Kathmandu Metropolitan City celebrates 20th anniversary

Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) entered 21 years of becoming the country's first metropolis on Tuesday. Kathmandu municipality was declared a metropolis on December 15, 1995.The anniversary event was followed by a blood donation programme.

Still the only metropolitan city in Nepal, KMC was founded  on December 17, 1919 as a road cleaning office to sweep the streets used by the royals. Later, the then Prime Minister Padma Shumsher officially declared Kathmandu as a municipality on February 13, 1947.

The first municipal election to choose an elected representative for Kathmandu was held on August 25, 2052, electing Janakman Shrestha as the first mayor. But due to political failures and inability to conduct local-level elections, only two mayors have completed a full term in office. Currently, KMC is being run by civil servants in lack of elected representatives.

On the anniversary programme organised at KMC's temporary office in Bhrikutimandap, state minister for local development Kunti Kumari Shahi said that it is up to government employees of KMC to provide quality service in lack of elected representatives.

German provides Rs 3 billion plus grant assistance

The  government of German has agreed to provide a total grant assistance of Rs 3.46 billion to the government of Nepal. It provided the assistance as a special commitment for Recovery Programme in the aftermath of devastating April 25 earthquake. Out of the grant assistance, of Rs 2.89 billion is financial assistance while Rs 579.3 million was the technical assistance, according to a press statement issued from the Ministry.

On the occasion, Finance Secretary Regmi expressed sincere appreciation to the government of Germany for the assistance and for its continued support tot eh socio-economic development of Nepal.  The grant assistance would be used for the implementation of various projects such as rehabilitation of some heritage sites including surrounding school buildings in Bhaktapur district, reconstruction of district hospitals in Gorkha, Rasuwa, Dolakha and Ramechhap districts and rehabilitation of rural electrification in Rasuwa district which were damaged by the earthquake. 

Similarly, Ambassador Meyer stressed the need of forming an authority soon to carry out the necessary reconstruction tasks in the aftermath of the deadly quake.

Nepali migrant worker dies in Saudi Arabia

A Nepali migrant worker from Ilam died of heart attack in Saudi Arabia on Saturday. The deceased was identified as Chitra Bahadur Magar, ahe of 27 of Jitpur-6 in Ilam.
Magar was working as a helper at Project System Group in Saudi Arabia. Magar's colleague, Mohan BSK said he was found dead on Saturday morning on his bed.
Magar was in Saudi for the past 31 months. His body has been kept at the Rabic-based Central Hospital.

Mohan said that he and other Nepalis have informed the Nepali Embassy in Riyadh about the death and have initiated procedure at the company where Magar worked to send his body home
More than 20 people from Nepal are dying in foreign country from different causes.

We were not in Delhi to seek solution: Yadav

 Chairman of the Federal Socialist Party - Nepal, Upendra Yadav has said that Madhesi agitation will continue until demands of the Madhesi community are addressed.Yadav and chairman of Terai Madhesh Loktrantrik Party Mahanta Thakur returned from 4-day visit to the Indian capital on Wednesday night.

Speaking to reporters upon returning from New Delhi on Wednesday midnight, Yadav said the UDMF leaders had succeeded in erasing any misinformation and doubts about Madhesi agitation spread among the Indian establishment by the government and leaders of different parties.
Responding to a query on border blockade, Yadav said, "The purpose of our visit was not to seek solution to current problems. Solutions should be sought in Nepal. But agitation and blockade will continue until Madhesi demands are met."

Yadav restated that the constitution amendment proposal tabled at the legislature-parliament is against the spirit of the Madhesi's agitation. He also rejected the proposal by top three parties to resolve the dispute in state delineation through a political committee. "The amendment proposal is merely a ploy to dissolve the Madhesi agitation," he said, adding, "Our main demand is review of federal demarcation. The amendment proposal was forwarded to shift focus from this major demand. We won't accept this under any circumstances."

Nepal Government decided to build three new fuel storage facilities

The government has moved to build three new fuel storage facilities. each at Panchkhal in Kavrepalanchok, Betrawati in Nuwakot and Khairenitar in Tanahun—in a bid to maintain adequate reserves and prevent supply crises. Each storage facilities will be at Panchkhal in Kavrepalanchok, Betrawati in Nuwakot and Khairenitar in Tanahun. It will help to Prevent fuel shortage for 3 Month. According to the Ministry of Commerce and Supply Management (MoCS), each of the oil terminals will have a capacity to store 6,000 kilolitres of petrol and 1,000 kilolitres of diesel.

Nepal maintains oil storage tanks at 10 locations with a total capacity of 71,622 kilolitres of petrol, diesel, kerosene and aviation fuel, according to NOC.
The reserve is enough for just 20 days calculated on the basis of the sales trends of 2014. NOC said that it had been working to develop its storage capacity to be able to fulfil the country’s requirement for at least 30 days. According to the National News Agency, there is no provision for the storage of kerosene and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) on a large scale. The present facilities can store enough petrol for a week, diesel for 15 days and aviation fuel for 10 days.

The Finance Ministry has agreed to arrange the necessary resources to increase the fuel storage capacity. Presently, NOC maintains fuel storage facilities at Thankot, Tribhuvan International Airport, Sinamangal, Bhairahawa, Pokhara, Nepalgunj, Biratnagar and other places.

Tripathi said a proposal had been presented to the government of China to increase Nepal’s fuel storage capacity.

Vice-President Pun attends 31st SAARC Charter Day

   Vice-President Nanda Bahadur Pun attended a special function organised here on Tuesday to mark the 31st year of adoption of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Charter and the establishment of SAARC.

Chief Justice Kalyan Shrestha and Speaker Onsari Gharti also marked their presence at the reception hosted by Arjun Bahadur Thapa, Secretary General of SAARC.
Also present at the programme were former Vice-Presidents, members Council of Ministers, former Prime Ministers, high-ranking leaders of major political parties, chief of constitutional bodies, dignitaries and representatives of the diplomatic missions in Kathmandu and high-placed government officials.Various people representing the civil society, business community and media also attended the event.

The SAARC came into being on December 8, 1985 with the adoption of its charter by the heads of state/ government of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Thapa urges Swaraj to take initiatives to resolve bilateral issue

  External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to take steps to resolve the bilateral issue in line with the spirit of recent discussion between two foreign ministers in New Delhi.Thapa also urged India not to link internal issue and bilateral economic issue, adding that the trade obstruction is against good-neighbourly principle. He also sought to highlight the humanitarian cost of the blockade.

Registering a statement at Legislature-Parliament on Monday, DPM Thapa said the differences with the agitating parties have narrowed down and that the government has been making continuing efforts to resolve other outstanding issues. He addressed to the Parliament about diplomatic efforts made by government regarding elimination of transit obstruction and trade embargo by India. He added that the government attention has been drawn by the statement given by India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj at India’s Upper House (Rajya Sabha) on December 3 regarding Nepal-India relations and Nepal’s current situation. Without categorically refuting some aspects of Swaraj’s statement, Thapa sought to correct some of the perceived inaccuracies in the statement given by Swaraj.

He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s suggestion on finding a maximum consensus on the constitution as a friendly advice while noting that constitution drafting was internal issue.
“I have been hopeful since my India visit from Nov 30 to Dec 2 where I met Indian Prime Minister, External Affairs Minister, and national security advisor, among other high-profile personnel. My India visits have been helpful on resolving souring misunderstanding between Nepal and India and I am hopeful that there will be early improvement to the current situation,” DPM Thapa said.

Hailing centuries-old Nepal-India ties, DPM Thapa also expressed gratitude towards India’s continuous assistance towards socio-economic development of Nepal. Recalling Indian PM Narendra Modi’s two time visit to Nepal last year and his address to Nepal’s Parliament, DPM Thapa mentioned India’s immediate assistance to Nepal during the earthquake triggered crisis in April was praiseworthy.

Thapa also said that the constitution was welcomed by friendly nations including China, Japan and UN Secretary General. And recently during the Universal Periodic Review session on Human Rights held in Geneva, a majority of 79 member-states who had taken part praised Nepal for the constitution.

Today Metropolis introduces electronic building permit system

 People in Kathmandu can now apply for a building construction permit online, as city authority formally launched electronic building permit system on Sunday, Dec 15.The electronic building permit system or e-BPS is a web-based application which allows people to submit permit applications and required documents through municipality’s website, removing the hassles of lengthy paperwork, bureaucratic hurdles and regular visits to the municipality to track permit status. Alternately, the system also allows the municipality to check compliance of buildings with set standards and gather settlement data for planned urbanisation.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Federal Affairs and Local Development Kamal Thapa inaugurated the new system, which is an e-governance initiative of Kathmandu Metropolitan City for effective implementation of National Building Code and urban settlement management. Earlier, it was being run as a pilot project in 14 wards of the metropolis.

Nepalis protest Indian blockade in San Francisco

Nepali community in the US city of San Francisco on Friday staged a demonstration against the Indian government's undeclared blockade on Nepal.
Many Nepalis took out a rally from Civic Centre UN Plaza and encircled the market area before returning to the starting point.
In the event, participant Mani Paneru read aloud a memorandum Nepali community is set to submit to the Indian Consulate office on Monday, said Non Resident Nepalese Association-America, California Chapter President Purna Baniya.
Before this Napalis community in the US had staged a demonstration against the Indian government's undeclared blockade on Nepal  near  White house on Nov 26.