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The government has decided to approve the grant assistance and the technical assistance related to the feasibility study for the trans-border railway to be received under the Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreement proposed by the government of the People’s Republic of China. 

Government spokesperson and Minister for Communication and Information Technology Gyanendra Bahadur Karki  informed about this during a press conference organized today at the Ministry while making public the decisions made by a meeting of the Council of Ministers on March 28. 

Minister Karki said the Cabinet meeting decided to extend the term of the implementation agreement concerning the oil and natural gas resource survey in Nepal by two years. It decided to approve the letter of intent related to zero customs and quota-free facility between Nepal and China as well as the agreement regarding the feasibility of grid connection between the two countries. 

According to the government spokesperson, the meeting decided to declare the Tilaurakot Kapilbastu area as a ‘protected monument zone’. It approved the visit of a team led by National Planning Commission (NPC) vice-chair Dr Bishwonath Poudel that participated in the 20th edition of the Doha Forum conference held on March 26 and 27 in Doha, Qatar. It approved the India visit of Toyam Raya, the Secretary at the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), from April 1 to 10.

The Monday’s Cabinet meeting has also made appointments to various government bodies. Accordingly, Lekhnath Sharma Pangeni and Dr Jeevan Angai have been appointed members of the Nepal Revenue Advisory Committee, and Sanjeev Jha the General Manager of Dairy Development Corporation.

Similarly, Bhairab Raj Regmi is appointed a member of the National Land Commission while Karuna KC has been designated as the Deputy Director-General of the Survey Department. 

The Cabinet has also appointed and installed, as per the recommendation of the Public Service Commission and the Judicial Service Commission, the Gazetted Second Class officers of various services and groups in the Gazetted First Class posts of the related service groups.

The government has formed a recommendation committee under the convenorship of the Secretary at the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology for appointing a member of the Nepal Telecommunication Authority. It has decided to give approval to Dr Kedar Bhakta Mathema, former ambassador of Nepal to Japan, to receive an Honour to be conferred on him by the Government of Japan. 

The Cabinet meeting has given temporary approval to the Chitwan Engineering Campus Rampur for running classes of the new course programme in Bachelor of Architecture, with an intake of 24 students. RSS

The ruling Nepali Congress has decided to forge an alliance in the forthcoming local level elections.

A Central Committee meeting held on Tuesday made the decision to this effect.

Party spokesperson Prakash Saran Mahat said that the meeting has decided to forge an electoral alliance as per the local needs.

Both domestic and international flights have at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) have been affected since Monday due to poor visibility.

According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), the flights to and from the TIA have been affected due to poor visibility. 

TIA spokesperson Teknath Sitoula said that the weather has been hazy since Monday morning and the takeoff and landing would be regular once the weather improves. RSS

The weather will be partly to generally cloudy in most parts of the country with chances of rain and gusty winds at some places due to the influence of the Westerly low pressure system.

The Department of Hydrology and Meteorology stated that there is possibility of intermittent rain and gusty wind along with thunder and lightning at some places of the hilly region of Province no 1, Bagmati province and Gandaki province, urging for adopting necessary alertness.

It will be partly to generally cloudy in the hilly region of Province no 1, Bagmati province and Gandaki province, and generally fair in the rest of the country tonight with chances of light rain and thunder and lightning at one or two places of the hilly region in Province no 1 and Gandaki province, the Department said. RSS

Nepal reported 42 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 4, 322 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 30 returned positive. Likewise, 1, 149 people underwent antigen tests, of which 12 were tested positive.

The Ministry said that no one died of virus in the last 24 hours. The Ministry said that 86 infected people recovered from the disease.

As of today, there are 1, 198 active cases in the country.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) plunged by 14. 26 points to close at 2,527.58 points on Tuesday.

Similarly, the sensitive dropped by 2. 15 points to close at 471. 93 points.

A total of 3,890,131 units of the shares of 225 companies were traded for Rs 1. 75 billion.

Meanwhile, Emerging Nepal Limited was the top gainer today with its price surging by 10 percent. Likewise, NIBL Samriddhi Fund-2 was the top loser with its price dropped by 4.73 percent.

At the end of the day, the total market capitalization stood at Rs 3. 58 trillion.

Nepal and the Republic of South Sudan have established diplomatic relations.

With this, the number of countries with which Nepal has bilateral diplomatic relations reached 175.

Permanent Representative of Nepal to the United Nations Amrit Bahadur Rai and Permanent Representative of the Republic of South Sudan to the United Nations Akuei Bona Malwal signed a Joint Communiqué to this effect in a brief ceremony held at the Permanent Mission of Nepal to the United Nations.

The two Ambassadors also signed a joint letter informing the Secretary-General of the United Nations António Guterres about the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

On the occasion, the two Ambassadors exchanged views on various matters of common interest to strengthen bilateral cooperation in national and multilateral settings, particularly at UN forums for the mutual benefit of the two countries.

They also discussed how a country could make the successful transition from conflict to peace in the context of South Sudan’s ongoing peace process. 

Ambassador Rai expressed Nepal’s willingness to share its experience on homegrown peace processes to achieve peace in South Sudan.  

Both Nepal and South Sudan are the members of Group of Least Developed Countries, and Landlocked Developing Countries as well as G77 and China. RSS

Nepal is preparing to discuss border issues with India.

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba is embarking on a three-day visit to India on Friday.

Nepal is preparing to raise border issues during Prime Minister Deuba’s India visit, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

Organizing a press conference in the Ministry on Tuesday, spokesperson Sewa Lamsal said that as the border issues between Nepal and India are an important topic, it will be discussed during the Prime Minister’s visit to India.