Submit your Article

The Nepal Police have decided to mobilize 71,693 police personnel for the elections to the House of Representatives and the Province Assembly scheduled for November 20. The number is around 10,000 thousand more than that deputed for the May 13 local elections. Central Police Spokesperson Deputy Inspector General of Police Tek Prasad Rai said that the Home Ministry had proposed the recruitment of 120, 000 temporary police personnel for the two-tier elections taking place at once.  During the May 13 elections, 100, 000 temporary police personnel were deputed. The number of security personnel in the Federal and Province elections will increase, bearing in mind the possibility of the rise in the number of voters and polling centers, it is said. However, the Nepal Police awaits the endorsement of the proposal by the Home Ministry to go with further official procedures for the mobilization of security forces for the elections. Now the police are busy with the international preparations. Prior to this, in view of the polls, the police set up a Central Election Cell headed by Additional Inspector General Sahakul Bahadur Thapa and election cells required at its subordinate offices, and province and district level.  It plans to classify the polling stations as general, sensitive and most-sensitive zones and depute the security workforce accordingly. It has already demanded 1,494 motor vehicles, over 700 communications sets and a required quantity of arms from the Ministry for the elections.

Himalaya Airlines tested a flight at newly built Gautam Buddha International Airport in Bhairahawa. The Nepali airline operator has tested the flight as part of a training session for its pilots from Thursday, said Director General for the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal engineer Pradip Adhikari. An aircraft belonging to the Airlines landed in the airport at 12 pm on Thursday, he said. Now, only Jazeera Airways is regularly operating commercial international flights at the airport after testing flights on May 16. The flights are scheduled for three days a week (Monday, Wednesday and Saturday).    

CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal ' Prachanda' has said the Citizenship Bill will be endorsed by the National Assembly. Talking to media persons briefly at Biratnagar Airport today, the Maoist leader and the member of the House of Representatives said the Bill had again entered the process and would be passed by the Upper House. He said that the President consulting with the Nepal Army officials in regard with the Bill procedures is usual. "The Bill has already entered the process, it will be endorsed and the President will certify it." It may be noted that the Lower House on August 18 again endorsed the Bill that the President returned for reconsideration. The HoR passed the document as it is. Refuting rumors that a political crisis is likely in the country, he said no such thing would happen. He took time to say that there would be an electoral alliance among the five political parties in all 165 electoral constituencies in the upcoming elections. The seat allocations towards that will conclude by the next 15 days, according to the leader.  

As many as 32 students have fallen sick after consuming lunch provided by the school in Kakarbhitta, Jhapa on Thursday. Police have arrested Narayan Bista, a canteen owner, in connection to the incident. The meal was prepared by Bista, who runs a canteen for the school. Twenty-six of the sick students were admitted to Mechi Hospital, Bhadrapur, said school teacher Shubhadra Aryal. The ill students suffered from food poisoning, said doctors involved in their treatment. Bista has been arrested for investigations, said Deputy Superintendent of Police Gyan Kumar Mahato. "We have interrogated the canteen owner. The meal was cooked early on Thursday morning and served in the afternoon. The food items became toxic due to increasing temperature. Negligence on the part of the canteen owner is found," he said. The school has been providing free day meals to its students as part of the government's campaign to provide free lunch to students. Drinking water served to students on that day was also contaminated according to complaints, said DSP Mahato. "Complaints have it that worms were found in the water served to the students. We have launched investigations into the matter as well," he said. Acting head teacher of the school, Hari Prasad Neupane said the school would launch investigations into the matter. "We provided free meals to the students. The lunch was leftover food according to complaints. We will investigate," he said. Following this incident, the school has shut down the canteen and samples of food items served by the canteen were sent to the concerned sector for a quality check, said chairperson of the school management committee, Bhawani Kerung. The parents have accused the school administration of negligence on the case. Repeated calls to the school management to check food quality served by the canteen went unheard, they complained.

Weather across the country is expected to remain partly to generally cloudy throughout the week. Issuing a bulletin, the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology said there is a possibility of light to moderate rainfall at many places of the country in the beginning and mid-week. Similarly, there is a chance of light rainfall at a few places in the country at the end of the week. Heavy rainfall accompanied by thunderstorm and lightning has been predicted at one or two places of hilly areas of province 1, Bagmati, Gandaki, Lumbini and Karnali provinces in the beginning and mid-week. Weather across the nation will remain partly to generally cloudy with the chance of light to moderate rainfall with thunderstorm and lightning at few places of province 1, Gandaki and Lumbini provinces and at one or two places of the remaining provinces today. As per the latest details of Meteorological Forecasting Division, today's minimum temperature of Kathmandu Valley is recorded at 20.9 degree Celsius and maximum temperature at 31.2 degree Celsius.

British Ambassador to Nepal Nicola Pollitt called on Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand on Thursday. During the meeting held at the Ministry of Home Affairs, the two discussed matters relating to further strengthening the bilateral ties. On the occasion, Minister Khand thanked the ambassador for successful completion of the Integrated Programme for Strengthening Security Justice (2014-2021) supported by the UK government. The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, UK had in October, 2021 endorsed the continuity of the program (second phase) and today's meeting was held in the context of signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two countries to this regard, according to the Home Minister's Secretariat. The minister said the program had its role in increasing people's access to security and justice, combating gender-based violence and further consolidating the police-community relations in the first phase. Similarly, he expressed his gratitude to the UK government for responding to Nepal's request to revise the MoU draft so as to ensure additional support to the Nepal Police during the implementation of the second-phase of the program. In response, the UK government representative expressed her concern about the transitional justice situation in Nepal. In reply, the minister said the government is committed to implementing agreements reached with various political parties and even the rebel parties for the management of political conflict.  The agreements with the Netra Bikram Chand (Biplav)–led group, Janamat Party and Tharu Welfare Assembly are in the phase of enforcement, according to the minister. He also thanked the UK ambassador for the UK's contribution to Nepal for addressing the issues of transitional justice at home.  

Kathmandu Metropolitan City Mayor Balen Shah today directed the owners of the Shankhamul Burger House at New Baneshwor and Alfa Beta House to immediately vacate the underground areas of the buildings. After inspecting these areas, Mayor Shah urged the owners to use the underground areas constructed for parking for the same purpose. A medical lab has been operated in the parking area of Alfa House while Burger House of Shankhamul is running at the basement parking. Chief of Kathmandu Municipal Police Raju Pandey said that Mayor Shah asked both of them to remove infrastructures constructed at the parking area immediately. Similarly, the team comprising Mayor Shah and Municipal Police Chief Pandey has now reached Gaushala in order to acquire information about the building where Muktinath Development Bank is located. The KMC had issued a 35-day notice to remove illegally constructed structures. The KMC said it has been compelled to go for action after the notice was ignored.

Weather would remain partly to generally cloudy across the country with chances of light to moderate rainfall accompanied by thunderstorms and lightning at a few places today. According to the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, there is a possibility of light to moderate rainfall with thunderstorms and lightning at one or two places of Sudurpaschim and Madhes provinces and at a few places of the remaining provinces. Partly to generally cloudy weather is predicted in the hilly region and partly cloudy to generally fair in the rest of the regions of the country tonight. Likewise, light to moderate rain with thunderstorms and lightning has been forecast at few places of Province 1, Bagmati and Gandaki provinces and at one or two places of the remaining provinces tonight. Weather on Friday The weather will remain partly to generally cloudy throughout the country with chances of light to moderate rain along with thunder and lightning at some places of Province no 1, Bagmati province and Gandaki province, and at a few places of the rest of the provinces on Friday. The weather update shared by the Meteorological Forecasting Division states that the minimum temperature in Kathmandu Valley was 20.5 degrees Celsius and the maximum 31.0 degrees Celsius over the last 24 hours. Similarly, the lowest temperature of 16.1 degrees Celsius was recorded in Jumla and the highest 36.0 degrees Celsius in Dipayal throughout the country in the last 24 hours.