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Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said good governance can be made meaningful only by delivering services through the 'paperless and faceless' system in the coming age.

Addressing the scientists' conference entitled 'AI for Prosperous Nepal, Employment for the Future', today he stressed on the need of giving priority to the use of technology for providing public services.

"The government will take the necessary initiatives that it needs to take from its side for the development of computer technology, robotic technology, data science, machine learning, internet of things and computational infrastructures," the PM said, adding that the government would move ahead coordinating the policy related to AI with the National Science and Technology and Innovation Policy, 2076 BS and the Digital Nepal Framework, 2019.

Stating that the government has pursued various studies and research works in the emerging technology sector, he said that the budget has been allocated for setting up the Science Technology Innovation Fund, attaching importance to the science and technology sector.

On the occasion, PM Dahal directed the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology for creating the opportunities of self-reliance in the technology sector. According to him, special importance would be given to science technology research and innovation in the policy and programmes, and the budget for the upcoming financial year. "This sector has been included with due importance in the proposed 16th Periodic Plan as well, " he added.

The Prime Minister expressed the belief that the government bodies will emphasise on developing projects increasing the role of AI from the next year alone for enhancing innovation and productivity, the PM's Private Secretariat stated.

He also made it clear that 'ChatBot' services and projects related to metadata analysis based on AI would be implemented with priority for the information of services provided by the government agencies.

Prime Minister Dahal expressed the confidence that the conference with the theme of 'AI for prosperous Nepal – employment for the future', jointly organized by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and various stakeholders, will support in materializing the dream of building a prosperous Nepal.

It is time saving and multiple useful for innovation and productivity growth while carrying out the regular works done by people or the works taking long time and those works people cannot do through the use of AI, the Prime Minister asserted.

The tenures of 20 National Assembly lawmakers including Chairman Ganesh Prasad Timilsina are expiring today.

They were elected for six years through a lottery method in 2018.

Among them, 19 were elected and Bimala Rai was nominated by the President.

Nine lawmakers from the CPN-UML, four from the Nepali Congress, three from the CPN (Maoist Center) and two from the CPN (Unified Socialist), one from the Janata Samajbadi Party and an independent lawmaker are completing their term today.

Lawmakers whose terms are expiring today are as follows:

UML

1. Ganesh Prasad Timilsina

2. Indu Kadariya

3. Deepa Gurung

4. Dil Kumari Rawal Thapa

5. Kumar Dasaundi

6. Narapati Luwar

7. Bhairav Kumar Shrestha

8. Ram Chandra Rai

9. Bimala Rai Paudyal (nominated)

Nepali Congress

1. Ramesh Jung Rayamajhi

2. Jitendra Narayan Dev

3. Prakash Pantha

4. Anita Devkota

CPN (Maoist Center)

1. Bina Pokharel

2. Mahesh Kumar Mahara

3. Hari Ram Chaudhary

CPN (Unified Socialist)

1. Nanda Chapagain

2. Singa Bahadur Bishwokarma

Janata Samajbadi Party

1. Pramila Kumari

Independent lawmaker

1. Khimlal Devkota

The names of the lawmakers who are replacing the 20 lawmakers whose terms are expiring today are:

Nepali Congress

1. Krishna Prasad Sitaula

2. Ananda Prasad Dhungana

3. Bishnu Kumari Pudasaini

4. Jit Jung Basnet

5. Padam Kumar Pariyar

6. Kiran Babu Shrestha

7. Bishnu Kumari Sapkota

8. Krishna Bahadur Rokaya

9. Baldev Bohara

10.Narayan Dutta Bhatta

CPN (Maoist Center)

1. Shree Krishna Adhikari

2. Manarupa Sharma

3. Jhakku Subedi

4. Bishnu Bahadur Bishwokarma

5. Renu Chand

CPN (Unified Socialist)

1. Ghanshyam Rijal

2. Sabitri Malla

UML

1. Rukmuni Koirala

Janata Samajbadi Party

1. Puja Chaudhary

They are scheduled to take the oath of office and secrecy tomorrow.

Nepali Congress (NC) President Sher Bahadur Deuba has said that there are no issues among the political parties in the coalition government.

Talking to the media briefly, the former Prime Minister, who has been here today to take part in an inauguration of the Bharatpur Visit Year, 2024, claimed the ruling alliance will remain intact.

He was of the view of taking diverse opinions from political leaders and cadres as a part of the political discourse.

He said the matter of selecting the chairperson of the National Assembly will be finalized only through discussions within the ruling coalition.

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and former Prime Minister and CPN (Unified Socialist) Chair Madhav Kumar Nepal arrived here on Thursday to participate in the program.

The formal inauguration of the Bharatpur Visit Year is scheduled to take place at 1 pm today on the bank of Narayani River. 

For quite some time now, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has been vocal about his intentions to revamp his Cabinet, aiming to oust underperforming ministers and those embroiled in controversies. Specifically, Dahal seeks to remove Health Minister Mohan Basnet, who has been mired in various controversies, and Minister of Physical Infrastructure and Transport Prakash Jwala, whose negligence resulted in the deaths of two youths in Balkumari. However, coalition leaders Sher Bahadur Deuba of the Nepali Congress and Madhav Kumar Nepal of the CPN (Unified Socialist)have exerted pressure on Dahal to refrain from making such decisions. The main opposition, CPN-UML, is also urging Dahal to dismiss ministers entangled in controversies.

The prime minister is apparently dissatisfied with the performances of Finance Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat and Foreign Minister NP Saud, both from the Deuba camp of the Nepali Congress. But Deuba is reluctant to recall them due to the intra-party dynamics. The Dahal-led government is facing widespread criticism for its failure to improve the country’s economy, create jobs, curb youth migration abroad, and enhance service delivery. Acknowledging these shortcomings, Dahal repeatedly asserts that he will bring about changes through Cabinet reshuffling, but faces resistance from his coalition partners.

Another point of contention between the primary coalition partners, Congress and Dahal’s CPN (Maoist Center), is their respective positions on the candidate for the chairman of the National Assembly (NA). With the current chairman, who is from the main opposition UML, retiring this month, both parties are vying for the position. The NC has already communicated to the Maoist party that its senior leader Krishna Prasad Sitaula, who won the NA election last month, should be elected as the new chair, a position that Prime Minister Dahal had initially supported. But of late, Dahal’s party has taken a hard stance on the issue due to a couple of reasons. Firstly, the NC voters did not vote for the Maoist candidates in the Koshi provinces during the NA election, and secondly, the recently concluded NC’s Mahasamiti meeting portrayed Maoist insurgency in a negative light.

Prime Minister Dahal is under pressure from his own party not to relinquish the claim for the NA chair. Although the Maoist party has decided to field its own candidate, leaders say Dahal will most likely support Sitaula for the NA chair. 

Maoist leaders fear that the party will be left without any representatives in the Constitutional Council if the NA leadership is handed over to the NC.

After the NA election last month, the Maoists, which is the third-largest party in the House of Representatives, emerged as the largest party in the National Assembly. In the recently concluded party’s Standing Committee, there were strong voices advocating for the party to claim the chairmanship of the NA, which led to the formal decision on the same issue. 

The Maoist decision may also have been partly influenced by the NC’s Mahasamiti meeting, where the majority of representatives opposed the electoral alliance with the Maoist party, though the outcomes of the meeting did not create any obstacles for the party to forge an electoral alliance in the next local and national elections.

A senior Maoist leader says, “We should not expect that one alliance lasts forever; there could be changes.”

Though the current coalition may not be in any significant danger, the gap between the two coalition partners is widening by the day. It appears that both Deuba and Dahal are committed to the continuation of the current coalition, but there is growing unease within both NC and Maoist parties. Both Dahal and Deuba are extra cautious that the current differences between the two parties should not create problems in the coalition.

They sit together even if some minor issues arise to maintain an environment of trust. For instance, when Nepali Congress General Secretary Gagan Thapa took a firm stance in the party’s Mahasamiti meeting to endorse the proposal that the party would not forge a pre-poll alliance, Deuba and his close aide Purna Bahadur Khadka personally assured Dahal that the coalition will remain intact. Inside the NC, senior leader Shekhar Koirala continuously asserts that he is working to change the coalition, while Thapa has taken a middle ground that the party should remain committed to the current coalition but should not forge an electoral alliance in the next general elections. 

Meanwhile, Deuba and leaders close to him argue that the party should take a pragmatic approach because if the party leaves the government, the UML will come to the rescue of the Dahal-led government, ultimately paving the way for the left alliance. And, in case the left alliance is formed again, the party could face an electoral defeat like it did in the 2017 elections.

However, the NC rank and file are not happy with the alliance, as reflected in the party’s Mahasamiti meeting where they stated that the alliance with the Maoists has eroded the party’s ideology and support base. Inside the NC, there are growing voices that the party is suffering due to the non-performance of the NC as a key coalition. 

A NC senior leader says, “On the one hand, our cadres at the local level have not felt the party’s presence in the government, on the other hand, the Dahal-led government is becoming unpopular, but people are pointing fingers at us because Dahal remains in power.”

Similarly, inside the Maoist party, there are growing demands that the alliance with NC should be reviewed as vote transfer has emerged as a big problem. Though Dahal seems committed to continuing with the current coalition, senior leaders inside the party believe that it would be natural to form a left alliance. For now, it seems that both Deuba and Dahal, who have a strong command in the party, would manage the differences, but it is uncertain whether they will be able to do so for a long time.