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Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal returned home after attending the 19th summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) held in Uganda.

The inbound and outbound flights were barred  for half-an-hour at the Tribhuvan International Airport for the Prime Minister during the time when he arrived in Kathmandu from Qatar Airways.

The Deputy Prime Minister, Speaker and ministers had reached the airport to welcome him.

Leading a Nepali delegation, Prime Minister Dahal had left for Uganda via Qatar Airlines at 2: 15 am on Thursday.

He was accompanied by his daughter Ganga Dahal, Foreign Minister Narayan Prakash Saud, Foreign Secretary Sewa Lamsal and senior officials of Nepal government.

During the summit, the Prime Minister addressed the plenary session of the Summit on the theme ‘Deepening Cooperation for Shared Global Affluence’ on January 19.

During his stay in Uganda, he also held a meeting with Nepali diaspora community.

Kathmandu: Nepal has requested Russia not to recruit Nepali youths in the Russian Army.

Nepal’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Narayan Prakash Saud made this request in the meeting with Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Sergey Vershinin, on the margins of the 19th NAM Summit that took place in Uganda.

A statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs says: "Foreign minister raised the issues related to Nepali nationals in the Russian Army, including the request not to recruit Nepali nationals, release those who are already recruited, repatriation of mortal remains of the deceased and compensation.”

The Russian deputy minister stated that efforts will be made to resolve the issues raised by the Nepali side.  There are no bilateral provisions on recruitment in the Russian forces, but reports suggest that Nepalis are serving alongside the Russians and fighters from several other countries lured by certain ‘incentives’.

Moscow has not responded to Nepal’s repeated requests for information about the Nepalis in the Russian army, though the government has said that hundreds of Nepalis have been serving the Russians, more than 100 have gone missing and 11 Nepalis have died in the war so far.

According to Saud, 115 families of Nepali youths, who have joined the Russian army, have submitted a request to the ministry calling for their early repatriation. We have asked Russia to repatriate the Nepalis serving its army and compensate the families of those killed in action, he said.

The Election Commission has directed the government and the Home Ministry to make arrangements of movement of candidates and voters only after coordinating with respective District Administration Office while participating in election related programs for the National Assembly election scheduled for January 25.

The government has been asked to make necessary security arrangements on the route leading to polling stations and residential areas of Province Assembly members, chairpersons and vice-chairpersons of rural municipalities and mayors, deputy-mayors as they are the voters and they live in different places in the province.

Twenty seats at the NA are going to be vacant from March 3. Of 20 seats, the election is scheduled for 19 seats on January 25. 

The EC issued such directives on the basis of recommendation of the High-Level Election Security Committee formed under Election Security (Management) Directive-2078 in view of possible security challenges, said Assistant Spokesperson at the EC, Shreedhar Panthi.

Office of the Election Officers have already been established at the Province Election Office in Morang, Dhanusha, Makawanpur, Dang, Surkhet and Kailali and election code of conduct has been enforced since January 16.

The EC, through the Government of Nepal, and the Home Ministry, directed the security bodies to ensure effective and reliable election security arrangements making the District Election Security Committee active and to provide details after carrying out necessary supervision in course of implementation of election code of conduct.

The parliamentary Committee for Education, Health and Information Technology has directed the government to submit documents related to Mobile Device Management System (MDMS) and Telecommunication Traffic Monitoring and Fraud Control System (TERAMOCS). 

A meeting of the committee on Thursday directed the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology to submit papers related to policy decision, purchase process, payment and rationale of implementation concerning MDMS and TERAMOCS from the start. 

The House panel also decided to ask for the ministry-level investigation report on these topics and the court decisions related to the same and to take further decisions on the basis of consultations with experts. 

The committee’s decision comes following the discussions it held earlier in the day with Minister for Communications and Information Technology Rekha Sharma, Communications Secretary Ram Krishna Subedi and other officials at the ministry.

In the meeting, Minister Sharma shared that the ministry is studying the policy decisions made by previous governments and works carried out by the implementing bodies. She said the ministry will cooperate with investigations to be conducted by the authorized agency into the topic of any said irregularities in the implementation of these systems.
Nepal Telecommunications Authority had brought the technology for over Rs 3bn for making telecommunication services credible and qualitative.

Earlier, the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament had instructed the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority to carry out further investigation into the technology procurement process of TERAMOCS and proceed with the prosecution in accordance with the law.