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Electric vehicles will come into operation in Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha, after a long wait. These vehicles were lying idle under the open sky for more than two years due to the delay in the legal process in acquiring the operation permit and lack of the operation modality. The five electric buses and 14 vans given by donor agencies in grant assistance were sitting idle as the Lumbini Province Government failed to make arrangements for the legal process for operating them. Preparations are being made to operate these luxury vehicles shortly after the Province Government recently opened the way for the legal process for the same.  A meeting of the Province Council of Ministers on April 21 decided to give approval for operating these vehicles converting their number plates from white to green. Vehicles with white number plates indicate that they are operated for government offices while those with green number plates indicate operated for tourism purposes. These vehicles belong to the Lumbini Development Trust. LDT received these electric vehicles costing Rs 130 million under the Clean Energy Project. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) provided these vehicles as grant assistance. These vehicles were received through the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation. The Government of Nepal had paid additional Rs 35 million as customs duty while bringing the vehicles to Nepal. Charging stations have also been constructed in Lumbini at a cost of Rs 139 million for the operation of these vehicles. The tires of several of these vehicles have gone flat while the batteries too have become dysfunctional for lack of regular charging as these vehicles remained abandoned for long. Each of the five buses is of 19 seat capacity while each of the 14 vans is of five seat capacity. The vehicles have automatic doors and are disabled-friendly. They were brought for the convenience of tourists in Lumbini and the nearby associated places related to Buddhism. These electric buses and cars were brought to Lumbini on November 24, 2020 with a goal of making Lumbini pollution-free.  

The encroachment on the no-man's land along the Nepal-India border in Kanchanpur district is being removed. In this connection, the illegal structures constructed on the no-man's land on the border under Dodhara Chandani Municipality are being dismantled and removed, said Kishor Limbu, the Municipality's Mayor. According to him, the removal of encroachment on the border has been started from Baduwal Tole of Dodhara Chandani-3. "The work of removing the encroachments on the no-man's land on the border has been started and we have removed the illegal structures on one and half kilometers stretch on the first day. It will be continued," he elaborated. The work of vacating the no-man's land of illegal occupation is being carried out at the joint initiation of the Armed Police Force, Nepal Police, the Indian Seema Suraksha Bal (SSB) and the people-elected representatives, among other stakeholders. People have cultivated crops and constructed illegal structures on the no-man's land along the Nepal-India international border in Dodhara Chandani. As a result, disputes broke out among the people on both sides of the border, one side accusing the other of encroaching upon their land. The Municipality hopes this problem would be solved with the clearing of the no-man's land. Kanchanpur shares 129.5 kilometers border with India.

More than three dozen of the local governments lying along the Kaligandaki River have gone violating the Supreme Court (SC) order by extracting river based natural products worth millions annually. However, the illegal activities operated by the local units are unchecked even if they are visible to the stakeholders. The Kali Gandaki river passes through Mustang, Myagdi, Baglung, Parbat, Syangja, Gulmi, Palpa, Tanahu and Nawalparasi districts adjoining over three dozen local governments. The river banks are rich in sand, pebbles, gritstone, stone, and forest woods. “Some 40 local bodies along the river from the mountain to plains have extracted the natural products of the river worth around one billion rupees every year although the Supreme Court ordered not to extract anything from the river,” said advocate Tulasi Ram Pokharel, resident of Rampur Municipality in Palpa, who also filed cases in the SC against the Kaligandaki river diversion and disobey of the court order. According to Pokharel, Rampur Municipality in Palpa and Chapakot Municipality in Syangja district extract river products worth at least Rs 50m each annually. The local governments those lie along the river include Kaligandaki, Rambha, Ruru, Kushma, Beni, Baglung, Jaljala, Jaimini, Bulingtar, Nisdi, Ghiring, Rising, Devghat, Galyang, GharapJhong, Barhagaun Muktikshetra and more. About a half dozen petitions were filed at the SC, seeking restrictive orders against the government plan for the river diversion and river products extractions as the Kaligandaki river has its own cultural importance and civilization dwelling along the settlements through the Kaligandaki river. Approximately, 3.5m people live in the surrounding areas along about a 309-km section of the river from mountain to foothills of Nepal. The river that starts from the Tibetan enclave to Triveni of Nepal accounts 496 km in length. Pokharel filed the case on 30 June 2021 against Office of the President, the Government of Nepal, Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, Ministry of Finance, then Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel, Chief Minister of Lumbini Province and National Planning Commission, demanding to stop the river diversion project that would spoil the chain of civilization, environment and culture. Senior Advocate Balkrishna Neupane filed a writ on 2 July 2021, seeking certiorari order against the river diversion that will damage the cultural civilization along the river. Similarly, senior Advocate Prakash Mani Sharma filed another case on 6 July 2021 demanding certiorari order with mandamus against extractions of river basin products by 40 local governments, district coordination committees, district administration offices and Gandaki Province. Immediately, the SC issued an interim stay order to stop diversion procedure and all sorts of extractions from the river. However, the local bodies including Rampur Municipality and Chapakot Municipality continued extractions unabatedly. Ruru Rural Municipality in Gulmi district filed a writ at the SC on 21 October 2021, demanding to scrap the stay order against the river extractions. On 27 December 2021, advocate Raja Ram Ghimire and Pokharel filed a court disobedience case at the SC against Rampur Municipality. The SC on 20 June 2022 dismissed the writ filed by Ruru Rural Municipality while other cases are undergoing at the SC. Advocate Pokharel claimed that the local bodies were still extracting the river products in the name of mouths of the small rivers and streams in these local units. “These extractions are against the SC order, triggering soil erosion, environmental degradation,” he said. “It’s also a slap against our proposal of enlisting the River in the World Heritage Site,” he added. Rampur Municipality called an invitation for bids on September 30, 2022 to contract for extractions of sand and gritstones, mentioning stream mouths but the seven locations called in the bid were the banks of the Kali Gandaki River. Kapil Bahadur Khand, spokesperson for the Rampur Municipality, admitted that they called the bid for the extractions from the mouths of streams adjoining the Kaligandaki river. “We are also checking the illegal extractions,” he claimed. “If they steal and extract by night or away from our notice, we are unable to take action against them,” he added. Khand further conceded that they allowed big contractors to extract the sand and gritstones from the river banks. “We have given permission for extractions after they presented letters from the Ministries or the Department of Roads,” he said. “We have allowed two big contractors to extract river products from the banks,” he added. There are a number of cases registered at the anti-graft body the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) against misuses of natural resources of the river. However, the actions against the violators are yet to be materialized against the cases belonging to the Kaligandaki River. The river has cultural and religious significance, and Hindu texts read sages including Pulaha, Kapila, and Jadbharat attained enlightenment by meditating along the banks at Beni-Galeshwor section. The river known as Gandaki is also considered a holy river having Shaligrams, goldstones. The Kali Gandaki Gorge or Andha Galchi is claimed as the deepest gorge of the world. The river stands among the longest and most interesting rivers of Nepal.

India witnessed a jump in the number of daily Covid-19 cases, recording 9,629 fresh cases of the infection in the last 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry said on Wednesday, India Today reported. According to the Health Ministry data, the death toll rose to 5,31,398 with 29 fatalities recorded in the last 24 hours. Of the 29 deaths -- six were reported in Delhi, three each in Maharashtra and Rajasthan, two each in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh and one each in Odisha, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh. Ten deaths were reconciled by Kerala. The number of active cases stood at 61,013. Active caseload comprises 0.14% of the total Covid-19 cases, according to India Today. The Health Ministry said that 11,967 people recovered from the virus in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of people who have recuperated from the disease to 4,43,23,045. The national recovery rate stood at 98.68% while the case fatality rate was pegged at 1.18%.