Submit your Article

Minister for Health and Population Mohan Bahadur Basnet has said that all sides should always remain alert for emergency preparedness. Addressing a program of Emergency Medical Team (EMT) here today, Minister Basnet said, "We all should always remain alert for emergency preparedness. I want to urge all sectors of the country to be involved in disaster preparedness." He asked the health workers to pay attention to ensure rights to health guaranteed by the Constitution. Similarly, World Health Organization (WHO) Representative to Nepal, Dr Rajesh Sambhajirao Pandav, said that EMT was a group formed to provide effective service immediately to the country and people during the disaster. He added the team should be active to save the life of the people making coordination on time during emergency periods. Director General of the Department of Health Services, Dr Dipendra Raman Singh, said 25 hospitals across the country are in position to provide 'Hub Satellite' emergency service. Stating that the workshop was organized to bring 'EMT' into implementation, Chief of Quality Assurance and Monitoring Division Dr Madan Upadhyay said that the discussion would be held for two days on emergency preparedness for disaster.  

The CPN (Maoist Center) has called its Central Committee meeting for July 8. Around 700 party central and alternative central members, and office bearers of party commissions and provinces will take part in the meeting to be held  in Nepal Academy, Kathmandu, said secretary of the party central office, Dor Prasad Upadhyay. The party Central Committee has a total of 588 members (386 central and 202 alternative central ones). It has three commissions, seven geographical and three non-geographical provinces. The party has urged the subordinate bodies to clear arrears and levies on time. The meeting is expected to discuss the issue of a unity among political parties with the same ideologies and that relating to the newly formed socialist front, he said. The subject of launching a new campaign and an action plan to effectively connect the party with people will also be discussed, Upadhyay said. Similarly, other agenda of the meeting are the party membership renewal and management and the allocation of duties and responsibilities of party leaders, he said.  

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and General Secretary of Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) Netra Bikram Chand held a meeting on Thursday to discuss contemporary political issues. During the meeting held at the Prime Minister’s official residence in Baluwatar this morning, the two discussed the atmosphere in the aftermath of the declaration of Socialist Front of four leftist parties including the CPN on June 19 and the country's contemporary political affairs, according to the Prime Minister's Secretariat. The Prime Minister's private secretary Ganga Dahal said that the two leaders exchanged views focusing on the effective presence of the Front, further institutionalizing the accomplishments of Maoist movement and the possibility of unification between the parties: CPN (Maoist Centre) and the CPN.    

A big portion of foreign assistance meant for the program to strengthen democratic system and to enhance capacity for governance improvement remains to be spent. This situation has arisen in the Provincial and Local Governance Support Program (PLGSP) as the province and local levels failed to give adequate concern and attention, it is said. The PLGSP is run under the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration and it is the main national project of the government focused on promoting federal good governance. PLGSP commenced officially on the very first day of the Nepalese fiscal year 2076/77 (16 July 2019) for a duration of four years. PLGSP was formally launched at the Cabinet meeting when the project document was approved on 23 August 2019. A Joint Financing Arrangement (JFA) was signed between the Ministry of Finance and Development Partners (DEID, Norway, SDC and EU) on 4 September 2019. Of the Rs 14.95 billion mobilized for operating the program from Fiscal Year 2076/77 to 2079/80 BS, only Rs 3 billion 238 million 700 thousand has been spent, said the National Program Directorate Manager, Bhupendra Sapkota at a program here on Wednesday. It was shared in the program that several provinces and local levels did not turn up for taking the assistance for implementation of the targeted program within the stipulated time while some failed to utilize the funds properly even after taking the assistance. This has resulted in the program running into arrears. The objectives of the program are to strengthen provincial and local governance systems and procedures with an improved inter-governmental relationship to maximize benefits of cooperative federalism for Nepali citizenry and to enhance the capacity of provincial and local governments to deliver services and development outcomes effectively to citizens. Similarly, the major activities of the project   are to prepare policy, laws, strategies, directives and guidelines for federal governments, Provincial and the local governments, and to strengthen inter-governmental mechanisms for full functioning. Establishing and strengthening the Provincial Center for Good governance (PCGG (re-structured LDTA regional training center) at the province as a center for excellence to drive the overall capacity development activities for the local governments is also one of PLGSP's activities. The government has provided Rs 3 billion and 450 million while Nepal's development partners as the United Nations, the European Union and Norway among others Rs 11 billion 500 million as grant for PLGSP. Of this amount, Rs 1 billion 897 million 500 thousand was allocated to the federal government, Rs 7 billion and 222 million to the provincial governments and Rs 5 billion 830 million and 500 thousand to the local governments. The program envisaged 14 different outcomes including formulation of Acts and policies required for the new federal structures and the strengthening of inter-governmental mechanism and public finance management. It particularly aims to make the government bodies at all levels and the inter-governmental mechanisms fully functional to support the federal governance system as per the Constitution. A latest meeting of the National Implementation Committee and National Fiscal Risk Advisory Sub-committee, chaired by the Ministry Secretary, made an assessment of the achievements of the PLGSP so far and the initiatives made to achieve these outcomes. The meeting also pledged to put in maximum efforts for making the program result-oriented in the coming days. Sapkota said the meeting held extensive and intense discussions on implementation of its decisions and future action plan, the progress report of the current period, the proposed budget and programs for the upcoming fiscal year and on the monitoring and evaluation report presented by the third party. The meeting concluded that the coming year would be taken as the transitional year in the context of a big chunk of the support amount remaining to be spent even though the program implementation term is about to terminate. Then after, the PLGSP's new action plan and framework would be determined on the basis of wide-ranging discussion with the stakeholders.