People's Review

Author: people

  • ‘Social sites cause of criminal activities’

    Kathmandu, 1 August:The Nepal Police has said that number of criminal incidents in the country has increased along with the increasing use of social sites.

    The incidents of criminal activities have increased along with rising social evils and aberrations and use of the social media.The Community-Police Partnership Programme would help to reduce criminal activities as different incidents like domestic violence, murder, suicide and gender-based violence have increased in the society due to social evils and aberrations.

    People’s News Monitoring Service

     

     

  • Gorkha Brewery owes millions to state

    Kathmandu, 1 August : The Inland Revenue Office, Bharatpur has directed Gorkha Brewery to pay the excise duty determined by the tax office within a week. The revenue office has asked the Gorkha Brewery,  to pay Rs 871.4 million in excise duty that it failed to pay in the past two fiscal years.

    A single bench of Chief Justice Cholendra Sumsher Rana, on July 24, overturned an interim order issued by the Pokhara High Court, paving the way for the collection of taxes owed by the brewery to the government. Earlier on June 26, the High Court had issued an interim order directing the Bharatpur Inland Revenue Office not to implement its decision to determine the tax liability of the brewery, according to The Kathmandu Post.

    Chief at the Bharatpur Inland Revenue Office, Shambhu Prasad Rijal, said his office had dispatched a letter to Gorkha Brewery on July 28, asking it to deposit Rs532,157,615 and Rs339,339,963, inclusive of excise duty, fines and late fees, for fiscal years 2016/17 and 2017/18.

    People’s News Monitoring Service

  • When they were not selected for the job….

    Kathmandu, 1 August: The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority has received a complaint against Kathmandu University vice-chancellor Ram Kantha Makaju, registrar Subodh Sharma and School of Arts dean Sagar Sharma, claiming they appointed three assistant professors breaching existing laws.

    Laxman D Pant and Mahendra Sapkota, who also had competed for the positions, filed the complaint claiming one assistant professor in each of journalism, development studies and painting departments was appointed without following due procedures, according to Onlinekhabar.

    Pant argues that the university appointed its own staff, appointed two years ago on contract without any competition, as assistant professors now though the applications were called for an open competition.

    People’s News Monitoring Service

  • Finally Bhattarai becomes minister

    Kathmandu, 1 August:CPN lawmaker Yogesh Bhattarai has been appointed minister for culture, tourism and civil aviation. Prime Minister Khagda Oli has appointed him at the vacant ministerial post on Wednesday.

    The position was vacant since the then minister Rabindra Adhikari was killed in a helicopter crash in Taplejung on February 27.

    People’s News Monitoring Service

     

  • Tourism Ministry gets Yogesh Bhattarai as minister

    Kathmandu, 31 July: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has assigned Yogesh Bhattarai as the Minister for Civil Aviation, Tourism and Culture today. The Ministry was looked after by PM Oli himself after death of the sitting minister Rabindra Adhikari in a helicopter accident on 27 February.

    Bhattarai is known as a popular leader from the new generation in the party. He was elected Member of Parliament from Taplejung constituency. Bhattarai is known as the active member in the Madhav Nepal camp.

    People’s News Monitoring Service

  • NCP secretariat meeting put off till August 13

    NCP secretariat meeting put off till August 13

    By Our Reporter
    Unification of the ruling Nepal Communist Party has not completed yet. A meeting of the secretariat held on Monday was expected to complete the unification by naming the heads of the party departments.
    But the meeting failed to make any breakthrough in finalising the leadership in the party’s major central authorities, councils and departments.
    The secretariat meeting of NCP was called at Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s official residence in Baluwatar, following its two postponements. But still the meeting failed to make any headway.
    Instead, the meeting was put off till August 13, probably considering PM Oil’s Singapore visit and Dahal’s Dubai tour. The two chairs left for Singapore and Dubai on Tuesday.

    According to NCP spokesperson Narayan Kaji Shrestha, the secretariat meeting concentrated discussions on the integration of the party’s all central authorities, including the councils and departments and division of works and responsibilities of all party central members.
    Shrestha said that the meeting had decided to hold next meeting on August 13 to finalise the remaining unification process and division of works and responsibilities of the leaders.
    It is said that claim for the top post in the party’s school department by the leaders of former CPN UML and the Maoist Centre has been a thorny issue to forge agreement on work division of the leaders.

  • PM Oli seeks logistic supports from India

    By Our Reporter
    Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has said that the trilateral transit arrangements involving Nepal-India and Bangladesh would change the logistics landscape of the sub-region.
    “With such arrangements, we can explore the possibilities of utilising inland waterways in this sub-region going beyond the road and rail networks,” Prime Minister Oli said while addressing the India-Nepal Logistic Summit 2019 on Sunday.
    “Bangladesh has permitted Nepal to use the facilities at the Mongla Port since September 1997, following the opening of Kakarbhitta-Phulbari-Banglabundh transit route. It has also permitted additional rail corridor to Nepal via Rohanpur-Singhabad for transit,” PM Oli said during his lengthy speech.
    However, these transit facilities with and through Bangladesh for Nepal’s international trade are yet to be operationalised, Prime Minister added, hinting at non-cooperation from India to exploit the facilities.
    He also suggested enhancing cooperation under the BBIN (Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal) framework to improve connectivity and logistics.
    Stating that it was critical for a landlocked country like Nepal to be connected with the neighbourhood, region and to the rest of the world, the Prime Minister lamented that despite improvements made over the years, Nepal was still bearing the brunt of high logistic cost in the transit transport of goods, both export and import.
    He also argued that connectivity remains a topmost agenda in Nepal-India bilateral cooperation framework.
    Prime Minister Oli expressed happiness that his vision for inland waterways was being translated into reality.
    He said inland waterways would be a game changer in transport transit system. “It will not only reduce cost of transit transport but also diversify transit transport options. It will benefit both the countries,” he said.
    “In view of the changing dynamics of trade and transit, we have initiated review of both transit treaty and railway service agreement. Further simplification of transit process would bring positive impact on economic growth and development of Nepal,” PM Oli said.

  • Vegetable prices skyrocket

    By Our Reporter
    Journalist Bishnu Gautam was all surprised when a vegetable retailer at Pepsi Cola in Kathmandu asked Rs. 160 for a green pumpkin weighing 1.6 kg and Rs. 90 for half a kg of okra.
    “Even the retailer, a Thakali woman from Mustang, told me that she had never sold a pumpkin at such a high price, the maximum price of pumpkin she knew was Rs. 60 per kg,” Gautam narrated.
    Price of every vegetable this time has soared high. For example, a kg of tomato costs Rs.120.
    But the retailers have different reasons for the skyrocketing vegetable prices. Some have blamed the disturbance in the supply of Indian vegetables and others the flood and landslips.
    According to Kalimati Fruits and Vegetable Market Development Board, the retail price of green beans has increased to Rs 105 a kg from Rs.65 in July last year while the price of sword beans (ghiu simi) has reached Rs 125 a kg from Rs 75 per kg a year ago.
    Price of bitter gourd (karela) has climbed to Rs 105 per kg fromRs. 65 a year ago.
    According to Khom Prasad Ghimire, president of Federation of Fruits and Vegetable Entrepreneurs in Nepal, late arrival of monsoon, coupled with the floods, affected production this year and this led to the increase in vegetable prices.
    Binaya Shrestha, information officer of KFVMDB, said shortage of local products and decline in import of vegetables from India caused prices to significantly rise this year.
    “Due to pesticide testing, most Indian exporters are sending less quantities of vegetables to Nepal. Moreover, local products were damaged in recent floods,” he said.

  • One year on, police fail to find Nirmala’s murderer

    By Our Reporter
    It has been more than a year since 13-year-old Nirmala Panta was raped and brutally murdered in Kanchanpur on July 26, 2018. But police are still unable to find the culprit behind the heinous crime. Nirmala was raped and murdered before throwing her body in a sugarcane field.
    The case became a nation-wide issue of protests for months.
    People both in Kathmandu and Kanchanpur took to the street demanding actions against the culprits and a demonstration in Kanchanpur resulted in the death of a teenager and serious injury to another man.
    The government formed one team after another to investigate into the case, but in vain. Three police officers lost job for the negligence in the investigation into the case, while Panta’s father went almost mad after the killing of his daughter.
    In a year, around 600 people were interrogated during the investigation whereas 80 persons underwent DNA testing. But nothing concrete was found. The case eroded the popularity of the powerful communist government and the image of Nepal police. Still the case is haunting the government.
    Pant, a grade nine student at the Saraswati Secondary School, and a resident of Bhimdutta Municipality in Kanchanpur, went missing after she visited her friend Roshani Bam’s home on July 26, b2018. Her body was found in the next day in a sugarcane field more than a kilometre from her home.
    When the body was discovered and the police reached the crime scene, police officers first on the scene engaged in unethical and suspect behaviours, which eventually resulted in strict departmental action. And the unethical work made the case more mysterious. Prime Minister KP Oli added fuel in the fire stating that the Bam sisters were innocent in the case when an investigation was going into them. Nirmala had gone missing from their home.
    Police framed one person after another as the culprit which only irked the public further. The Kanchanpur District Police had first presented Dilip Singh Bista as the primary accused in Pant’s rape and murder. However, locals refused to accept Bista as the culprit and demanded his release, accusing the police of framing him. Later, he was released when his DNA did not match the sample collected from Pant’s vaginal swab.
    Later in December last year, Pradip Rawal, Pant’s neighbour, was nabbed in Kathmandu and Rawal’s friend, Bishal Chaudhary in Kanchanpur for interrogation. But they were proved innocent after similar DNA test.
    The duo accused the police of torturing them during interrogation. These activities further complicated the situation.
    Still, the people as well as the opposition parties are criticising the government for its inability to arrest the culprits involved in the crime. It has been case to show the incompetency of the powerful government.
    It seems Nepal Police that succeeded to trace the criminals of big crimes may never find the person(s)who raped and murdered Panta.

  • Excessive misuse of government vehicles goes unabated

    By Our Reporter
    Noticing motors bearing government plate-numbers at vegetable shops or picnic spots or temples is a common sight these days. However, there are other government vehicles, which are turned private by keeping red plate numbers, and people cannot easily recognise them as government vehicles.
    Many an employee working in the government offices and even in courts have been using the government vehicles by simply turning them to private ones.
    Even the employees of the court are found misusing the government vehicles by changing their white plate numbers into red ones.
    A government vehicle of Debt Recovery Tribunal was found to have changed into a private motor with registration number Ba 17 Cha 5738. Justice Mahesh Thapa of the Tribunal uses the vehicle.
    Likewise, another motor of Foreign Employment Tribunal with registration number Ba Jha 3429 is used as a private vehicle with registration number Ba 18 Cha 7594. The Justice Satya Raj Gurung uses the motor for his household works and to go to office.
    Likewise, a motor purchased by the Labour Court is being abused by one of its staff by registering it as a private motor. No tax of the motor with registration number Ba 11 Cha 5963 has been paid since its purchase. Jivan Bhandari is using the car.