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Chief Election Commissioner Dinesh Thapaliya hinted that the elections to the House of Representatives and Provincial Assembly will be held on November 20.

During a press conference organized by the Election Commission on Tuesday, he said that it would not be surprising if the next meeting of the Cabinet announced the date of November 20 for the elections.

He said that the expenses may increase in the elections.

Saying that the poll body had printed 20 billion ballot papers for the local level elections, Thapaliya said that 80 million ballot papers should be printed for the upcoming elections.

The Chief Election Commissioner said that the Election Commission has already started internal preparations for the elections.

Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday went to the office of the Enforcement Directorate in Delhi for the second round of questioning in connection with the National Herald-money laundering case, Hindustan Times reported.

As part of the planned protest, Congress MPs marched from the Gandhi Statue on the Parliament premises towards Vijay Chowk. Several of them, including Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Ranjeet Ranjan, KC Venugopal, Manickam Tagore, Imran Pratapgarhi and K Suresh were detained during the march.

Before being detained, Rahul said discussions are not allowed inside Parliament, while MPs are arrested out for protesting. “All (Congress) MPs came here. They talked about inflation, unemployment. They (Police) are not allowing us to sit here. Discussions are not allowed inside (the Parliament) and here they are arresting us,” the Wayanad MP was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

The Congress leadership has planned a ‘satyagrahs’ (peaceful protests) across the national capital and elsewhere in protest against the interrogation. The Delhi Police has denied the party permission to agitate at the Raj Ghat and imposed Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code in the area.

Earlier, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra accompanied their mother to the ED office. Rahul Gandhi has been questioned extensively in the same case recently.

Congress MPs met at the office of Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge on Parliament premises and are likely to stage a march towards the ED office to protest against the questioning.

Workers of the All India Mahila Congress have begun their stir outside the party headquarters in Delhi.

Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar said the central is trying to harass Opposition leaders and his party will fight against it. “They’re trying to harass Opposition leaders, we’ll fight it. We’re with Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. You can’t harass us anymore.”

Gandhi was earlier questioned for a few hours on Thursday last week and Congress leaders had staged a protest across the country. Party MPs had also courted arrest in Delhi against her questioning, according to Hindustan Times.

The ED probe relates to alleged financial irregularities in the Congress-promoted Young Indian Private Limited, which owns the National Herald newspaper.

Nepal recorded 638 new Covid-19 cases and two deaths on Tuesday.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 2, 215 swab samples were tested in the RT-PCR method, of which 400 returned positive. Likewise, 2, 840 people underwent antigen tests, of which 238 tested positive.

As of today, there are 3, 714 active cases in the country.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) plunged by 44. 80 points to close at 2,088.16 points on Tuesday.

Similarly, the sensitive index dropped by 8. 99 points to close at 398. 39 points.

A total of 8,740,551 units of the shares of 222 companies were traded for Rs 3. 70 billion.

Meanwhile, Multipurpose Finance Company Limited was the top gainer today with its price surging by 9. 32 percent. Likewise, Ganapati Laghubitta Bittiya Sanstha Limited was the top loser with its price dropped by 6. 82 percent.

At the end of the day, the total market capitalisation stood at Rs 2. 98 trillion.

A person died in a motorbike accident at Satpatti in Susta Rural Municipality-2 of Nawalparasi on Tuesday.

The deceased has been identified as bike rider  Omnath Phauhadar (53) of Salbas, Sarawal Rural Municipality-1.

Critically injured in the incident, he breathed his last during the course of treatment at the Chaupatta-based Shahid Smriti Community Hospital.

Kudiya Police Post said that the incident occurred when Phauhadar lost control of the two-wheeler (Lu 22 Pa 3675) and fell off a bridge.

Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota urged the lawmakers to compulsorily wear masks after the main opposition CPN-UML drew the attention of the government towards the increasing cases of Covid-19.

In view of the increasing cases of Covid-19, Speaker Sapkota, during a meeting of the House of Representatives, urged the lawmakers to wear masks.

“You all know that the Covid-19 cases have been increasing day by day. That is why, I would like to request you all to wear masks while attending the meeting of the Parliament,” he said. Most of the lawmakers were not wearing the masks.

Speaking at the meeting, UML lawmaker Yogesh Bhattari drew the attention of the government saying that it is not serious towards monkeypox, cholera and Covid-19.

Though the World Health Organization (WHO) declared monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern, Nepal has not made any preparations to stop the disease from entering the country.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Monday suspended four protesting Congress members for the remainder of the monsoon session, amid continuing disruptions in Parliament proceedings by the Opposition on issues of high inflation and GST (goods and services tax) on household essentials. The Lower House was then adjourned till Tuesday, Hindustan Times reported.

The MPs who stormed the well of the House holding placards were suspended under Rule 374(2) “for serious note of misconduct in utter disregard of the House and the authority of the Chair...”, according to the resolution for their suspension.

The suspended parliamentarians are Manickam Tagore, TN Prathapan, S Jothimani and Ramya Haridas. Prathapan and Haridas are from Kerala and the other two lawmakers belong to Tamil Nadu. 

“People want Parliament to function,” Birla said on Monday, appealing for order in the House. This was the first time that members were suspended in the current session. The suspension lapses at the end of the session but the four lawmakers named by the Speaker can individually appeal to him to lessen the duration.

“The government is ready to discuss issues raised by the Opposition,” Birla said. If members wanted to protest with placards, they could do so outside the House, he said. Parliamentary affairs minister Prahlad Joshi requested Birla to disqualify the MPs who trooped into the well and were holding placards inside the House, according to Hindustan Times.

The Opposition, led by Congress and Trinamool Congress members, demonstrated inside the Lok Sabha, leading to an adjournment till 3pm after the lunch recess. Parliament proceedings have been continuously disrupted since the monsoon session began on July 18. Opposition MPs shouted slogans and marched to the well of the House with placards.Tagore moved an adjournment motion in the Lok Sabha to discuss the imposition of 5% goods and services tax on items of daily use such as pre-packed and labelled food grains, curd, butter and milk, among others.

“For the past six days, we have been giving notices to adjourn the House and discuss fuel price rise and GST. We want Parliament to function and discuss price rise. But the government has refused to discuss the issues so far. We were forced to show placards as Sansad TV doesn’t show us when we protest. Whenever we raise issues, Sansad TV only shows the ruling benches,” Tagore told reporters. 

Officials pointed out that it is not the first time that parliamentarians have been suspended from the House in this Lok Sabha. “The last case of suspension took place on April 5, 2020 when a total of seven Opposition MPs were temporarily suspended from the Lok Sabha,” an official said, Hindustan Times reported.

Police have arrested an Indian national in possession of Rs 2.4 million undeclared money from Dhanusha.

The arrestee has been identified as Abdul Sami (19) of Bihar, India.

Acting on a tip-off, a police team deployed from the Hanumannagar Police Station nabbed Sami with the cash while he was heading towards Janarkpur from Lohana, Janakpurdham Sub-Metropolitan City-12 on a motorbike (BR 32 AJ 0170).

DSP Pradeep Kumar Chhetri of the District Police Office, Dhanusha said that they have recovered Rs 23,089,480 from his possession.

He said that they are looking into the case.