Besides contemporary political issues revolving around elections of the National Assembly and preparations for the unification between CPN-UML and CPN-Maoist Centre, issues that received the topmost attention from major Nepali and English broadsheet dailies published from Kathmandu today are the arrest of 17 foreign doctors who were arrested on charge of working in Nepal without obtaining permission and a fresh corruption case against former tax official Chudamani Sharma.
Decisions of the Cabinet meeting held yesterday and some other contemporary social and economic issues have also been prioritised.
Important
Fake foreign doctors arrested
Republica says the Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police on Monday arrested 17 foreign doctors and three hospital operators on the charge of working without obtaining required permission. Police had launched the operation after getting a tip-off from the Nepal Medical Council, which is authorised to issue licence to doctors and medical practitioners. Existing laws have it that foreign doctors must acquire a permission from the NMC to work at any Nepali hospital.
Naya Patrika says police had raided five health facilities of Kathmandu Valley including Apollo Clinic, China Great Wall Hospital, China People Hospital, China Dentral Hospital and CIWEC.
Most of the arrestees were Chinese nationals, Nagarik reports quoting CIB spokesperson SP Jeevan Shrestha. Annapurna Post also has a similar report.
New order of precedence endorsed
The Cabinet meeting on Monday endorsed the new order of precedence of state officials, according to Gorkhapatra. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education Gopal Man Shrestha says the order of precedence includes officials from the President to local level leaders.
Meanwhile, the meeting also decided to scrap the National Trading Limited, according to Karobar. Minister for Information and Communications Mohan Bahadur Basnet tells the paper that the government decided to dissolve the company as it could not be independent. The government had formed the company to trade machinery and food products.
Transitional justice mechanisms seek political commitment for investigation
The Kathmandu Post lead story for the day says two transitional justice mechanisms—Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons—have demanded that the government and political parties express a commitment to support their investigation process before extending their term.
The commissions have blamed non-cooperation from the government and political parties for their poor performance in looking into the war-era cases of human rights violations.
The twin commissions’ term is expiring on February 7 and the government is planning to extend their terms by one year. The report informs that President Bidya Devi Bhandari has authenticated an ordinance last week, and it will let the government to extend the term by one year, the report informs.
Ignored
Left-Forum talks trouble RJPN
The Federal Socialist Forum-Nepal, of late, is engaged in a series of backdoor negotiations with the left alliance, which is certain to lead federal and six provincial governments within next one month; and it has created a serious mistrust and suspicion has surfaced between the Forum and the Rastriya Janata Party Nepal, according o Republica.
The Forum-Nepal and the RJPN had formed an electoral partnership for provincial and federal elections in Province 2 and are likely to continue the partnership to operate the government in the province. But now, top RJPN leaders have grown suspicious after Forum-Nepal Chairman Upendra Yadav has been deferring talks with them on the model of power sharing.
20 Nepali workers rescued from Kuwait
The Kathmandu Post anchor story says the Nepali Embassy in Kuwait has repatriated 20 more workers strained in the Gulf country due to the blatant labour and human rights violations by their employer, Kharafi National Company.
The Embassy did the latest rescue in coordination with the company and the Foreign Employment Promotion Board, the report says, adding unofficial estimates say the company left nearly 300 Nepali workers to fend for themselves. Of them, 94 had approached the Embassy for help after their company stopped giving them work and wages.
Interesting
Govt does not know number of martyrs in the country
The country is marking the Martyrs’ Day today in memory of the people who sacrificed their lives for the country. But, the government does not have any idea about how many martyrs are there in the country in total, according to Nepal Samacharpatra.
Meanwhile, Republica says the official number of martyrs could exceed 7,000. Just on Monday, the government declared six individuals, who were killed by the Maoists during the decade-long armed insurgency, as martyrs, according to the report.
