Submit your Article

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal said that the government is ready to form a high-level probe commission to investigate the Balkumari incident.

Prime Minister Dahal directed Home Minister Naarayan Kaji Shrestha to come up with a proposal to form a high-level probe commission under the headship of a former judge.

According to the Prime Minister’s Secretariat, Prime Minister Dahal instructed Home Minister Shrestha to bring the proposal in accordance with Section 3 (2) of the Commissions of Inquiry Act-1969.

A Cabinet meeting to be held on Monday will take a decision to form the commission after the Home Minister takes the proposal.

The Prime Minister’s Office said that the commission will start working from tomorrow itself.

Earlier this morning, the Nepali Congress had demanded the formation of a high-level probe commission to investigate the Balkumari incident.

Making public the decisions of the Central Committee meeting held for three days at the party office in Sanepa, party Publicity Department Chief Min Bishwokarma said that the party has demanded the formation of a high-level judicial probe committee.

Sujan Raut of Dailekh and Birendra Shah of Achham had died when the Korean Language test candidates clashed with police personnel at Balkumari in Lalitpur.

Raut and Shah, who was critically injured in the police firing, breathed their last during the course of treatment at the Kist and Patan Hospitals.

Police opened fire on protesters, who were not allowed to take part in the Korean language test for employment in South Korea, after they torched the vehicle of Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Prakash Jwala.

The Nepali Congress has demanded the formation of a high-level judicial probe committee to investigate the Balkumari incident.

Making public the decisions of the Central Committee meeting held for three days at the party office in Sanepa, party Publicity Department Chief Min Bishwokarma said that the party has demanded the formation of a high-level judicial probe committee.

The Home Ministry has formed a three-member probe committee under the headship of DIG Lalmani Acharya of the Valley Police Office to investigate the Balkumari incident.

Deputy Chief District Officer of Lalitpur Amardeep Sunuwar and Deputy Investigation Director at the National Investigation Department Basu Sigdel are other members of the committee.

The Congress demanded formation of a high-level judicial probe committee, expressing dissatisfaction over the committee formed by the government.

The NC has decided that the guilty should be punished by forming the judicial probe committee.

Bishwokarna stressed on the need to create job opportunities in the country.

Police opened the fire at the direction of the Lalitpur Chief District Officer Rudra Prasad Pandit.

Sujan Raut of Dailekh and Birendra Shah of Achham, who were critically injured in the clash with police, breathed their last during the court of treatment at the Kist and Patan Hospitals.

Police opened fire on protesters, who were not allowed to take part in the Korean language test for employment in South Korea, after they torched the vehicle of Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Prakash Jwala.

The price of gold has dropped by Rs 200 per tola in the domestic market on Sunday.

According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association, the yellow metal is being traded at Rs 120, 500 per tola today. It was traded at Rs 120, 700 per tola on Friday.

Meanwhile, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 119, 900 per tola. It was traded at Rs 120, 100 per tola.

Similarly, the silver is being traded at Rs 1,455 per tola today.

Gandaki Province head Prithvi Man Gurung has said that religion and culture play an important role in maintaining national unity.

In a message of best wishes on the occasion of 'Tamu Lhosar', a festival observed by the Tamu (Gurung) community today, he said that such festivals help increase goodwill in Nepali society while inspiring everyone to protect their religion, culture, customs and traditions. It also helps strengthen national unity.

Stating that the Gurung community is celebrating the Tamu Lhosar festival today bidding goodbye to the old year and welcoming the new year with joy and fervor, Province Chief Gurung has expressed his belief that the festival would provide inspiration to all to build a civilized, cultured and progressive country by enhancing the sense of mutual trust and solidarity.

The festival is being celebrated with enthusiasm mostly in Gurung majority districts like Lamjung, Gorkha, Tanahun, Syangja, Kaski and Parbat.

The Gurung community is marking Tamu Lhosar today by bidding adieu to the year gone by.

In the Gurung language, ‘Lho’ means year or age and ‘Sar’ denotes change. Members of the Gurung community mark the festival by organizing feasts and cultural programs.

Tamu Lhosar is also associated with the rays of the sun, it is said.

The festival is marked on the 15th of the Nepali month of Poush as sun rays reach early in the geography of Gurung settlements including Lamjung, Gorkha, Tanahun, Syangja, Manang, Kaski and Parbat.

The festival is marked by the Tamang and Sherpa community in the Nepali month of Magh and Falgun, respectively.

The government has announced a public holiday on the occasion of Tamu Lhosar.

Members of the Gurung community will organize a special program at Tundikhel, Kathmandu, today. RSS

In the Lives of Puppets

TJ Klune

Fantasy 

In a strange little home built into the branches of a grove of trees, live three robots—fatherly inventor android Giovanni Lawson, a pleasantly sadistic nurse machine, and a small vacuum desperate for love and attention. Victor Lawson, a human, lives there too. They’re a family, hidden and safe. The day Vic salvages and repairs an unfamiliar android labeled ‘HAP,’ he learns of a shared dark past between Hap and Gio—a past spent hunting humans. When Hap unwittingly alerts robots from Gio’s former life, Gio is captured and taken back to his old laboratory in the City of Electric Dreams. The rest of Vic’s assembled family must journey across an unforgiving and otherworldly country to rescue Gio from decommissioning, or worse, reprogramming.

Check & Mate

Ali Hazelwood

Romance | Young Adult 

Mallory Greenleaf is done with chess. Until she begrudgingly agrees to play in one last charity tournament and inadvertently wipes the board with notorious ‘Kingkiller’ Nolan Sawyer: current world champion and reigning Bad Boy of chess. Nolan’s loss to an unknown rookie shocks everyone. What’s even more confusing? His desire to cross pawns again. What kind of gambit is Nolan playing? The smart move would be to walk away. Resign. Game over. But Mallory’s victory opens the door to sorely needed cash-prizes and despite everything, she can’t help feeling drawn to the enigmatic strategist. As she rockets up the ranks, Mallory struggles to keep her family safely separated from the game that wrecked it in the first place.

Hidden Potential

Adam Grant

Self Help | Psychology 

Hidden Potential offers a new framework for raising aspirations and exceeding expectations. Adam Grant weaves together groundbreaking evidence, surprising insights, and vivid storytelling that takes us from the classroom to the boardroom, the playground to the Olympics, and underground to outer space. He shows that progress depends less on how hard you work than how well you learn. Growth is not about the genius you possess—it’s about the character you develop. Grant explores how to build character skills and motivational structures to realize our own potential, and how to design systems that create opportunities for those who have been underrated and overlooked.

Members of the former royal family have knocked the doors of the parliamentary committee, contending that their land and property have been unjustly frozen by the Land Revenue Office.

Dilasha, Shitashma, and Puja, the three daughters of the late Dhirendra Shah, the younger brother of former king Gyanendra Shah, filed a complaint with the State Affairs and Good Governance Committee of the House of Representatives on Dec 24.

The committee hasn’t initiated discussion on the complaint yet as some members of the committee contend that the issue doesn’t fall under the committee’s scope of work. The three have argued in the complaint that the state has unfairly discriminated against them by freezing their property, citing land holding ceiling. They are seeking the parliamentary committee's intervention to uphold their constitutional right to own property.

The Land Revenue Office, Kathmandu, has frozen the land and property owned by Dhirendra’s late wife, Preksha, stating that the landholding exceeds the ceiling set by the government. Fifteen years ago, the Land Revenue Office, Kathmandu, issued a directive to freeze 35 ropanis of land in Kathmandu Metropolitan City-3.

The Land Reforms Act, 1964 had set a land holding ceiling in Kathmandu for individuals at 58 ropanis. The amendment to the act made in 2001 reduced the ceiling to 30 ropanis. They have also contended that the 35 ropanis cannot be considered the landholding of a single family, as family members above the age of 16 must be treated as separate individuals according to the revised definition of 'family' in the 2006 amendment to the Land Reforms Act.

In their complaint, the three claimed that the property was divided and registered under their respective names on April 1, 2008, while the decision to freeze the property was made on May 10, 2008. They also claimed that the ownership of the land and property belonging to their mother Preksha was rightfully transferred to their names and they also own land ownership certificates issued by the Land Revenue Office, Dillibazaar.

Dhirendra Shah was killed in the Royal Palace Massacre on June 1, 2001, while his wife Preksha died in a helicopter accident in Mugu district five months later. They have said in the complaint that they submitted applications to the National Vigilance Center, Department of Land Reforms and Management, and Land Revenue Office, Kathmandu, four years ago for the release of the land, but to no avail.

India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is arriving in Nepal on January 4 to take part in the meeting of the Nepal-India joint commission.

The Foreign Ministry said that a team of Jaishankar will arrive in Kathmandu by a special plane of the Indian Air Force.

Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra and Anurag Srivastava, head of the Northern Division at the Ministry of External Affairs among others are in the team.

A meeting of the Nepal-India joint commission will be held on January 4.

Matters of mutual cooperation and bilateral relations will be discussed in the meeting, it has been said.

The Foreign Ministry said that an agreement will also be signed on the small development project of the Indian Embassy in the meeting.

Under this project, the Indian Embassy can directly invest up to Rs 200 million in Nepal.

A Cabinet meeting held recently had decided to allow the Indian Embassy to invest up to Rs 200 million in Nepal.

The power trade agreement will also be signed in the meeting.

During Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s India visit, India had signed an agreement to purchase 10, 000 megawatt of electricity in 10 years.

While staying in Nepal, the Jaishankar’a team will call on President Ram Chandra Paudel and Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal.

The Indian leaders are also scheduled to meet Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba and CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli among others.

They will return to India on January 5.