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The Election Commission has made necessary preparations for the nomination of candidates for the National Assembly elections scheduled for January 25.

The EC has made clear about the documents to be submitted by the candidates for the nomination.

According to the EC Spokesperson, Shaligram Sharma Paudyal, the candidate should submit a photocopy of Nepali citizenship certificate, document incorporating the name in the final name list of any rural municipality or municipality, voucher or receipt of Rs 10,000 deposit.

There would be a 50 percent discount in deposit money for the woman candidate as well as candidate from the Dalit, marginalized and economically poor community. The respective local level should write a letter saying the candidate is from the poor background. 

The documents required for nomination include an official letter of the selection of candidate from the party in the case of party candidate, the certified paper identifying the candidate as a person belonging to the Dalit community and issued by the rural municipality, municipality or any legally authorized body, in case of a person filing candidacy from the Dalit cluster.

Similarly, any person filing candidacy from the disabled group or minority community should produce the certified certificate of disability issued by the authorized body of Government of Nepal. A person filing candidacy from the minority community should include paper issued by the rural municipality, municipality or any authorized body as per the existing law certifying that the person belongs to the minority community.

Also to be included are the names of the persons proposing and seconding the candidature and certificate stating that the names of the electoral college comprising the member of the Province Council concerned or the Chairperson or Vice Chairperson of the rural municipality of the province concerned and the mayor or deputy mayor of the municipality, as well as their voter identity number.

The Election Commission stated that other documents to be included are the property details of the candidate, mentioning the house number, the place of residence and land, a self-declaration that the person has not been disqualified by any federal law, and also the self-declaration mentioning that the person has not occupied any post drawing salary or economic facilities from the government fund, except the political post to be filled from election or nomination.

The Commission stated that the person filing candidacy should produce the paper indicating the registration of resignation from the post that he/she has been holding if that person is holding any public post or elected position, as well as a copy of the letter issued by the Election Commission showing that the person had withdrawn his/her name from the closed list under the proportional electoral system of the last election to the Member of the House of Representatives or of the National Assembly.

The term of 19 members elected to the National Assembly and one member nominated to the Assembly by the President is ending on March 3.

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has announced a shift in the ongoing style of the government’s annual policy and programme, and budget from the upcoming fiscal year. But he has not elaborated it well.

The PM’s remarks come at a time when the government is facing to scale up the capital expenditure. 

Addressing the nation today to unveil his government’s achievements made in the past one year, the Prime Minister admitted that traditional style of policy and programme could not bring about results and added that a new style would be embraced.

Prime Minister Dahal argued that the traditional way of budget making has failed to allocate budget to the priority projects and make true estimates on expenditure, leading to direct impact on capital expenditure. “I plan to move ahead in a new style by changing the system of policy making and budget preparation,” he added. 

Dahal also shared that the principles and priorities of the budget for the upcoming fiscal year would be made public in February and the feedback from the people’s representatives and general public would be taken on it. He stated that policy, structural and legal measures would be taken with the target to obtain a double-digit economic growth rate. 

The Prime Minister was of the view that the government is making the best possible efforts despite the journey to development and prosperity so far was not satisfactory.  The Prime Minister said that he would not make claims about the complete success of his government but announced that he would change the government's working style with this concern and self-review.

 Similarly, the Prime Minister made the announcement that he would not attend any of the public events except for some pre scheduled and compulsory ones and added that his focus would be on new policy and program, budget preparation, and resolving the issues in the areas of development and good-governance. “This will be a departure to change the government's working style. I am making changes to the structure of the Office of the Prime Minister this week,” Dahal stated.

The Public Accounts Committee of the House of Representatives has instructed the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority to conduct further investigation into the procurement process of Telecommunication Traffic Monitoring and Fraud Control System (Teramox) and proceed with the prosecution in accordance with the law.

Rishikesh Pokharel, the committee chair, also told CIAA to submit its progress reports to the committee every month. 

The committee meeting held on Wednesday concluded that no policy decision has been made regarding the study proposal for Teramox procurement and instructed Nepal Telecommunication Authority to keep the entire process on hold. The parliamentary panel also said it was yet to get the original copy of the procurement contract.  

Before issuing its decree, the committee had discussed the Teramox issue with officials of relevant agencies like NTA and Nepal Telecom.

After studying and analyzing the works done so far, the committee has come to the conclusion that the procurement process has flouted the relevant mandate of the Supreme Court, Pokharel said, summarizing the conclusion of the committee’s meeting.

Pokharel was referring to an SC order (vis-a-vis the use of a new technology) for the creation of a mechanism to make sure that the citizens’ right to privacy is not violated.

A committee member, Amresh Kumar Singh, argued that the decision to buy Teramox equipment from Lebanon was full of ill motives, whereas Rastriya Swatantra Party lawmaker Manish Jha said the purpose of the Teramox connection was not clear.

NTA had tried to purchase and use the Teramox technology to get details of illegal activities, to 

improve the quality of telecommunication services and make them more credible. 

NTA Chair Purushottam Khanal informed the committee that they have already paid 17.345 percent (Rs 520m) for Teramox procurement after opening an LC, while holding that the SC order needed upholding.

Khanal maintained that NTA’s move is in accordance with the Privacy Act, adding that they intend to use the technology to view overall call details instead of individual call details.

Prime Minister and CPN (Maoist Centre) Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal has alleged that forces opposed to the federal democratic republic are scheming to mislead the people.

Addressing a meeting of the CPN (Maoist Centre) ward committee at Barpak Sulikot Mural municipality-8 in Gorkha under the party’s Special Transformation Campaign today, he said the enemies of the republic are conspiring to make the people dejected and mislead them against the republic.

“You and we all should prevent people being misled and dejected. These kinds of people do not even see the good works carried out by the government, do not want to show that to the people and also do not talk positively. They only talk negatively and are plotting to spread hopelessness among the people,” he said.

The PM stressed on the need of taking the people into confidence and convincing them to stop the anti-republic activities. He also explained that the main objective of conducting the special campaign is not only to make the party active and vigorous, but also to deepen its relations with the people and defend the change that has been brought after the struggle and sacrifices. The party Chair claimed that the campaign has been successful as per its mission.

PM Dahal also informed that the government has started preparations from now itself to bring the budget for the next fiscal year in a new way so that the people will get to experience the change.

“The trend of traditionally holding discussions on the topics of the budget from mid-February and concluding the same in mid-May will be put to an end now. This time the government will finalise the budget by mid-February in a new way so that the people will experience a change,” he added.

On a different note, the Prime Minister claimed that the present government and the coalition have become stronger and the present ruling alliance will last its full five-year term.

Stating that the incumbent government has liberated the usury victims from the exploitation of loan sharks, he said only the Maoist-led government can banish the corrupt, land Mafiosi and the smugglers.

He said the construction of the Budhigandaki Hydropower Project, a project of national pride, has been finalized and urged the party workers and the general public not to have doubts whether or not the project would be constructed.