By Our Reporter
Cases of coronavirus increased sharply in the past few days, prompting the government to issue smart lockdown in the three districts of the Kathmandu Valley effective from Tuesday midnight.
With the fear of the Omicron variant, the daily COVID-19 cases doubled in two days climbing to 2444 on Tuesday from 1167 on Sunday and 1446 on Monday. Last week, the daily infection was less than 500. However, the government has not developed adequate labs to identify whether the rapidly spreading COVID-19 cases were of the Omicron variant.
Free movements of people from India to Nepal are again attributed to the spike in the daily cases. However, the government has done little to regulate and monitor the open border with India. Even it has not built holding centres to keep the infected persons.
Instead of controlling the movements on the border and keeping the infected people in holding centres, the government let the infected persons reach the villages and cities, which culminated in the rapid rise of daily infections.
The government that decided to close all schools from January 11, has imposed smart lockdown in Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur districts.
The District Administration Offices (DAOs) of the Kathmandu Valley have implemented a ‘smart lockdown’ from January 11 midnight until further notice.
Targeting to restrict the carefree movement of the people in public places like hotels, restaurants, cinema halls, parks, and party venues, the offices decided to go for smart lockdown.
A meeting of the chief district officers of the valley held on Tuesday at the Kathmandu District Administration Office decided this effect.
CDO of Kathmandu Govinda Prasad Rijal said that the order was issued as per the circular of CCMCC and the Home Ministry.
“The main point of the smart lockdown is that it doesn’t shut all the activities including economic transaction and vehicular movement and even the movement of the public,” CDO Rijal said.
“Financial, banking, vehicular and public movement will go unhindered, but following public health protocols like maintaining social distancing, wearing facemasks, sanitizing regularly and public gathering with less than 25 people are all mandatory.”
Similarly, it has been decided to restrict crowds and political activities, to make it mandatory for the people to carry vaccination cards with them while visiting public offices from January 21 and to shut all schools from January 11 to 29.
Earlier on Monday, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) restricted from organising any type of public, political and religious function in the presence of more than 25 invitees from January 21.
Likewise, Finance Minister Janardan Sharma had said that the country should not choose the path of lockdown under any circumstances.
While speaking at the second annual general meeting of the Confederation of Banks and Financial Institutions Nepal (CBFIN) held in the capital on Monday, he said that the country’s economy would slide into crisis due to the lockdown.
Political leaders under the grip of middlemen, businessmen
It seems our politicians are under the grip of businessmen, contractors and brokers. It is evident from the latest restaurant episode of Narayanhity Palace Museum. When Batas group which won the contract to run a restaurant in six annas of the land of the Museum started building structures in areas bigger than contracted areas, was not only dragged into controversy but also the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation pulled down the structures. Even Bhesh Narayan Dahal, executive director of the Narayanhiti Palace Museum and Republic Memorial Management and Operation Development Board, resigned on Tuesday after a probe committee formed by the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation had found serious lapses on part of Dahal and the Board in allowing the Batas Group to construct and operate a restaurant inside the Narayanhiti Palace Museum complex.
The committee’s report had concluded that Dahal failed in his responsibility to stop Batas from capturing more land than initially allotted and monitoring and protecting the museum’s property.
A day after the release of the report, Dahal tendered his resignation.
The latest Batas episode dragged former Tourism Minister Yogesh Bhattarai as well as Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s spouse Arzu Rana, as Rana is said to be the advisor of the Batas group. Although Rana refuted the news reports, the brochures of the Batas Group dug by journalists showed Rana as one of the three advisors of the group. However, now after the controversy, her photo has been removed.
In the past, the government and even Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli was accused of giving public land to the Yeti Group. The Omni Group, which won the contract to bring medical tools for COVID-19 in 2020 because of the link of the group with Ishwar Pokharel and Oli himself was found embezzling a big amount of money and importing poor quality goods. But no action was taken against the Omni group because of its connection with the powerful politicians. Similar links are seen with the operators of medical colleges.
When the corrupt leaders reach power, they tend to give the land of Guthi, heritage sites and others to their men. We have been witnessing this for years.
District Attorney’s Office returns Lalita Niwas report
The District Attorney’s Office of Kathmandu has returned the investigation report prepared by the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of the Nepal Police on the Lalita Niwas land scam.
Chief of the District Attorney’s Office of Kathmandu, Ganga Prasad Poudel said that the report was sent back as some of the issues were found to be insufficient in the investigation and some other issues needed additional investigation.
The CIB had arrested Ram Kumar Subedi and his wife Madhavi Subedi as the main accused in the Lalita Niwas land case on December 22 last year for the forgery of the government documents. The CIB has suggested the District Attorney’s Office, Kathmandu to prosecute more than 300 people, saying that they all are found guilty during the investigation.
According to the Criminal Code 2017, the case should be prosecuted within two years after the identification of the case. Accordingly, the deadline to file the case in the scam expired on Monday, which means the report was sent back with an intention not to file any case against anyone involved in the scam.
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