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Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal is preparing to reshuffle the Cabinet.

Prime Minister Dahal is to reshuffle the Cabinet by roping in the Nagarik Unmukti Party.

Nagarik Unmukti Party Chairperson Ranjita Shrestha said that she will be appointed as the minister within a week.

She said that the Prime Minister has promised her to give the responsibility of Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation within a week.

Prime Minister Dahal is preparing to appoint Shrestha as the minister by recalling Hit Bahadur Tamang.

Party founder Resham Chaudhary and Ranjita Shrestha still have differences within the party.

There is still a dispute between them about whether to support the government or not.

The Lumbini Province government has presented its policies and programs for the upcoming fiscal year 2024/25  in  the Province Assembly on Monday.

Province Chief Amik Sherchan presented the policies and programs of the government in the Assembly today. 

The government has pledged a feasibility study to establish a community childcare center at four locations: Ghorahi, Lumbini, Butwal, and Nepalgunj within the province. 

On the occasion, the Province Chief said the concept aims to retain working women who are likely to quit their jobs after having a baby due to their prescribed roles of taking care of the child. 

The province government assures of coming up with a 10-year strategy to combat early marriage and make the province free from child marriage by 2030 AD.  It has announced plans to provide self-defense training for girls, establish a province-level child protection home, and so on.

Subsidy in agriculture based on production, modernization of agriculture with the use of technology, feasibility study for the Buddha Touristic Circuit: Lumbini-Dhorpatan-Dunai-Jumla-Khalanga-Rara-Kankrebihar-Kohalpur-Lumbini', promotion of trans-province cooperation, construction of disabled-friendly roadways and the launch of a special drinking water programme at Koilabas point of Dang are among the announcements incorporated in the government plans and policies.

The government has pursued policies of discouraging migration from the hill to Terai by establishing model settlements within the villages, building an herb processing industry within the province, launching awareness programmes to minimize human-wildlife conflict, operating special classes for autistic children, and ensuring an internet facility for higher education students.

Similarly, it had pledged to recognize the mother tongue as an official language and manage air ambulance facilities for the rescue of expectant mothers.

Lawmakers speaking in the 'zero hour' in the House of Representatives today drew the attention of the government towards the problem of power outage (load-shedding) in various districts.

They drew the government's attention towards Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) resorting to power cuts or 'load-shedding' amidst the increasing temperature in the Tarai districts.

Lawmaker Dhawal Shumsher Janga Bahadur Rana urged the government to make arrangements for the regular power supply as the power cuts amidst the excessive heat has made the life of people further difficult.

Dr Toshima Karki drew the government's attention, saying the election constituency number 3 of Lalitpur district was facing shortage of water despite the location in the area of the Melamchi Water Supply Project's water tank with a storage capacity of 18 million liters.

Deepak Bahadur Singh called attention of the government towards the Republic Markers located in the precincts of Narayanhiti Palace not being opened for viewing for the general public despite five years since they were constructed.

Dilendra Prasad Badoo expressed his objection, saying the present government has reduced the grant amount to the local levels in contravention of the main spirit of federalism.

Deepa Sharma said that the people of Banke district and the Karnali Province have not got to experience that the 'load-shedding' has come to an end.

Durga Rai drew the government's attention towards the urgent need of road construction in Bhojpur district while Dev Prasad Timilsina urged the government to conduct an assessment of the damage caused by storm and hailstone in various places of the country and provide compensation and relief to the affected people.

Nagina Yadav demanded that the problems faced by the farmers such as shortage of fertilizer, irrigation facilities and drinking water should be addressed.

Pratima Gautam stressed on the need of resolving the problem related to the management of solid waste and road footpath through discussions while Pratikshya Tiwari called for finding a sustainable solution to the problem of shortage of drinking water and irrigation in the Madhes province.

Prem Suwal inquired about the works being carried out by the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation. "What has the Ministry of Poverty Alleviation been doing," he questioned.

Similarly, Narayani Rana, Prem Bahadur Maharjan, Basudev Ghimire, Bindabasini Kansakar, Binita Kathayat, Dhruba Bahadur Pradhan, Nirmala Koirala, Naina Kala Thapa, Nisha Dangi, Narayan Prasad Acharya and Deepak Giri called attention of the government towards the damage caused by the storm, the sky-rocketing market prices of essentials and the problem of load-shedding seen in various districts.

Likewise, lawmakers Dilli Raj Panta, Tara Lama Tamang and Teju Lal Chaudhay drew the government's attention towards the problem of overcrowding at the Kailali District Prison, around 447 sugarcane farmers in Kanchanpur district not getting the subsidy amount provided by the government, and the frequent power outages in the districts of the Tarai/Madhes, respectively, and urged the government to urgently address the problems.

The Road Division Office blacktopped the road of New Road dug for footpath expansion.

The Kathmandu Metropolitan City had dug the road from Juddha Salik to Indra Chowk of Road on both sides saying that it was not in accordance with standards.

The Road Division blacktopped the road saying that the Kathmandu metropolis’ move was against the law.

There was a dispute for a while when the city tried to stop the works of blacktopping.

The city police stepped back after the locals said that the road should be blacktopped.

Locals said that the problems had arisen due to the lack of coordination between the Kathmandu metropolis and Road Division.

The Kathmandu metropolis had dug the road in front of Bishal Bazaar of New Road to expand the footpath.

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal held a meeting with Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba and CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli on Monday.

During the meeting, Prime Minister Dahal discussed the latest political developments with Congress President Deuba and UML Chairman Oli.

The Prime Minister’s private Secretariat informed that they also discussed moving ahead by forging views on the national issues.

Similarly, the trio also discussed the parliamentary committee formed to investigate the cooperative scam and making the Parliament effective, it has been learnt.

Earlier this morning, the Prime Minister also discussed various issues with CPN (Unified Socialist) Chairman Madhav Nepal.

The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) plunged by 3. 97 points to close at 2,079. 07 points on Monday.

Similarly, the sensitive index dropped by 1. 58 points to close at 370. 06 points.

 A total of 8,820,125-unit shares of 316 companies were traded for Rs 4. 00 billion.

Meanwhile, Buddha Bhumi Nepal Hydropower Company Limited (BNHC) was the top gainer today with its price surging by 9. 66 percent.

Likewise, NIBL Stable Fund (NIBLSTF) was the top loser as its price fell by 10. 00 percent.

At the end of the day, the total market capitalization stood at Rs 3. 29 trillion.

The government has presented the annual report for Fiscal Year 2022/23 in the National Assembly, the upper house of the Federal Parliament, today.

The report has been presented in the upper house in accordance with Article 53 of the Constitution of Nepal.

Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Rekha Sharma, tabled the report on behalf of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal.

Nepali Congress (NC) Vice President and lawmaker Dhanraj Gurung has expressed his doubt over the achievement of the government target of revenue collections in the upcoming fiscal year.

Speaking at the Parliament meeting on Monday, the lawmaker expressed his doubt that revenue collections in the next year would meet the target of over Rs 1,260 billion.

He advised the government to implement the announcement to promote cannabis farming for medicinal use with the help of legal instruments.

He said that the farming of cannabis for medical use is likely to lead the revenue collection of Rs two billion annually. He also pressed an idea for branding the homemade products to contribute to the revenue collection.

According to him, there are possibilities of earning additional Rs two billion through the commercial farming of 736 varieties of herbs found in Nepal.

Lawmaker Gurung advised the government to focus on the promotion of religious tourism as well. 

Lawmaker Gurung further said that new sources of production should be explored to address the deficit budget. 

Underlining the need for effective implementation of the budget, he said a realistic approach is needed to assess the budget and its implementation aspect.