Submit your Article

Russia's Investigative Committee says former Russian transport minister Roman Starovoit has been found dead, apparently with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, BBC reported.

He was dismissed earlier on Monday by President Vladimir Putin.

No reason for Starovoit's dismissal was given and deputy transport minister Andrei Nikitin was announced as his replacement shortly after.

The Investigative Committee said it was working to establish the circumstances of the incident, according to BBC.

The House of Representatives (HoR) on Monday formed a seven-member parliamentary special committee to study and probe the wrongdoings committed in the drafting of the report on the Federal Civil Service Bill, 2080 BS.  

Speaker Devraj Ghimire announced the parliamentary special committee in today's House meeting formed as per the HoR Regulations. 

 Nepali Congress lawmaker Jivan Pariyar will lead the committee which comprises Nepali Congress lawmaker Sushila Thing, CPN-UML lawmakers Narayan Prasad Acharya and Ishwari Gharti, CPN (Maoist Center) lawmaker Madhav Sapkota, Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) lawmaker Ganesh Parajuli and Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) lawmaker Roshan Karki as the members. 

The committee shall investigate the theoretical agreement, decisions and e-records taken in the parliamentary Committee on State Affairs and Good Governance committee and the contradictory report prepared in regard to the civil servants' cooling-off period. 

The special committee has been given the term of reference to find out the reasons behind the drafting of a contradictory report, which is against the major spirit of the bill passed by the State Affairs and Good Governance Committee of the HoR. 

Similarly, the special committee is given the ToR to name the officials involved in the wrongdoing and state whether they deserve legal actions for preparing the contradictory report. 

The special committee shall also submit recommendations to avert such errors and apply precautions in the future.     

The special committee has been given 21 days to submit its report.

Russia claimed Monday it downed 402 Ukrainian drones and seven guided bombs in 24 hours, with most intercepted over Belgorod, Kursk, and even near Moscow.

The drone war is heating up. Ukraine’s President Zelensky said Russia fired 101 drones overnight, part of a wave that saw over 1,200 drones and nearly 40 missiles launched in just a week, according to Xinhua.

Two opposition parties represented in the House of Representatives boycotted today's HoR meeting, demanding formation of a parliamentary committee regarding the visit visa scam.

Soon after Speaker Devraj Ghimire announced the commencement of the meeting, lawmakers of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) and Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) protested by standing up from their respective seats. 

After the protest, Speaker Ghimire allocated time for RSP lawmaker Manish Jha to put forth his view. 

On the occasion, Jha shared that it was unfortunate to pass the Civil Service Bill making changes on 'cooling off period' provision.  

"An attempt has been made to form the committee under coordination of Nepali Congress. So it will not be acceptable to us ", he mentioned. 

Stating that a parliamentary committee regarding 'cooling off period' issue is going to be formed, Deepak Bahadur Singh of RPP demanded a parliamentary committee to probe into the visit visa scam as the prime minister to lower-level employees are connected in this scam. 

He raised the question why the parliamentary committee was not formed regarding this issue, adding the RPP would boycott today's meeting.

With this, both RSP and RPP lawmakers exit from the meeting.