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Ministers representing the Nepali Congress in the government have demanded resignation of Finance Minister Janardan Sharma.

During a Cabinet meeting held at the Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers on Tuesday, the ministers urged Finance Minister Sharma to resign from his post.

Sharma is accused of inviting two unauthorized persons to change tax rates on the eve of the budget presentation for the next fiscal year 2022-23.

The ministers said that the Finance Minister should resign on moral grounds as questions have been raised against him in public quarters.

A Central Committee meeting of the CPN (Maoist Centre) has been postponed.

The meeting called for 11 am at Pragya Bhawan in Kamaladi has been postponed till tomorrow, party spokesperson Krishna Bahadur Mahara said.

He said that the meeting will be held at 1 pm tomorrow.

The reason for the postponement has not been disclosed.

Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal presented the agenda and political report in the meeting that started on Sunday.

On Monday, province in-charges floated their opinion on the party's latest situation.

During the meeting held on Monday, leaders suggested Dahal forge an electoral alliance with the CPN-UML saying that the party is getting weak.

Chairman Dahal was scheduled to answer the questions raised in the meeting today.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his defence minister to continue the offensive in Ukraine after Russia captured the city of Lysychansk, BBC reported.

Mr Putin was shown on Russian TV calling on forces on other fronts to pursue their aims according to "previously approved plans".

The capture means that all of Luhansk region is now in Russian hands.

Earlier the region's Ukrainian governor said the city was abandoned so Russians would not destroy it from a distance.

Soldiers have now moved to new fortified positions, Serhiy Haidai told the BBC.

Losing the city and ceding control of Luhansk to Russia was painful, he said, but added: "This is just one battle we have lost, but not the war."

He pleaded for more weapons from the West to offset the Russian advantage.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has pledged that Ukrainian forces will return to retake Lysychansk "thanks to the increase in the supply of modern weapons".

Russia has now stepped up its bombardment of cities in the neighbouring Donetsk region, with the areas around Sloviansk and the road between Lysychansk and Bakhmut in particular being targeted, according to Ukrainian forces.

Together the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk form the industrial Donbas area.

Mr Putin was seen telling Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu that troops who took part in the campaign to capture Luhansk should "rest and develop their combat capabilities".

"Other military units, including the East group and the West group, must carry out their tasks according to previously approved plans," he said, expressing the hope that on those fronts they would have similar success to that in Luhansk region, according to BBC.

Just before he launched the invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, Mr Putin recognised all of Luhansk and Donetsk as independent states. Russian proxy forces began an insurgency there in 2014 - the year Russia also annexed the Crimean peninsula.

Just over a week ago, Russian troops captured Severodonetsk - which Russian bombardment has reduced to ruins.

The CPN (Maoist Centre) leaders have suggested that the party should forge an alliance with the CPN-UML in the federal and provincial assembly elections.

During the Central Executive Committee of the party held at the Pragya Bhuwan in Kathmandu, leaders suggested Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal to start discussions and debates for the left alliance with the UML.

Leaders were of the opinion that the Nepali Congress betrayed the Maoist Centre in the local level elections.

"The Maoist honestly cast votes for the Congress candidates in the local level polls. But, the Congress did not cast ballots for us," central member Ram Kumar Sharma said.

The leaders said that the party should forge an alliance with the Congress only after reaching an agreement.

"The Congress should be given 50 percent seats if the parties forge alliance in the upcoming elections again. Remaining 50 percent should be given to other parties of the coalition," leader Sharma said.

Similarly, during the meeting, the leaders have said that the Citizenship Bill should be endorsed at the earliest.