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House of Representative members elected from the by-elections Rabi Lamichhane and Swarnim Wagle took the oath of office and secrecy on Friday. Speaker Devraj Ghimire administered the oath of office and secrecy to Lamichhane and Wagle amidst a program organized in Singha Durbar this morning. Lamichhane was elected from Chitwan-2 and Wagle from Tanahun-1. The by-election in Chitwan-2 was held after the Supreme Court scrapped Rastriya Swatantra Party President Lamichhane’s lawmaker post saying that he had never applied to reclaim his Nepali citizenship after renouncing his American citizenship. Similarly, the by-election in Tanahun-1 was held after Nepali Congress lawmaker Ram Chandra Paudel was elected as the President of the country. Meanwhile, Janata Samajbadi Party Chairman Upendra Yadav, who was elected from Bara-2, did not take part in the swearing in ceremony.    

Karnali Province Chief Minister Raj Kumar Sharma is seeking a vote of confidence on Friday. Chief Minister Sharma is seeking a vote of confidence from the National Province Assembly after the CPN-UML withdrew the support extended to the government. He is scheduled to take a vote of confidence at 3 pm in the Province Assembly meeting. Nepali Congress, CPN (Maoist Center) and CPN (Unified Socialist) are preparing to give a vote of confidence to Chief Minister Sharma. In the 40-member Province Assembly, Nepali Congress has 14 lawmakers, CPN (Maoist Center) 13 and CPN (Unified Socialist) one. It has been learnt that independent lawmaker Devendra Bahadur Shahi, who was elected from Jumla, will also give a trust vote of the provincial government. CPN (Maoist Center) Parliamentary Party leader Sharma was appointed as the chief minister on January 11. He was appointed as the chief minister with support of CPN-UML, CPN (Unified Socialist) and Rastriya Prajatantra Party. Sharma sought a vote of confidence for the first time on January 20. He sought a vote of confidence for the second time on March 31 after the Rastriya Prajatantra Party withdrew support extended to the government.  

A pedestrian died after being hit by a motorbike at Sajhapur in Bharatpur Metropolitan City-28, Chitwan on Thursday. The deceased has been identified as Jalawa Mahato (55) of the area. Seriously injured Mahato died while receiving treatment at the Bharatpur Hospital, Spokesperson of the District Police Office, Chitwan, Bijayaraj Pandit said. The motorbike (Na 22 Pa 6800) hit him at around 9 pm yesterday. Bike rider Shiva Narayan Mahato (34) of Bharatpur Metropolitan City-27 has sustained injuries and is receiving treatment at Chitwan Medical College.    

Nepali Congress Parliamentary Party leader Dilli Bahadur Chaudhary has been appointed as the chief minister of Lumbini Province. He had submitted a claim for the chief ministership with the support of 53 lawmakers of eight political parties today itself. Province Chief Amik Sherchan appointed him as the chief minister with the support of a majority of lawmakers as per Article 168 (2) of the Constitution. Sherchan had called on parties to stake claim for the chief minister as per Article 168 (2) of the Constitution after Lumbini Province Chief Minister Leela Giri failed to secure a vote of confidence. The Province Chief office said that Chaudhary will be administered the oath of office and secrecy on Friday.    

Australian Ambassador to Nepal Felicity Volk paid a courtesy call on Minister for Foreign Affairs NP Saud on Thursday. The meeting focused on expanding bilateral cooperation, especially people to people relations, tourism and education sectors, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.    

Nepal reported 111 new Covid-19 cases and one death on Thursday. With this, the number of people who lost their lives to coronavirus has reached 12, 029. According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 2, 517 swab samples were tested in the last 24 hours, of which 111 tested positive. The Ministry said that 60 infected people recovered from the disease. As of today, there are 378 active cases in the country.  

The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has said its attention has been drawn towards the programs carried out by political parties and their sister organizations in some schools within the KMC. The KMC directed such political parties and their sister organizations not to organize political activities in schools onwards as the KMC Education Department has received complaints with evidence that political parties and their sister organizations held programs in schools against existing Education Act and Regulations. KMC Education Officer Sitaram Koirala said the KMC would monitor the schools based on the complaints and it has made preparations to take departmental action to principal of such schools if political activities were found carried out there. Similarly, 'Book Free Friday' program is going to be launched in all community schools from this academic session. The KMC has asked all the community schools to mandatorily run the program. As per the program, students will go to school on regular time on every Friday without carrying bags and return home after participating in extracurricular activities and practical knowledge, added Koirala. The KMC has already distributed Rs 100,000 budget to every secondary school for the same and preparation has been made to increase the budget up to Rs 200,000 next year. Likewise, the KMC has set a plan to expand the program at private schools from next year. There are 89 community schools and 540 private schools within KMC.

The government is planning to redefine the jurisdiction of the motorway (road) according to the country's federal structure. The move to re-classification the jurisdiction of each government has come at a time when confusion and duplication have prevailed among the three tiers of the government over the responsibility of roads. The Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport (MoPIT) has started the process to reclassify the jurisdiction of motorable roads that are being operated and are under construction. After the country adopted the federal system of governance, the government in May 2018 determined the jurisdiction of each government by classifying the roads. However, disputes related to jurisdiction between the federal, provincial, and local levels have emerged in many road projects. As confusion continues to exist, all three tiers of the government have been allocating budgets for the same road project. To end this dilemma, MoPIT has started the process to reclassify the roads to clearly define the jurisdiction of each government. Principally, there is a policy arrangement that national highways should be looked after and operated by the federal government, province-level highways by the provincial government and local-level roads by the local level. As per the Appendix 5 of the Constitution of Nepal, only national highways come under the purview of the federal government. This means other smaller highways and roads and bridges are the responsibility of provincial or local governments. However, the policy is not followed. Even eight years after the constitution promulgation and five years after the elections that installed three tiers of the government, not all the smaller road projects have been handed over to the provincial governments and local levels. MoPIT has formed a committee headed by Joint Secretary Arjun Jung Thapa that has already started its task to reclassify the roads. Currently, there are around 80 national highways including the Prithvi Highway, East-West Highway, North-South Corridors, and Mid-Hill Highway. According to Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Prakash Jwala, the reclassification of roads will end the confusion over the jurisdiction of roads that has hampered the development of roadways connectivity in the country. "In some roads, all three governments are working, allocating budgets while in some important road projects, none of the governments have allocated resources," said Jwala. "Now, we will prepare a clear policy plan that will define the jurisdiction." Govt to extend renewal time of driving license The government is extending the period for renewing driving licenses to 10 years from the current five years. In a press meet organized at MoPIT on Tuesday, minister Jwala informed that the process of extending the driving license renewal period to 10 years has been moved forward. He said that the ministry has decided to extend the renewal period after holding discussions with all agencies concerned.