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The Jayanagar-Kurtha railway service will be increased for three days from tomorrow. It will have more trips than the regular ones considering the huge influx of people coming to bathe at the Kamala river on the occasion of Kartik Poornima. Nepal Railway Company has announced untimely train services will be operated on November 7, 8 and 9 at per the convenience of the passengers. Managing Director Niranjan Kumar Jha has issued a notice stating that the untimely service will be operated from Jayanagar to Janakpur for the convenience of the pilgrims who come to bathe in the Kamala River on the occasion of Kartik Poorrnima. During the Kartik Poornima, a large number of pilgrims come from various places in Nepal and even from Indian cities to bathe in the Kamala river. Out of the 70 km railway under construction from Jayanagar to Bardibas in Mahottari, 35 km railway from Jayanagar to Kurtha has been running regularly since it was inaugurated eight months ago. The train service has been running regularly as per the schedule. The train leaves from Jayanagar at 8:30 am and 3:00 pm, while another train leaves from Kurtha at 10:30 am and 5:15 pm. Locals believe that once the train starts operating regularly, tourism, religious areas will develop and the export of local products will increase.

With just two weeks left for the elections to the House of Representatives and Province Assembly members, the political parties have intensified their campaigns in the villages. In Dailekh, which has two House of Representatives and four Province Assembly constituencies, coalition alliance members Nepali Congress, CPN (Maoist Center) and CPN (Unified Socialist Party) and the CPN (UML) are engaged in village-centric election campaigns. In the last elections held in 2018, UML won in three provincial assemblies and Maoists won in one provincial constituency. UML had won in both HoR constituencies of the district. There was an electoral alliance between UML and Maoist Center last time. However, the results are likely to be challenged with the new five-party alliance in this election. Rabindra Raj Sharma from UML and Ammar Bahadur Thapa of CPN (US) are candidates for the Federal House of Representatives in constituency no 1. In constituency No. 2, Dikpal Shahi of Congress and Lakshmi Prasad Pokharel of UML are contesting. Analyst Pitambar Dhakal said that if only the number of votes at the local level is used as the basis then the results will be different. Social Worker Thir Bahadur Karki said that the current election results are likely to be interesting. He said that this year the results of Dailekh will be different than the past. According to him, the number of votes obtained by the party at the local level elections cannot be the main basis of victory.

Preparations have been intensified for the elections to the House of Representatives and Provincial Assembly to be held on November 20 in Myagdi district. The necessary materials for the election have arrived in Myagdi. The Election Commission has sent 58 types of materials needed for operating the polling stations. "We have received ballot boxes, ballot papers, blank cloths, swastika stamps, ink, etc. required for polling stations ", District Election Officer Bhim Prasad Ghimire said. The selection process has been started to appoint 120 polling officers, 120 assistant polling officers, 593 assistant staff, and 120 support staff in the polling stations. Staff details have been collected from federal, provincial and local level offices and provided to the office of the Chief Returning Officer. There are 82 polling centers and 119 polling stations in Myagdi, which has six local levels. Deputy Superintendent of Police Tilak Bharti shared that the district security committee has planned to categorize 15 of the 82 polling stations in Myagdi as highly sensitive, 58 as sensitive and nine as normal. Altogether, 732 temporary police personnel have been recruited and mobilized after 10 days of training. There are 19 candidates competing for three seats to be elected in Myagdi, which has one constituency in the House of Representatives and two constituencies in the Provincial Assembly.  

The ballot papers for election to the House of Representatives and Provincial Assembly to be held on November 20 have arrived here on Saturday. Chief Returning Officer Madan Bahadur Dhami said that the ballot papers sent by the Election Commission have arrived in both constituencies of the district. According to him, 530,000 ballot papers have been received in the district for the first-past-the-post (FPTP) category. Earlier, 538,000 ballot papers for proportional representation (PR) category had arrived in the district. The ballot papers have been registered and stored in the returning officer's office according to the constituencies. According to Tekraj Bhusal, Election Officer of Constituency No. 1, a total of 133,000 ballot papers have been received for the FPTP system towards the House of Representatives. Similarly, 66,000 ballot papers have been received for Provincial Assembly (1) and 68,000 ballot papers for Provincial Assembly (2) seat. The ballot papers have been secured and stored in a sealed room. Similarly, Assistant Election Officer Indra Kumar Khadka shared that same 66,000 ballot papers each have been received for Provincial Assembly (1) and Provincial Assembly (2) of constituency No. 2. The ballot papers that arrived on Saturday are kept under the security cordon of the Nepal Police in a sealed room.

When election comes round the corner, the candidates canvass to the residents of Majhi settlement. Now too, the candidates and leaders of different political parties are reaching to the marginalized people's settlements in Baglung municipality-1 with several assurances when the federal and provincial parliamentary elections was coming near. Candidates have distributed assurance for employment to the underrepresented community people who are facing tough to eke out their daily livelihood. The Majhi families who were rendered displaced while constructing the Baglung-Pokhara Highway in 2048 BS had been sheltering in makeshifts at Bangechaur for over a decade. Merely four years ago, the government had constructed settlement nearby Niyarghat and handed to the indigent families. Most of them got land ownership certificate with house. Still more families have not accessed the ownership certificates. Assurances have been given to the Majhi communities for basic amenities including road, drinking water and employment in every election. However, actions are withered. "Leaders turn up to our houses almost every day with pile up of assurance during election. But they never come back to our settlement and make attempt to resolve the challenges of our locality", said Som Bahadur Majhi, a local. Majhi voiced his complaint that the candidates have not been able to deliver their promises on road, drinking water and employment. Years have spent since the leaders made the promises for the management of drinking water and roads, he said, but the commitments have never been translated into actions. It may be noted that the government had constructed 13 houses targeting the displaced Majhi families four years before. Though they got houses but yet to access basic facilities such as health, education, employment and drinking water, Majhi added. Chandrakala Majhi, a local resident, said, "Our entire property was ruined during the construction of road. The government had merely constructed the house. Only house is not enough, there is no space for life sustenance. The government should either show the area of work for livelihood or provide employment opportunities". She is also critical to the non-performance of candidates. "The candidates who turn up now will come back to our settlements in next round of election", she lambasted.

The Supreme Court issued an interim order, asking the government not to implement its decision to extend the term of Gandhi Mallikarjun Rao (GMR), an Indian promoter company of the Upper Karnali Hydropower Project. The Cabinet had decided to extend GMR's term by two years. A single bench of SC Justice Ishwor Prasad Khatiwada issued the interim order on Thursday against the Cabinet decision of July 15 early this year.  The term of the GMR had expired three years back. The SC questioned why the Cabinet made the decision on extension of the project while it was earlier decided by the Investment Board. The order has stated that special rights was delegated to the case as per the SC Regulations 2074 since the issue was required to be settled in a speedy manner. The Investment Board of Nepal and GMR had signed the project development agreement seven years ago with two years term. Later, the company was given one more year since the project did not advance as agreed in the contract. Likewise, the Board again had given one more year for financial closure for the Indian company. Since then, no process was applied to continue the contract or maintain continuation of the contract. Last time, the government had extended the tenure of the project based on the recommendation made by a taskforce formed under the leadership of National Planning Commission Vice-Chairman Bishownath Poudel. Ratan Bhandari, an advocate of Nepal’s water resources and energy sector, had filed the writ petition at the SC demanding to scrap the government decision to give more time for GMR.

At a time when the Bhairahawa-based Gautam Buddha International Airport has failed to make a good business, the Himalaya Airlines has started a chartered flight for Kuala Lumpur from the newly-constructed airport. The Himalaya Airlines began the chartered flight after the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) imposed a compulsory provision that the airline companies operating three international flights from the Tribhuvan International Airport daily should run the service from Bhairahawa if the number of flights exceeds three. Vice Chairman of the Airlines Vijaya Shrestha said the Himalaya Airlines would daily and regularly operate the chartered flight services. "Operation of chartered flight now is to sense the market situation. We will get into regular flight service in the near future". Shrestha said the Airlines would also take the ownership of the Gautam Buddha International Airport as it was the national pride project with investment of entire Nepali people. The Airport was eligible for operating flights in its probation time, he said now regular flights can be made to and from the airport. CAAN Director General Pradeep Adhikari said the technical problems that surfaced in the airport have been resolved so that international flight service can be operated from the airport.

President Bidya Devi Bhandari has expressed her confidence that the Election Commission (EC) would not leave any stone unturned to conduct upcoming parliamentary elections in a free, fair and impartial manner. In a meeting with the Chief Election Commissioner and officials of the Election Commission on Thursday, President Bhandari expressed satisfaction on the proactive role the EC played for election management and preparation in view of the November 20 elections. Noting that maintaining electoral impartiality was not only the concern of the EC but also of the political parties, candidates and concerned stakeholders and communities, she said, adding cooperation, coordination and inter-relations among all sides was a must for conducting election in a fearless atmosphere. While informing the President about election management and preparations at Sheetal Niwas, Chief Election Commission Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya said all-out efforts have been made to ensure the election is free and fearless. EC Spokesperson Kamal Bhattarai shared that Election Commissions Ram Prasad Bhandari and Dr Janaki Kumari Tuladhar, Secretary Gokarnamani Duwadi and Joint Secretary Shaligram Sharma Poudel were also present on the occasion.