Submit your Article

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal is leaving for India on Saturday to take part in the oath taking ceremony of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Indian Prime Minister Modi is preparing to take the oath of office and secrecy for the third time on Saturday.

Prime Minister Dahal and his Indian counterpart Modi held a telephonic conversation on Wednesday night.

On the occasion, the two leaders briefly discussed the matters concerning mutual benefits and common interests of both the countries, a Baluwatar source informed.

ALSO READ: What will Modi’s 3.0 mean for Nepal ? 

During the conversation, Indian Prime Minister Modi invited Dahal to participate in his swearing in ceremony.

After receiving Modi’s formal invitation, Prime Minister Dahal started preparations to leave for India.

According to a source, he will leave for New Delhi on Friday evening or Saturday morning.

The Prime Minister’s Office informed that a Cabinet meeting to be held today will decide on the Prime Minister’s visit by accepting Modi’s invitation.

There is a partial influence of local and westerly wind along with a low pressure area expanded from Uttar Pradesh of India to Eastern Bangladesh in the country, the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology said.

According to the Meteorological Forecasting Division, the weather will be partly to generally cloudy throughout the country at present with light to moderate rain with thunder and lightning at some places of Koshi and Bagmati Provinces and one or two places of other provinces.

The weather will be partly to generally cloudy in the hilly region and fair in the rest of the country this afternoon. Light to moderate rain with thunder and lightning is likely to occur at a few places of Koshi, Madhes, Bagmati and Gandaki Provinces and at one or two places of the rest of the country.

According to a weather bulletin issued by the Department this morning, there is a possibility of a storm in one or two places of Sudurpaschim, Karnali, Lumbini and Koshi Provinces. There are chances of light snowfall at one or two places of the high hilly and mountainous regions of the country. Similarly, the weather will be partly to generally cloudy in the hilly regions of the country, including Koshi, Bagmati and Gandaki Provinces tonight. Light to moderate rain with thunder and lightning is likely to occur at some places of Koshi, Bagmati and Gandaki provinces.

Light to moderate rain accompanied by thunder and lightning is likely to occur at a few places of Koshi, Madhes, Bagmati and Gandaki Provinces and at one or two places of the rest of the country in the next 24 hours.

Stating that there are chances of thunderstorms at one or two places of Sudurpaschim, Karnali, Lumbini and Koshi Provinces, the Department has urged the people to remain alert.

Kathmandu Valley will receive normal rainfall this afternoon. According to the Department, the temperature will remain between 29 and 31 degrees Celsius this afternoon.

The price of gold has increased by Rs 1, 800 per tola in the domestic market on Thursday.

According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association, the precious yellow metal is being traded at Rs 144, 000 per tola today. It was traded at Rs 142, 200 per tola on Wednesday.

Similarly, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 143, 300 per tola.

Meanwhile, the silver is being traded at Rs 1,850 per tola today.

The second meeting of the Nepal-Finland Bilateral Consultation Mechanism was held in Kathmandu on Wednesday.

Chief of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA)'s Europe America Division and joint-secretary led the Nepali delegation in the meeting while Deputy Secretary of the State for International Development at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland Pasi Hellman led the Finish team.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, both sides discussed the Nepal-Finland relations and bilateral cooperation.

The meeting reviewed the bilateral relations and expressed satisfaction on the current status of the Nepal-Finland ties.

Both the sides laid emphasis on exchanging high-level visits and enhancing partnerships.

The Nepali sides had extended gratitude to Finland for its continued support in the areas of drinking water, sanitation, education and climate change. The Finland side had expressed its interest to expand development to Nepal in the areas of innovative facilities, particularly public sector investment facilities.

Matters related to mutual cooperation in the regional and global forums. Both the sides had agreed to work together on global issues, including climate change and multilateralism in the multilateral forums were also discussed in the meeting.

Madhes Province Chief Sumitra Bhandari called for the formation of a new government in the province on Wednesday.

The Province Chief called for the formation of a new government after Chief Minister Saroj Kumar Yadav failed to secure a vote of confidence in the Madhes Province Assembly on June 5.

Issuing a notice, acting Secretary of the Office of Province Chief Satrughan Yadav said the Province Assembly members have been given time till 10 am Friday to present their claim for the post of Chief Minister as per the Article 168 (2) of the Constitution.

"It is to inform that Madhes Province Chief Sumitra Subedi Bhandari has called for the Province Assembly members who can secure a majority on the backing of two or more than two political parties represented in the Province Assembly to present a claim for the Chief Minister by 10 am Friday in accordance with the Article 168 (2) of the Constitution", the notice reads.

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a telephonic conversation on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Dahal telephoned his Indian counterpart Modi to extend best wishes for the successful accomplishment of Lok Sabha elections with the unveiling of the results of the polls held in seven phases.

On the occasion, the two leaders briefly discussed the matters concerning mutual benefits and common interests of both the countries, the Kathmandu-based Indian Embassy said.

PM Dahal expressed his readiness to work in partnership and collaboration with the to-be-formed Indian government so as to further deepen the Nepal-India relations.

PM Modi had also expressed his happiness for having conversation with his Nepali counterpart.

"I am very happy to talk to Prime Minister Prachanda. I thanked him for his warm wishes. Emphasizing our shared commitment to strengthen the deep and multifaceted partnership between India and Nepal, we agreed to maintain a positive momentum in our relations", the Indian Embassy quoted PM Modi as saying.

According to the Lok Sabha election results, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has secured 293 seats, while Prime Minister Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 240 seats alone.

Madhes Province Chief Minister Saroj Kumar Yadav on Wednesday lost his confidence vote.

He sought the vote of confidence at the Province Assembly meeting this evening.

Of the 103 lawmakers present at the meeting, 50 votes were cast in favor of Yadav 53 votes were cast against him.

The Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal-led government collapsed after he failed to garner a vote of confidence.

This has paved the way to form a new government in the Madesh Province.

The central coalition is preparing to form a new government under the leadership of Janata Samajbadi Party.

Earlier, the Janata Samajbadi Party had made an agreement with the CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Center) to form a new government.

However, the party had tried to rope in Madhav Kumar Nepal-led CPN (Unified Socialist) and Mahantha Thakur-led Democratic Socialist Party in the government.

Though the CPN (Unified Socialist) had voted against Chief Minister Yadav, the party has not been able to make a decision on whether to join the government or not.

Meanwhile, the Nepali Congress and Thakur-led Democratic Socialist Party had voted in favor of Yadav.

Lawmakers have pressed for the effective implementation of the budget for the fiscal year 2024/25, terming that its implementation was challenging.

The incumbent government on May 28 announced a budget of Rs 1.86 trillion for the upcoming fiscal year.

Speaking at the Parliament meeting today, lawmaker Ramhari Khatiwada emphasized the promptness of the government to effectively implement the budget.

Stating that there were cases of allocating a budget but not implementing it effectively in the previous years, he drew the attention of the government through the Speaker to prevent such a situation.

According to him, an adequate budget should be allocated for the mega projects and the government should pay attention for timely completion of such projects.

Khatiwada viewed that the trend of spending budget towards the end of fiscal year should be ended and development infrastructures should be prioritized.

Similarly, Ishwor Bahadur Lama hailed that some new programs included in the budget were 'positive' and thus highlighted the need for effective implementation.

Furthermore, he demanded to observe May 29 as the Sagarmatha Day and give continuity to 'Sagarmatha Dialogue'. Sagarmatha Dialogue is an initiative of the government of Nepal to host a permanent biennial global dialogue forum in Nepal starting from 2020.

Likewise, Tshiring Damdul Lama Bhote termed the budget as balanced, timely and dynamic, adding it has covered social justice, good-governance and prosperity.

Stating that the budget had prioritized five sectors as transformative areas, he underlined the need to make the budget implementation-oriented.

Sishir Khanal said the budget was balanced. According to him, although the budget could not accord any importance to minimizing the risks of climate change, inclusion of development of information technology and expansion of air connectivity among others were positive aspects of the budget.

Aain Bahadur Shahi Thakuri claimed that the implementation of the budget would be difficult since, he argued, that the budget was populist one. He grieved that the budget failed to adequately incorporate Karnalis' issues.

Chandra Bahadur Bishwakarma saw the need for thought and commitment for budget implementation. Durga Rai said that the budget had incorporated transformative sectors and all regions, communities and geography.

Prem Suwal, however, argued that the budget could not address the reality of the country, expressing his discontent that the government handed over responsibility of carrying out ordinary tasks to the private sector.

Also, airing views, lawmaker Deepak Giri lamented that there was no practical implementation of the annual budget.

Thakur Gairi said the budget was fundamentally right. He questioned whether the ruling parties could not maintain consistency in their common policies and programs.

Purna Bahadur Gharti mentioned that he had full support for the budget presented by the incumbent government. According to him, the budget was a positive one since it had made a pledge for implementation of the Constitution, increasing employment, completing remaining works of the peace process and building a socialism-oriented economy.

Santosh Pariyar demanded to declare Kathmandu City as a 'Cultural City'. He emphasized on moving ahead reducing the existing gap between current expenditure and capital expenditure.

Krishna Kumar Shrestha underlined that the budget had highly prioritized issues such as the underground irrigation program in Terai-Madhes, shallow tube well irrigation and agro development such as making soil fertile.

He argued that the government did not pay attention to addressing acute shortage of drinking water in Terai-Madhes.

Amresh Kumar Singh commented that the budget was allocated on the basis of political influence and it did not pay attention towards addressing recession in the economy.

Lawmakers Bina Jaiswal, Sushila Shrestha, Sonu Murmu and Sarbendranath Shuikla critically commented on the budget for the coming fiscal year.