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Bharatpur metropolis has decided to close the schools for five days after an outbreak of conjunctivitis (eye infection).

Issuing a public notice on Sunday, the metropolitan city has decided to close down the operation of all public and private schools.

Municipal Education Officer Mahendra Prasad Poudyal said that all the schools operated in the boundary of the metropolis will remain closed on August 7-11.

The leave will be adjusted from the winter and summer holiday, he said.

The cases of eye infection have been widespread in Chitwan of late.

Ratnanagar Municipality in Chitwan also closed all the schools due to outbreak of the infection.

Issuing a public notice on Sunday, Ratnanagar Municipality has requested the private schools operating classes up to grade 12 to shut their operation from August 7 onwards for a certain period.

The municipality has also asked the schools to conduct eye infection sensitization before it issued a public notice for the closure of schools.

Earlier, Khairahani Municipality in Chitwan had decided to close down educational institutions to check rising cases of eye infection among students.

The municipality decided to shut the schools for Sunday and Monday.

At least three persons were injured when a landslide fell on a moving jeep at Siddababa area along the Butwal-Palpa road section of the Siddhartha Highway on Monday.

According to the Highway Security and Traffic Management Office, Butwal, three persons including the jeep driver sustained injuries when the landslide with boulder fell on the jeep (Lu Cha 2849) in front of Naag Mandir (temple) nearby Siddababa area headbox at Tinau Rural Municipality-3 along the Butwal-Palpa road section this morning.

Bishnu Prasad Pandey, a local, informed that three people including the driver were injured when the landslide fell on the moving jeep.

The injured are undergoing treatment at the Lumbini Provincial Hospital.

The landslide with boulders completely damaged the front part of the jeep, Pandey said.

Though the landslide obstructed the Butwal-Palpa road section for some hours, it has now resumed, the Traffic Management Office, Butwal said.

Nepal which has been selling its electricity to India's day-ahead market since Nov 2021, can now sell electricity to India’s real-time market also. 

Amending the Cross Border Electricity Trade (CBET) rules, the Central Electricity Authority of India has allowed neighboring countries Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, and Bangladesh to buy or sell electricity through its real-time market.

Until now, the neighboring countries were allowed to trade only in the day-ahead market in the Indian power exchanges. So far, Nepal has got approval to sell 452.6 MW in India’s day-ahead power market, where the price of power is determined a day ahead of trading.

According to the Indian Energy Exchange Ltd (IEX) data, Nepal and Bhutan have traded 4.41bn units of electricity so far in the Indian power exchange. 

The real time market is a segment in the power exchanges that enables buyers and sellers to meet their energy requirement closer to real time operation. The market features a new auction session every half an hour with power to be delivered after 4-time blocks or an hour after gate closure of the auction. The price and quantum of electricity trading is determined through a double-sided closed auction bidding process.

NEA Spokesperson Suresh Bhattarai said this is a welcome move. “Currently, NEA is selling electricity at a competitive price in the day-head market of India. A bid must be made one day before the sale of electricity,” said Bhattarai, “In the real time market, if there is excess electricity in the system, it can be sold immediately.”

While the real time market will provide greater flexibility for cross-border entities for optimally utilizing their resources by procuring power close to real-time basis, Nepal will not benefit from it immediately unless India gives approval to sell more electricity to Indian energy exchange.

“So far, we have been participating only in the day ahead market for selling 452 MW of power. Now we can sell this 452 MW power of 10 projects in any of the two markets or both markets,” NEA official.

Nepal may benefit from it both in import and export of power when there is sudden demand rise or fall. It can be beneficial even when sudden plant outages take place or suddenly rainfall takes place and we have increased generation. “We can transact power by submitting bids 1 hour and 15 minutes prior to actual physical trading under real time market,” he said. 

The latest move by India to allow neighboring countries to enter into the real time market, has come at a time when Nepal is waiting for India’s approval on a number of energy export issues. The NEA has been seeking the approval from the Indian authorities for selling electricity to the Indian market on a short-term and long-term basis. There has also been delay on the part of India to approve NEA’s proposal to export 1,000 MW of electricity from 18 hydel projects. 

Nepal has been requesting the southern neighbor for a long-term power trade deal arguing that an inter-government agreement would lock in the market and end the unpredictability of the Indian market’s availability for electricity from Nepal in the long run.

On the other hand, the much-hyped 25-year-long intergovernmental framework agreement between Nepal and India is yet to be formalized. While officials of both countries sign preliminary agreements during Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s recent India visit, India is delaying the signing of the final agreement which would ensure long-term market access for the Nepal-generated electricity to the Indian market. 

The 25-year agreement is an umbrella agreement that will pave the way for power trading agencies in Nepal and India such as Nepal Electricity Authority and NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Limited (NVVN) to enter into a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA).  The NEA and NVVN will sign a separate agreement for commercial deals. 

The long-term power deal has become of paramount importance for Nepal with the country’s electricity generation capacity gradually increasing. If the market for Nepali electricity is not ensured, the country faces the risk of electricity spillage every year, especially during the wet season.  

NEA is targeting to export 1,200 MW this wet season to India. The authority has been selling electricity in the day-ahead market of Indian Energy Exchange Limited through daily bidding. Currently, the southern neighbor has allowed Nepal to sell 452.6 MW of electricity generated by 10 hydropower projects in the Indian power market. But the approvals given to the 10 hydropower projects need to be renewed every year.

NEA has reported that it earned Rs 2.83bn from exports from July to the end of the last fiscal year 2021/22 and an additional Rs 8.32bn in fiscal year 2022/23. The authority has set a target of Rs 16bn within the current fiscal following a resumption of exports in May.

The government has initiated phase-wise consultations for legitimately regulating and managing the social networking sites based on the requests and suggestions that have come from the citizen level.

The government has started seeking suggestions through consultations following the demand made by distinguished persons from various walks of life for regulating and managing the social sites citing they have suffered irreparable damages due to the baseless, malicious and slanderous comments against them that appear on the social media.

In this connection, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MoCIT) has started consultations with the experts on social sites and electronic media.

The Ministry is preparing for a discussion with the representative of the Meta Company overseeing South Asia on August 10.

Meta Company is the mother organization of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and WhatsApp. It is also holding consultations with social sites operators of Nepal as well.

Press Council Nepal is also holding discussions on this topic.

The use and misuse of social networking sites is on the rise along with the expansion of information and communication technology.

In this scenario, regulating the fake news, misinformation, disinformation and hate speech has emerged as a challenge.

Although the Press Council Nepal has the responsibility of monitoring the media at present, no agency has been legally assigned with the responsibility of monitoring the individual's posts on the social sites.

Political parties' leaders, civil servants, artists, civil society leaders, professors, teachers, businesspersons, social right campaigners and media persons and people from various walks of life have been requesting for bringing legislation for regulating and managing the social sites.

MoCIT spokesperson and Joint Secretary Netra Raj Subedi said the Ministry has started consultations with the stakeholders based on the requests coming from various sectors calling for regulating and managing the social sites.

The ruling CPN (Maoist Center) has reshuffled roles and responsibilities among the party leaders.

A meeting of the party Central Committee held today at the Prime Minister's official residence in Baluwatar endorsed the proposal floated by party Chairman and Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal to this regard, according to Prime Minister's press expert Manohari Timilsina.

According to the revised allocations of roles and responsibilities, party Deputy General Secretary Barshaman Pun has been appointed as the In-Charge of a special province which remains as a non-territorial province. 

The decision is aimed at further increasing the vibrancy of the province, it has been learnt.

In addition, another Deputy General Secretary Janardan Sharma has been assigned the responsibility for Bagmati Province.

Meanwhile, Secretary Leelamani Pokharel will serve as the In-Charge of Madhesh Province, and Secretary Devendra Paudel will be responsible for Gandaki Province.

Furthermore, Chakrapani Khanal has been selected as the In-Charge for Koshi, Hitman Shakya for Lumbini, Matrika Yadav for Karnali, and Dilaram Acharya for Sudur Paschim Province.

Furthermore, leader Girirajmani Pokhrel has been assigned to take charge of Valley Liaison Coordination Province and Ram Karki will be taking charge of Overseas Province.

Party Vice-Chair Krishna Bahadur Mahara has been assigned the role of coordinating the Socialist Front and overseeing the party unification procedures.

Similarly, another Vice-Chair Pampha Bhusal has been entrusted with the responsibilities of coordinating the party-aligned people's organizations while Agni Prasad Sapkota has been appointed to oversee the party's Publicity Department.

Ganesh Shah will take charge as the new In-Charge of the Science and Technology Department.

Dinanath Sharma has been assigned to coordinate the party organizations of intellectuals, human rights activists, teachers, and legal practitioners.

On top of that, all in-charges for various fractions of the party's aligned people's organizations have been changed.

Additionally, the roles and responsibilities of the party's standing committee and central members have been determined.

The CPN (Maoist Center) is to organize a three-month-long special transformation campaign.

The Center will conduct a special transformation campaign for three months from September 2.

The Maoist Center, which clinched third position in the elections held in November, is organizing a transformation campaign to expand the organization.

Addressing the closing ceremony of the  Central Committee meeting, party Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal directed the leaders and cadres to conduct the campaign by reaching every house in every ward.

“None of the houses in the ward should be missed. This campaign will help in building a new party,” Dahal, who is also the Prime Minister, said.

He said that the national and international parties are still trying to split the party.

Dahal expressed his belief that the party would move ahead unitedly.

He announced that the Maoist Center will take the leadership of the country again.

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal will be embarking on a visit to China likely from the third week of September.

In his address to a program organized here today, Minister for Foreign Affairs NP Saud said that the Prime Minister would be visiting the northern neighbor in the third or the fourth week of September.

The program was held to mark the digitized verification of the police clearance certificate.

 "We are prepared to observe the Prime Minister's visit to China," he said, adding that the present government was committed to promoting cordial relations with neighbors and friendly nations.

Recalling the Prime Minister's visit to India after the formation of the incumbent government, he said the visit was successful and productive. 

He was of the view of observing international relations, centering on the mutual interests of the nation, making sure that it would be for the interest of the nation and the citizens.

"There should be a common understanding among political parties and sides concerned about the nation's foreign policy," the Foreign Minister added.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) plunged by 38. 37 points to close at 2,051.47 points on Sunday.

Similarly, the sensitive index dropped by 7. 52 points to close at 392. 02 points.

A total of 8,007,361-unit shares of 265 companies were traded for Rs 2. 68 billion.

Meanwhile, IME Life Insurance Company Limited was the top gainer today with its price surging by 9. 99 percent. Likewise, Progressive Finance Limited was the top loser with its price dropping by 9. 59 percent.

At the end of the day, the total market capitalization stood at Rs 3. 01 trillion.