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A total of 189 people have gone missing from Baitadi that shares its border with India.

According to the district police spokesperson inspector Lokraj Joshi, police reported 189 cases of people missing in the past three years, and of them, 130 were found.

As he said, the number of missing was 45 in the fiscal year 2076-77 BS (2019-20), 60 in the following FY followed by 84 in the last FY. Of those vanishing, most were women and girls.

According to the Police Chief Deputy Superintendent of Police, Ramesh Pal, missing cases of women and girls are on the rise in the district in recent years. Domestic violence is one of the causes behind the increasing missing cases, it is said.

Rainfall is likely to continue in most parts of the country until Tuesday due to active monsoon system, Department of Hydrology and Meteorology shared.

There is a chance of light to moderate rain with thunder and lightning in many parts of the country till next Tuesday, said Meteorologist at Department of Hydrology and Meteorology Heera Bhattarai.

According to Bhattarai, there is possibility of heavy rain in one or two places of Province 1, Bagmati, Gandaki and Lumbini. Monsoon is likely to become more active in the east for the next three days.

At present, there is partial to moderate rain in few places of Province 1 with light to moderate rain with thunder/lightning in Bagmati, Gandaki and Lumbini provinces.

During the night, it will be normal to full cloudy in the mountainous areas of the country, partial to normal cloudy in the rest of the country.

Furthermore, there will be light to moderate rain with thunder and lightning in few places of the hilly areas of the country and heavy rain in one or two places of Madhes province.

At least 246 women at risk of trafficking were rescued from various four bordering points and one counseling centre in Banke district in the last fiscal year 2021/22.

The Peace Rehabilitation Home from its four branches and one counseling centre at Suiya, Khadaiya, Sheupuri and Jamunaha and Kohalpur rescued 32 women from Banke and Bardia each, 28 from Dang and 24 from Surkhet district.

Similarly, 20 women were rescued from Jajarkot and Salyan each, 16 from Rukum Paschim, 12 from Kailali and 11 from Dolakha. The House rescued 10 each from Rolpa and Kalikot and five from Jumla district, informed regional coordinator of the House, Bhumiraj Bhattarai.The rescued ones are aged between 16-25 years. Stating that human trafficking was a very complex issue, Bhattarai informed that the House was lately stepping up surveillance in Lumbini Province’s 14 bordering points with India as well as rehabilitation for the rescued ones.

Similarly, during the period, five alleged traffickers were brought under the ambit of justice, cases of human trafficking were lodged against two persons and rape case against another two and a case of human trafficking and rape was registered against a person at the District Police Office in Banke district.

The Home said it faced various ordeals including paper-related hassle with security agencies and issues at policy level to bring back those women at risk of trafficking.

The traffickers, who are a part of huge racket, were also resorting to new tricks to smuggle women to India such as making them wear burqa and migrating them to India in the name of networking business, added Nirmal Subedi, district coordinator of the House.

A meeting of the National Assembly held on Thursday endorsed the Nepal Citizenship (first amendment) Bill, 2079 with majority votes.

Home Minister Balkrishna Khand had presented the proposal, seeking its passage in the NA meeting.

Earlier, responding to the queries raised by the NA members on the bill, Minister Khand said that the bill on amendment of citizenship act was brought to ensure citizenship certificates to millions of Nepali youths, who had been deprived of it even seven years after the country introduced a new constitution.

He made it clear that the bill was brought by holding adequate discussions with the ruling and opposition parties.

The people deprived of citizenship certificates were frustrated, he said, urging the lawmakers to forge consensus on the points agreed so far, while the points that need additional homework can be sorted out gradually.

He further made it clear that initially, the bill had not mentioned naturalized citizenship (by marriage). The citizenship bill was initially registered at parliament in 2075BS.

Nepal has retained the same position in the new ODI ranking released today by the International Cricket Council (ICC).

As per the new ODI ranking, Nepal has managed to remain in the same 19th position as in the previous ODI ranking. New Zealand is in the first position while England is in second position in the new ODI ranking.

Similarly, India is in third position, Pakistan in fourth, Australia in fifth, South Africa in sixth, Bangladesh in seventh, Sri Lanka in eighth, West Indies in ninth and Afghanistan in 10th position.

Dengue that is transmitted through the bites of infected mosquitoes is increasing in Kavre district.

A case of dengue was detected in Panchkhal around a month ago. Now it has been confirmed among nine persons in three local levels, the district health office said.

A person infected with dengue was detected in Panchkhal, Kavre last month after three years since its first case was identified.

The person detected with dengue was from outside the district. He was found infected with dengue while testing Malaria at a local health facility. Now, he is receiving treatment at a hospital in Kathmandu, the office said.

According to Office Chief Dr Puruswottam Sedai, dengue has so far been detected in three local levels of the district.

"Nine persons have been detected with Dengue in almost a month. We are in a campaign to search and destroy mosquito eggs and larva", Sedai said.

Among the infected, three are from Dhulikhel, two from Panauti and one from Banepa. Likewise, Dolakha has one and Sindhupalchowk has two dengue infected cases.

As informed, they are receiving treatment at a hospital in Kathmandu.

Meanwhile, the district health office and municipal health team are carrying out monitoring at local level to identify the sources of dengue infection.

Likewise, the infected are being monitored and treated along with other anti-dengue transmission activities, the office added.

"We are seriously investigating the cases of dengue transmission in the areas including headquarters Dhulikhel", Sedhai said. Health workers are kept on high alert immediately after the first case of dengue was detected.

The rapid team of the office is planning to intensify monitoring and sample tests in three areas of Kavre so as to check mass transmission of dengue.

Likewise, the office is planning to mobilize teams with anti-dengue rapid test kits at all health facilities in the district.

It may be noted that Kavre had first witnessed dengue infection among six people in August 2019.

The weather will be partly to generally cloudy throughout the country with rain in most of the places until Saturday.

Meteorologist at the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, Ganga Nagarkoti shared that it would be partly to generally cloudy with chances of light to moderate rain in most of the places of the country until Saturday as the monsoon is active.

"There is possibility of heavy rain at one or two places of Province 1, Madhes, Bagmati, Gandaki and Lumbini provinces," she said.

The monsoon low pressure trough is located around the normal position to the west and somewhat towards north than the normal position towards east.

The Department said that there are chances of light to moderate rain along with thunder and lightning at some places and of heavy rain at one or two places of Province no 1, Bagmati, Gandaki and Lumbini provinces in the next 24 hours.

Department has urged everyone to adopt precaution as there is the risk of soil erosion, landslide and debris flow as well as rise in water level in the rivers and seasonal rivulets in these regions, affecting the daily life and the transport services.

A total of 1,807 electric vehicles (EVs) were imported in the country in the last fiscal year 2021/22.

According to the statistics unveiled by the Department of Customs, among the imported EVs last fiscal year, the majority of them were from China standing at 823 followed by 696 from India.

Nepal imported 184 EVs from South Korea. Likewise, 78 EVs were imported from Japan and 23 from the UK and one from France and remaining from other countries.

Most of the EVs imported were of 100 kilowatt and 150-200 kilowatt in capacity.

The government in the budget last fiscal year announced concession in excise duty of the EVs following which an encouraging number of EVs made its way to Nepal last fiscal year compared to the previous fiscal year 2020/21 during which only 261 EVs were imported.

The government collected over Rs 1.43 billion in revenue from the import of 1,807 EVs in the last fiscal year while over Rs 5 billion went out of the country.