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CPN (Maoist Center) has postponed the Kathmandu-centric demonstration scheduled for November 8.

The Maoist Center said that it had to postpone the demonstration due to the earthquake in Jajarkot and Rukum.

Earlier on November 5, a meeting of the Maoist Center had decided to stage a demonstration in Kathmandu to protect and strengthen the federal democratic republic, national sovereignty and against regression.

At a time when the government's ruling party, the Maoist Center, is being widely criticized for announcing to stage a demonstration in Kathmandu, the party has postponed the program for now citing the earthquake among other reasons.

The Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) had said that the party leading the government cannot stage the demonstration.

The Nepali Congress (NC) has decided to postpone the schedule of its Mahasamiti meeting by two weeks. The postponement is attributed to Friday's earthquake in Karnali Province and the availability issue of a meeting hall.

During the NC Central Executive Committee meeting on Sunday, it was decided to reschedule the meeting from December 15 to 18 this year. The meeting will be held at the Godavari-based Sunrise Convention Centre in Lalitpur. Initially, the event was set to take place from November 29 to December 1.

The party has adopted the policy of suspending all formal events till the Tihar festival, considering the quake's impact in western Nepal, it is said.

In the meantime, the meeting decided to draw the government's attention towards the urgency to expedite its rescue, relief and rehabilitation efforts in the quake-hit areas, acknowledging the efforts made so far.

Likewise, the meeting said the monetary assistance of Rs five million announced by the party for the survivors is not sufficient and has urged the party to secure more aid for them.

It also called for forming a committee to monitor and facilitate the relief distribution by ensuring that there are no irregularities in the process.

India handed over the first consignment of emergency relief materials worth INR 1 billion to Nepal on Sunday.

Following the earthquake in Jajarkot on November 3, 2023, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had expressed his commitment to provide all possible assistance to Nepal.

A special Indian Air Force C-130 carrying the consignment of over 11 tons emergency relief materials that included tents and tarpaulin sheets, blankets and sleeping bags as well as essential medicines and medical equipment such as portable ventilators for the affected people landed at the Nepalgunj Airport this afternoon.

Indian Ambassador to Nepal Naveen Srivastava on behalf of the Government of India handed over the relief materials to Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Purna Bahadur Khadka in the presence of Karnali Province Chief Minister Raj Kumar Sharma.

Further consignments of the relief material are expected to arrive in the coming days, the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu said.

“As a close friend and neighbor, India remains committed to extending all possible support to those affected by the earthquake in Nepal”, the Embassy further said.

India continues to be a first responder in crisis situations in its neighborhood and beyond.

Following the 2015 earthquake in Nepal, the Government of India was the first responder and carried out its largest disaster relief operation abroad - Operation Maitri.

India had also extended USD 1 billion to Nepal as part of its long-term assistance for post-earthquake reconstruction in housing, education, health and cultural heritage sectors and included reconstruction of 50,000 houses in Nepal’s Gorkha and Nuwakot districts.

Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Purna Bahadur Khadka has paid tribute to the people who lost their life to the recent devastating earthquake in Jajarkot, including Sarita Singh, deputy mayor of Nalgad Municipality, Jajarkot.

The DPM paid tribute to the deputy mayor Singh by draping her body with the national flag during a mass cremation organized on the bank of the Triveni River in Jajarkot this afternoon.

Chief Minister of Karnali Province Raj Kumar Sharma was also present on the occasion.

DPM Khadka said that the government has kept medical treatment, relief and rehabilitation of the earthquake survivors in priority.

Stating that the government was successful in rescuing the quake-injured people in a single day by mobilizing the entire state apparatus, he said the distribution of relief to the survivors has begun from today itself.

"We have dispatched the relief materials in such a way they will reach all the earthquake-affected people within two days. More relief is on the way. We will distribute the relief at the same pace we carried out the rescue operation," he said, adding that the reconstruction works would be started immediately after the relief distribution is over.

The earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale at 11:47 pm on Friday, with its epicenter in Jajarkot, resulted in significant casualties and property damage.

So far 157 have been confirmed dead in the quake.