Submit your Article

Chairperson of the CPN (Unified Socialist) Madhav Kumar Nepal has ruled out the possibility of communist unification at present.

There is no truth in the reports about an alliance between the CPN (UML), the CPN (Maoist Center) and the Unified Socialist, he said at a press conference organised today in Surkhet.

There is not any possibility of unification with the UML and any electoral alliance with it, he said, adding that this existing communist democratic coalition would continue until coming provincial and parliament elections.

"Egoists and conspirators have circulated many types of rumours in a bid to break the existing communist democratic alliance. We are not hungry for any position. We can cut through such rumours."

On the budget for the next fiscal year, 2022/23, the former Prime Minister commented that it did not target coming elections. "It has been brought in times of elections. But it is not election-centered."

As he said, his party achieved a proud achievement in the recently organised local election. He however claimed that they had to lose some seats in the poll due to a lack of clarity of their election symbol.

The Nepal Chamber of Commerce (NCC) has urged the government of Japan to consider industrial investment in Nepal.

In a meeting with Japanese Ambassador to Nepal Yutaka Kikuta by the Chamber’s delegation today, Chamber’s President Rajendra Malla urged the Japanese government to create enabling environment for Japanese investment in Nepal’s hydropower, road and tourism sector.

President Malla shared, “Nepal has recently made a number of policy reforms to provide security to foreign investment. The government of Nepal has announced in its recently unveiled budget for upcoming fiscal year that it would provide land on lease for 50 years. We are committed towards providing security to Japan’s investment in Nepal.”

He urged the Japanese envoy to Nepal to set up industries in Nepal to manufacture products that were high in demand abroad and are used domestically to help reduce trade deficit with between Nepal and Japan.

Stating that the land price and labour cost were less costly in Nepal, Malla appealed with the Japanese Ambassador to consider setting up factories in Nepal and to trade with India and China among others.

“We would like to further advance ties between Nepal and Japan through commercial activities,” he said.

It’s been 66 years since Nepal and Japan entered diplomatic relations. Japanese government has been extending its financial and technical support to Nepal through various donor agencies such as JICA and others.

Furthermore, Malla appraised Japanese envoy Yutaka that the government of Nepal had highly prioritized agriculture sector in the forthcoming budget and requested the Japanese Ambassador to take initiative to introduce Japanese technology to Nepal’s agriculture sector.

During the meeting, Japanese envoy Yutaka said that the bilateral ties between Japan and Nepal was ‘historic’ and ‘strong’ and the Japanese government wanted to bring it further closer at people-to-people level.

He also reaffirmed his commitment to continuation of collaboration with Nepal in socio-economic level.

Lawmakers taking part in the general deliberations on the annual estimate of income and expenditure (budget) for fiscal year 2022-23 in a session of the National Assembly today insisted on an objective analysis of the budget.

Jitendra Narayan Dev of the Nepali Congress said the budget should not be criticized for the sake of criticism alone. He insisted on developing a culture of calling a spade a spade while commenting on the budget.

He argued that there is interrelation between the principles, policies and programmes of the government and the budget. The budget emphasizes on attracting the foreign direct investment, defining the private sector as the engine of development and on research and innovation.

CPN (Unified Socialist)'s Dr Beduram Bhusal said the first budget of the coalition government is better than the budgets of the past few years. The budget talks about transformation of agriculture and bringing about economic transformation through cooperatives, private and public sectors, he pointed out. 

CPN (Maoist Center)'s Ganga Kumari Belbase opined that the slogan of economic stability, promotion of entrepreneurship and inclusive development contained in the budget were relevant ones. "It is a positive aspect of the budget that it has laid emphasis on making the country self-sufficient in agriculture by facilitating irrigation, fertilizer and seed to farmers," she added.

Besides, the budget has incentivized small, cottage and big industries and it should not be criticized for the sake of it.

CPN (UML) lawmaker Devendra Dahal said the government should not include 'unfeasible' programmes in the budget as the coming year is the election year and there is risk of an economic crisis. 

Pramila Kumari, Shekhar Kumar Singh, Tula Kumar Bishwokarma, Sumitra BC, Nara Bahadur Bista, Ram Chandra Rai, Jaga Prasad Sharma, Bhagawati Neupane, Maya Prasad Sharma, Bina Pokhrel and Narayan Dutta Mishra, among the lawmakers also put their views on several aspects of the budget.

Opposition parties have criticized the government’s estimate of income and expenditure for the upcoming fiscal year 2022-23 as they termed it guided by a distributive approach. 

Taking part in the deliberations on the budget during a session of the House of Representatives (HoR) today, CPN-UML lawmaker Bhanu Bhakta Dhakal said the allocation of budget to respond the issues of landless people was positive, but it was focused on election and guided by the distributive mindset.  

Hridayesh Tripathi from the same party questioned the government to further clarify its plan to provide a contribution-based pension. As he assessed, farmers would not be directly beneficial from the announcement for increasing investment in agriculture.  

Rajendra Lingden of Rastriya Prajatantra Party said that the budget seemed not capable of intervening in a rising market price.  As he claimed, “The budget focused on elections and the distribution will not bring a substantive change in people’s life.”

Questioning the sources of income, he said the budget based on foreign aid and loans lacked a ground for implementation.   

Meanwhile, Rastriya Janamorcha’s Durga Poudel was of the opinion that just distribution of land was the requirement to promote agricultural production.  She pressed for national independence, sovereignty and interest while accepting foreign aid.  

As the lawmaker stressed, the government should take measures for protecting domestic industries. Drawing the government’s attention toward no allocation of specific budget for combating increasing violence against women, she demanded the government bear responsibility of livelihood of rape survivors.

Police have arrested 86 convicts found guilty in 106 incidents of rape in Jhapa in the last 10 months.

According to the data of the District Police Office, Jhapa, rape attempt received the highest number of complaints (72) in the district during the period. As many as 56 convicts were held in the incidents of rape attempt.

During the period, 19 incidents of child sexual abuse and 13 incidents of rape attempt were recorded in Jhapa.

Spokesperson at District Police Office Basanta Pathak shared that 17 convicts of child sexual abuse and 10 of rape attempt were arrested.

Among the rape survivors are from four-year-old girl child to 60-year-old elderly woman.

Of late the incidents of child sexual abuse are increasing. In almost rape related cases, family members, relatives, teachers and neighbours are found to be involved.

As many as 20 rape-accused are still at large in Jhapa.

More than 27,000 in the country die annually after consuming tobacco products, according to data with the National Health Education, Information and Communication Center.

The Center's Director Sunil Raj Sharma in a statement today confirmed death of 27,137 people every year due to consumption of tobacco products. This figure is around 15 percent of the total mortality rate of the country.

Globally, over 8 million people died from the consumption of tobacco products every year. Of the death toll, 7 million died from the firsthand tobacco consumption and 1.2 million from the secondhand smoke exposure.

Consumption of tobacco products causes cancer and various diseases including heart and respiratory diseases and diabetes.

To minimise effects of tobacco products, various acts, laws and directives relating to their control and regulation have been made in the country.

"Various awareness campaigns and programmes have been launched to ensure good health of people, decrease the consumption of tobacco products and help people quit these products. However, challenges have remained due to interference of tobacco industries and their strategy," he said.

May 31 each year is celebrated as World No Tobacco Day and the theme of the day for this year is 'Protect the Environment' as it aims to highlight the tobacco threat to the environment, raising public awareness about the environmental impact of tobacco.

In the press statement, Sharma reminded the ill-effects of tobacco consumption not only on public health but also in the environment as well, suggesting that quitting the use of tobacco is the best way to avoid health and environmental consequences from its use.

He stressed the need of launching no tobacco campaign throughout the year to discourage its cultivation, production, consumptions and minimize the environmental impacts from tobacco. Whole tobacco cycle - cultivation, production, consumption and wastes it generates - pollutes water resources, soil and its fertility and the entire atmosphere. Tobacco cultivation leads to deforestation and it will degrade the soil fertility as well, it is said.

Toxic gases and smoke to be generated from tobacco production and consumption is one of the reasons fueling greenhouse gas effect, according to Sharma who underlines the need of discouraging the its production and consumption as well. Of the total global production of tobacco, 90 percent production takes place in developing countries.

Though tobacco production is considered as the means of better income in low and middle-income countries, its future consequences as are devastating. It may lead to food insecurity, poverty, health hazards and environmental degradation.

The Indian Embassy in Kathmandu has donated a school bus and an ambulance to a school and a rural municipality respectively in Mustang district.

At a programme held recently, Namgya C Khampa, Charge'd Affaires of the Indian Embassy here, inaugurated a 14-room school building for Shree Pal Ewam Namgyal Monastic School in Lomanthang, while a school bus was gifted to the same school. 

The school building was built with grant assistance from the government of India at a cost of Rs 26.30 million, the Embassy of India in Nepal said in a press statement. 

This is one of the 75 projects being inaugurated this year in Nepal as part of 'India @75 Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav' which celebrates 75 years of India's independence, according to the Indian Embassy in Nepal.

Similarly, an ambulance was provided to the Gharapjhong Rural Municipality, informed Gauri Prasad Acharya, chief administrator in the rural municipality.

President Bidya Devi Bhandari has wished happiness, peace and prosperity to all Nepali brothers and sisters living at home and abroad on the occasion of the 15th Republic Day.

In a message of best wishes today, President Bhandari said that Republic Day would encourage all to move on the path of achieving prosperity along with social justice by further strengthening national unity.

The press release reads, "I extend best wishes with the expectation that this historical day will encourage all to move ahead towards the path of social justice by further strengthening country's territorial integrity, national sovereignty and unity."

President Bhandari said that it was real responsibility of the republic to take forward Nepal as a developed nation with strong and self-dependent economy by bringing meaningful and positive change in people's lives.

"We have been celebrating Jestha 15 as Republic Day every year to commemorate the historical day of the declaration of Federal Republic in Nepal. The new system was established with people's participation where every citizen is equal,' reads the statement.

In the message, President Bhandari further stated that she was confident that the Republic Day would further inspire all of us to build socialism-oriented economic system by implementing the fundamental rights enshrined in the constitution - education, health, food security, drinking water, environment protection in practice."

Expressing respect to the senior leaders of political parties who led the political movements at different times for political change in the country, she appreciated the contribution of political activists, civil society leaders and common people in different democratic movements.

President Bhandari also paid heartfelt tribute to the martyrs, who sacrificed their lives for the establishment of Democratic Republic.