Kendra’s officer Santosh Chandra Adhikari says adding, the rate of finding missing girls is lower than that of boys. But the number of missing girls is more than that of boys. Last year, 1,047 boys and 1,725 girls disappeared, he informed.
Interesting
Former Prez Yadav confesses he violated constitution
Nepal’s first President Ram Baran Yadav has confessed that he violated the constitution while he removed Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal from the executive position in 2009 May over a controversial decision to sack Nepali Army Chief Rookmangud Katwal.
Annapurna Post’s lead story for the day extracts excerpts from an interview with Yadav taken for its weekly magazine, Annapurna Today, in which the former head of state has claimed, “I have encroached on the constitution to save democratic republic. If I had not done that, the country’s political course could have diverted to a different path.”
Yadav in the interview has explained that he had told Prime Minister Dahal to settle the issue of Maoist guerrillas and concluding the management of rebel army before fully taking over as the PM, but he did not obey.
Meanwhile, Yadav has said he was not responsible to bring the then Chief Justice Khilraj Regmi and CIAA Chief Lok Man Singh to the power.
