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All Nepal National Free Students Union (ANNFSU), the student wing of main opposition CPN-UML, staged a demonstration outside the minister's quarter in Pulchok on Monday demanding that the government announce the date of civic polls at the earliest.

They chanted various slogans like announce the date of local level elections, protect the constitution and democracy among others.

They also waved black flags to government spokesperson and Minister for Communications and Information Technology Gyanendra Bahadur Karki.

The tenure of the office bearers of the local levels is expiring in the third week of May. But the government has not fixed the date yet.

As the Election Commission needs at least 120 days to make preparations for the elections, the poll body and the main opposition party CPN-UML have been piling pressure on the government to announce the date of local level elections.

The government, however, has decided to hold the local level elections by mid-June.

The Election Commission (EC) submitted a report along with the results of National Assembly Elections to President Bidya Devi Bhandari on Monday.

According to Sagar Acharya, spokesperson of the President's Office, Chief Election Commissioner Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya submitted the report to the President amidst a program organized in Sheetal Niwas this afternoon.

Similarly, he also submitted the annual report of the Election Commission as per Article 294 (1) of Nepal's constitution.

A UN report seen by Reuters says the Taliban and its allies are believed to have killed scores of former Afghan officials, security force members and people who worked with the international military contingent since the US-led pullout.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ report to the UN Security Council paints a picture of worsening living conditions for Afghanistan’s 39 million people despite an end of combat with the Taliban’s takeover in August.

“An entire complex social and economic system is shutting down,” Guterres said.

The report sounds the latest in a series of warnings the UN chief has issued in recent months about the humanitarian and economic crises that accelerated after the Taliban seized Kabul as the last US-led foreign troops left and international donors cut critical financial aid.

Guterres recommended the council approve a restructuring of the UN mission to deal with the situation, including the creation of a new human rights monitoring unit.

The UN mission “continues to receive credible allegations of killings, enforced disappearances and other violations” against former officials, security force members and people who worked for the US-led international military contingent despite a general amnesty announced by the Taliban, the report said.

The mission has determined as credible reports that more than 100 of those individuals have been killed – more than two-thirds of them allegedly by the Taliban or their affiliates – since Aug. 15, it said.

There also are credible allegations of the extra-judicial killings of at least 50 people suspected of belonging to the local branch of the Islamic State militant group, according to the report.

“Human rights defenders and media workers continue to come under attack, intimidation, harassment, arbitrary arrest, ill-treatment and killings,” it said.

Senior leaders of the ruling coalition have expedited parleys of late to forge a common ground on America’s $ 500 million grant under Millennium Challenge Corporation(MCC).

Over the past few days, top leaders of the Nepali Congress, CPN (Maoist Center), and CPN (Unified Socialist) have been meeting on a daily basis to find a common ground. Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, who is also NC President, is in favor of endorsing the MCC without any delay, while CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal are buying time.

Dahal and Nepal have conveyed a message to the PM that they are in favor of endorsing the MCC but they have to convince their respective party colleagues. Several Maoist leaders are pressing Dahal not to endorse it from Parliament. On January 31, PM held consultations with Dahal and Nepal about tabling MCC in the full House. Earlier on January 29, parties held extensive talks on the MCC.

During a meeting with Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and CPN (Unified Socialist) Chairman Madhav Kumar Nepal at the former’s official residence in Baluwatar on Monday morning, Dahal said that the MCC should not be endorsed in its existing form.

A bill concerning MCC was registered in the Parliament Secretariat in 2019 which is yet to be tabled in the Parliament. PM Deuba was in favor of tabling the MCC in the Parliament session that was scheduled to take place on January 30. PM Deuba has been saying that he would not force them to vote in favor of MCC and he should be allowed to table it in the Parliament.

However, the Parliament session was postponed for 10 days. Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota has conveyed the message to top cross-party leaders that he would not table the MCC bill in the Parliament with forging consensus among the parties.

Along with consensus among parties, speaker Sapkota has also been saying that the CPN-UML should remove parliamentary obstructions.

America has not set any specific deadline but is urging Nepali leaders to act on MCC as soon as possible. The MCC is becoming complicated because there are growing interests of some outside powers on it, said a ruling party leader.