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With the rising consumption of millet, stakeholders have highlighted the urgent need to boost its production in Nepal.

As part of efforts to raise awareness about millet farming, an event commemorating the 3rd International Millet Day was organized in Mandan Deupur-6 Municipality of Kavre in the joint coordination of the National Farmers Groups Federation Nepal, Anaj Nepal, Mandan Deupur Municipality, Food and Agriculture Organization, Care Nepal, and Milan Women Agriculture Group.

Navaraj Basnet, President of the federation, emphasized that millet is a crucial food crop for marginalized farmers, forming the basis of their livelihood. He urged the government to prioritize millet farming, promote awareness about climate-friendly farming practices, and educate the public about the health benefits and suitability of millet cultivation. Additionally, he stressed the importance of linking millet processing and entrepreneurship to agricultural education.

Similarly, Dr Ram Krishna Shrestha, Chief of Crop Development and Agricultural Biodiversity Conservation Center, shared that the government is actively promoting millet farming in 167 rural municipalities this year, an increase from the 133 municipalities covered last year. “The program includes various components, such as crop production, branding, marketing, and the protection of indigenous crops,” he added. Likewise, Dr Hari Bahadur KC, a joint secretary at the Department of Agriculture, informed that the government is taking measures to protect indigenous crops like millets. “We need a concerted effort from all stakeholders to increase millet production,” he added.

Also speaking on the occasion, Uddhav Adhikari, Chairman of Agriculture Campaign for Food, underscored the importance of prioritizing millet cultivation, stating that farmers across the country are giving up millet farming. “Now that people have realized the significance of this crop and its potential, the government needs to provide support to farmers to increase production,” he added.

Recognizing the global importance of millets, the United Nations General Assembly has declared 2023 as the International Year of Millets. The government has also designated this year as the Year of Millets, with the theme ‘Millet Crops for Food Nutrition, Security, Environment, and Rural Transformation’. Nepal is ranked 13th in the world for millet production, with 320,953 tons produced in 2020, according to data from the Food and Agriculture Organization. However, due to the surging domestic demand, Nepal has been importing a significant quantity of millet, amounting to Rs 732m in 2022/23, an increase from Rs 722m in 2021/22.

The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police will further investigate the 100 kg gold seized by the Department of Revenue Investigation (DRI).

The DRI under the Prime Minister’s Office has been carrying out an investigation of the gold recovered so far.

Following widespread criticism that the DRI would not be able to take the investigation to a logical conclusion, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal is preparing to handover the case to the CIB.

Though Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha has been saying that police should also be involved in the gold investigation process, Prime Minister Dahal has not been seen giving much importance to his demand.

A long discussion about the gold investigation was held at the Prime Minister’s Office in Singhadurbar on Thursday.

Prime Minister Dahal, Home Minister Shrestha, DRI Director General Nawaraj Dhungana, Additional Inspector General (AIG) Basanta Kunwar and CIB Chief Kiran Bajracharya were present in the meeting.

During the meeting, Home Minister Shrestha had urged Prime Minister Dahal to allow CIB to investigate the case.

But an argument broke out between Home Minister Shrestha and PM Dahal when the latter said that the DRI itself will conduct the investigation.

After that, Home Minister Shrestha left the meeting at 7:30 pm.

Though the Home Minister left the meeting, PM Dahal held the discussion with AIG Kunwar and CIB Chief Bajracharya.

On July 18, the DRI had confiscated around 100 kg of gold concealed in motorcycle brake shoes from Singamangal.

So far, police have arrested 18 persons in connection with the smuggled gold.

A child died and three others went missing after being buried by a landslide in Dolakha.

Chief District Officer Kamal Prasad Dhamal said that the body of 15-month-old grand-son of local Yagya Bahadur Thami was recovered on Friday.

The landslide triggered by incessant rainfall occurred at Topatar in Gaurishankar Rural Municipality-8 of Dolakha on Thursday night.

Krishna Bahadur Magar, his wife Devi Magar and Harilal Shrestha have been missing.

Three others were injured in the incident. Preparations are underway to airlift them to Kathmandu for treatment.

According to information provided by Sonam Sherpa, Chairman of Marbu, through telephone, the landslide buried five houses.

Nepal Police and Armed Police Force personnel have been mobilized to carry out rescue operations.

The government on Thursday inked a seven-point agreement with an organization representing the depositors, who have been staging a protest as part of their long struggle to get their savings back from different cooperatives.

The deal that led to suspension of the ongoing protest came at a meeting between the victims of cooperatives, Minister for Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation Ranjita Shrestha Chaudhary, Secretary Gokarnamani Duwadi, Registrar at the Cooperatives Department Namaraj Ghimire at Singhadurbar.  

“The meeting agreed to set up a savings and credit protection fund to ensure that the depositors get their money back,” said Prakash Joshi, spokesperson at the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation.

As part of the deal, the ministry has pledged to establish a credit information center and a credit recovery tribunal to speed up the deposit recovery process.

Per the deal, the ministry will coordinate with problematic cooperatives such as Oriental through their management committees to form a clear action plan and ensure its implementation for repayment of the depositors’ funds.

The two sides also agreed to protect the interests of depositors through the Cooperative Reform Suggestion Taskforce, formed by the Council of Ministers to give suggestions for reforms in the cooperative sector, by including a maximum of three representatives from among the victims, including those taking part in protest, as the taskforce’s invitee members.

“The minister has promised to meet our major demand—the repayment of our principal with interest,” said Harish Chandra Shrestha, coordinator of a federation representing the depositors defrauded by cooperatives.

Earlier in the day, the victims staged a demonstration at Bijulibazaar demanding that the government ensure the return of their savings with interest and pay them from the state coffers if the cooperatives fail to do so. Police stopped the demonstrators at Bijulibazaar Bridge while they were on their way to New Baneshwor for staging a protest outside the Parliament building.

The cooperatives had lured the depositors by promising high interest rates, only to deny them even the principal citing a liquidity crisis. The victims have been making rounds of government offices in their desperate bid to get their savings back through government intervention.

Earlier, an interim report of the Cooperative Problem Solving Suggestion Taskforce was handed over to Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal.

The interim report includes a 26-point suggestion on ways to handle problems plaguing the cooperatives across the country.

The report has suggested a number of measures including early establishment of a savings protection fund for the protection of depositors’ savings, a halt in the registration of new cooperatives and proper regulation of those currently operating.

Two more persons have been arrested for their alleged involvement in shooting Rohit Chaudhary (28) of Biratnagar Metropolitan City-5 to death.

Police said that so far, they have apprehended four persons involved in supplying the weapon (pistol) used in the incident and in the murder.

DSP Raj Kumar Rai, spokesperson at the District Police Office, Sunsari, said that two more persons were nabbed from Biratnagar and Dharan.

The arrestees have been identified as Prakash Limbu (30) of Prithvinagar, Bhadrapur Municipality-1, Jhapa and currently residing at Bhotepul, Dharan Sub-Metropolitan City-8 of Sunsari and Ajay Kumar Sharma aka Anju (41) of Janapath Tole, Biratnagar Metropolitan City-15.

DSP Rai said that Limbu has direct involvement in the murder.

Preliminary investigation revealed that Sharma had provided the pistol used in the incident to the racket involved in the murder.

Earlier, police had detained Deepak Timinsina (35) of Letang Municipality-1, Morang and Anasan Tamang (34) of Dharan-10, Sunsari for their alleged involvement in the murder of Chaudhary.

Koshi Province police Chief DIG Rajesh Nath Bastola on Wednesday made public Timilsina and Tamang by organizing a press conference at the Biratnagar-based Province Police Office.

DIG Bastola said that the duo were arrested with the pistol and seven rounds of bullets.

Chaudhary was shot dead near Seuti Bridge of Dharan on June 21.

A group of robbers shot Chaudhary to death in the Charkoshe Jungle while he was returning home in Biratnagar from Mulghat Dhunkuta after celebrating his 28^th birthday.

Incapacitated in the incident, Chaudhary was rushed to the Dharan-based BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences for treatment. But doctors pronounced him dead on arrival.

Sundari police Chief SP Sambhu Prasad Dhakal said that Timinsina, who had a criminal background, had opened fire on Chaudhary.

Timinsina was released two months ago after serving 10 years in prison on the rape charge.

Similarly, police said that Tamang was released two years ago after serving six months in prison in the drug case.

The gold is being traded at Rs 112, 200 per tola in the domestic market on Friday.

According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 111, 650 per tola.

Similarly, the silver is being traded at Rs 1,425 per tola today.

Four persons went missing after a landslide swept away a house at Topatar in Gaurishankar Rural Municipality-7 of Dolakha district on Thursday. Three were rescued in an injured condition.

The landslides damaged half-a-dozen houses in Topatar of Marbu and Salle of Khare and also swept away a concrete bridge in Topataram.

The landslide buried the settlement that fell from a cliff of Khare at around 5 pm yesterday.

According to information provided by Sonam Sherpa, Chairman of Marbu, through telephone, the landslide buried five houses.

The locals said that Yagya Thami, his wife and another person were injured in the incident. They were rescued in an injured state.

Krishna Bahadur Magar (55), his wife Dev Magar (55), Hari Lal Shrestha (55) and three-year-old Price Thami have gone missing.

Chairman Sherpa said that security personnel with the help of locals are searching for them.

Preparations are underway to airlift three persons injured in the incident to the Capital by a helicopter for treatment.

Major political parties have led a number of movements for the establishment and re-establishment of democracy in a space of eight decades. Successive generations of Nepalis have taken part in these movements, offering blood, sweat, toil and tears in their perennial struggle for cherished ideals like democracy, human dignity, the rule of law and good governance. 

Despite waves of change, popular aspirations have remained unrealized, by and large, with the leaders behind these waves of change themselves grossly misusing the organs of the state to fulfill their vested interests. 

Every now and then, the top brass of the big parties remind the public of their struggle against tyranny, including years spent behind bars and torture meted out against them, forgetting completely that one cannot live on their past laurels forever.
But the people often find in the statements and acts of their erstwhile heroes tell-tale signs of dictators donning the garb of democracy. 

Their deepening impression is that the more things change, the more they remain the same—in Nepal. 

Democracy is a culture and a way of life. Who knows this better than the leaders at the forefront of democratic movements?  

But then how many of our ‘champions of democracy’ have been living by their ideals after their victory against tyranny? Select figures of the big parties, for example, have been holding leadership positions for decades on end instead of making way for transfer of power by grooming their successors. Granted that transfer of power to the younger generation was easier said than done during the decade-long insurgency and the royal rule with democratic processes largely on hold. 

But even in the post-conflict scenario, practices aimed at promoting democracy within the respective parties continue to be a rarity.    

Such is the situation that the parties do not even bother to hold their central committee meetings, leave alone general conventions and policy conventions. That’s why, a party holding a meeting becomes big news and so does another party planning its jamboree, in a democracy! 

Having helmed party leadership positions for decades and discharged their duties as the chief executive of the country, it’s time our seasoned politicians did some serious soul-searching and started adopting democracy as a way of life. 

Freeing themselves from the coteries of their kith and kin can help boost internal democracy and so can regular party meetings. 

It’s time for our leaders to practice what they preach, if they really want to protect democracy from the specter of autocracy.