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The Madhesh province government is going to present its policies and programs of the coming fiscal year 2022/23 in the provincial assembly meeting today.

Chief of the Province Harishankar Mishra is scheduled to present the policies and programs of the provincial government for the new fiscal year in the meeting of the provincial assembly to be held at 4:00 pm today, said Ranjit Kumar Yadav, secretary of the provincial assembly secretariat.

In the policies  and programs, priority has been given to agriculture, education, health and other programs. A meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Madhes province government held on Saturday had approved the policy and program for the coming fiscal year 2022/23 to be presented in the provincial assembly meeting.

Similarly, the Madhes province government will present the budget for the fiscal year 2022/23 in the forthcoming provincial assembly meeting on June 15, according to Minister for Home and Communications Bharat Prasad Shah.

Airline Operators Association of Nepal (AOAN) has stated that it is impossible to implement the decision of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) to have two pilots on a single-engine helicopter.

CAAN had suggested that even single-engine helicopters should have two pilots but the Airline Operators Association of Nepal has said that it wasn’t practical to have two pilots on commercial flights. A five-member technical team from CAAN is studying the possibility of having two pilots on a helicopter.

Captain Rameshwar Thapa, president of the Airline Operators Association of Nepa, said helicopter companies would collapse if such a rule was in place. He said that the companies couldn’t bear the cost of paying salaries to two pilots on a helicopter that only had one engine.

But he did say that there was no problem in having two pilots in a helicopter with a capacity of more than nine seats.

“We don’t have enough pilots as it is. If this rule is put in place, helicopter companies would collapse,” he says.

There are 11 helicopter companies operating in Nepal and have 31 single-engine helicopters and 5 double-engine helicopters. Ten foreign and 26 Nepali pilots have been flying helicopters with one engine.

Nepal defeated Qatar by 79 runs in the ICC U-19 Women T-20 World Cup Asia Qualifier. 

Chasing the target of 118 runs set by Nepal, Qatar managed to collect 38 runs losing all the wickets in 15.4 overs. The match was played at UKM Oval in Malaysia today. 

Qatari skipper Sachi Dhadwal and Shrutiben Kamaleshbhai Rana made 14 runs each. 

Nepal's Shrishti Jaishi took three wickets. Likewise, Anu Kadayat, Kritika Marasini and Sneha Mahara claimed two wickets each.

Earlier, Nepal accumulated 117 runs in 20 overs losing at the cost of three wickets. Ashma Pulami Magar scored not out 32 runs, Shristi Jaishi made not out 23 runs while Sanu Rajbanshi and Anjali Bishwokarma made 21 and 11 runs respectively. 

Likewise, Sachi Dhadwal and Alina Khan took one wicket each.  

Along with Nepal, hosts Malaysia, UAE, Thailand, Bhutan and Qatar are playing the Qualifier. Nepal will meet UAE in the second match on Saturday.

Daily flights to and from Simara Airport have been curtailed from June 7 to 27 citing maintenance at the airport site.

Chief of Simara Airport Bhupendra Bhatta said that flights will take place only from 6:00 am to 11:00 am during the period. 

Bhatta shared that total daily flights have been reduced to six from twelve for 20 days starting June 7.

The Simara Airport, which was awaiting renovation for years, is being maintained by reducing the daily flights lately.

Saptakoshi Construction Service Company has won the tender for the facelift of the airport, it is said.

Most of the parts of the country are likely to witness cloudy weather conditions today while some regions will receive light to medium rainfall with thunderstorms. 

According to the Meteorological Forecast Division of the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, some places of Province 1, Bagmati Province, Gandaki Province and Madhes Province in the country are likely to receive light to moderate rainfall coupled with storm, thunderstorms and lightning due to local wind and low pressure line spread from Uttar Pradesh of India to Bangladesh.

Currently, light rainfall is taking place in some parts of Province 1 while the weather is generally cloudy in Province 1, Madhes Province and Bagmati Province. 

The Department has cautioned the locals to apply safety measures as light to moderate rainfall is likely with thunderstorms and heavy storms in some parts of Province 1, Madhes Province, Bagmati Province and Gandaki Province. 

According to the Department, the Kathmandu Valley recorded a minimum temperature of 18.5 degree Celsius in the past 24 hours while the maximum temperature was 31.2 degree Celsius.

A total of 190,739 tourists visited Nepal in the first five months of the year 2022.

Referring to the data from the Department of Immigration, the Nepal Tourism Board said 53,608 tourists arrived in the month of May while the number of tourist arrivals in April was 58,384.

Director of Nepal Tourism Board Maniraj Lamichhane said the tourism industry in the country has recovered by almost 75 per cent compared to the time prior to COVID-19 outbreak. Tourism industry in the country witnessed a severe blow after the COVID-19 pandemic.  

According to Director Lamichhane, the country has witnessed a positive growth in tourist arrival from Bangladesh and Europe for the recovery of tourism.

With increased power output, the Nepal Electricity Authority has begun exporting surplus power to India.

The current peak demand for electricity in the country is 1,643 megawatt. Peak demand describes the periods when the electricity use reaches the highest and the demand normally remains high in morning and evening hours and the demand goes down during day and night hours.

When there is oversupply, the electricity goes to waste and to deal with the situation Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has started selling surplus power to India.

According to NEA executive director Kulman Ghising, two hydropower projects based in Nuwakot have been supplying 39 megawatt of electricity to India since Wednesday midnight. The projects had supplied power to India last year too.

Currently, water level in Nepal's rivers has significantly increased and it was due to timely rains.

As the NEA said, the projects supplying the surplus production to India are 24 MW Trishuli Hydropower and the 15 MW Devighat Project.

The total power production in Nepal at the time is 2,300 MW and some projects are likely to come into operation by the end of the current fiscal year.

According to NEA Spokesperson, in the competitive energy exchange market of India, Nepal exports and imports electricity on the basis of blocks that are fixed every 15 minutes. The price of each block also varies being based on the demand.

Now demand for electricity is excessively high in India following a significant temperature rise there and the ceiling price of the purchase and sale of electricity is IRs 12 (Rs 19.20) per unit.

Minister of Communications and Information Technology Gyanendra Bahadur Karki has said the long-standing friendly relations between Nepal and Israel are getting better.

Speaking at a programme organised by the Embassy of Israel in Nepal and the BP Museum Committee at Sundarijal on the occasion of the 62nd anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, Minister Karki referred to the bilateral relationship established during the tenure of the first elected Prime Minister BP Koirala.

"Although establishing relations with Israel was a challenging task during that time, Prime Minister Koirala triumphed owing to proper understanding of the situation then," said Minister Karki.

Israel continues to remain an attractive destination for Nepali students and youths, especially in the field of agriculture.

Also speaking on the occasion, former foreign minister Dr Prakash Sharan Mahat said Nepal had been supporting Israel's independence, sovereignty and security for long. He expressed commitment to continue to hold same position in the days to come.

On the occasion, former foreign minister Pradeep Gyawali stressed the need to further strengthen the 60-year-old bilateral ties between Nepal and Israel.

Likewise, former Tourism Minister Hisila Yami said the role of the first elected Prime Minister BP Koirala was important in maintaining diplomatic relations with Israel. She said Nepal should follow the example of Israel as it had made progress in many areas.

Israeli Ambassador to Nepal Hanan Goder said BP, the first elected prime minister of Nepal, had written a novel on Hitler and the Jews, and that his commitment was to further strengthen the relationship between the two countries.

Former Nepali ambassador to Israel Anjan Shakya said BP was an ideal personality of Nepal and even though the world had different views, he had established diplomatic relations by accepting Israel's independent existence on behalf of Nepal.

Diplomatic relations were established between Nepal and Israel on 1 June 1960. On the occasion, Museum Committee Chair Parshuram Pokharel said BP had to spend more than eight years in Sundarijal jail owing to the relationship established with Israel.