BINOD GHIMIREKATHMANDU, JAN 28

As if he is out on the hustings.Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s

House dissolution decision is at the Supreme Court which is testing the constitutionality of the move. After dissolving the House on December 20, Oli called snap polls for April 30 and May 10. Elections will happen only if the court endorses his decision. And a decision is not unlikely anytime soon, as the court is conducting a hearing on around a dozen writ petitions and there are over 300 lawyers pleading against and for the move.

But Oli seems to be in an election mode already.

Over the last month, the Oli-led Nepal Communist Party—the other faction of the Nepal Communist Party is led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal—has organised dozens of programmes and functions, which look like no less than election hustings.

Now the Oli faction is preparing for a show of strength in the Capital in the first week of February.

On January 22, exactly a month after the Nepal Communist Party split politically, Oli announced his faction’s

Capital-centric mass gathering on February 5.

“We will show how a mass gather-ing is organised and how to mobilise the masses,” said Oli, ridiculing a recent mass gathering organised by the Dahal-Nepal faction in protest of the House dissolution move. “Those who are elated at seeing a few thou-sand people on the streets of Kathmandu will see our strength [soon].”

Observers say Oli has turned poli-tics into a farce, as he is making an all-out effort to show the strength of his faction on the streets after dissolv-ing a legitimate body of elected repre-sentatives, where he commanded nearly two-thirds majority.

“The gatherings lately by Oli are an attempt to push his faction as a brand,” said Bhoj Raj Pokhrel, a for-mer chief election commissioner who is credited for pulling the 2008 Constituent Assembly elections suc-cessfully. “The problem is he is using state resources and power to do so.”

Pokhrel often calls election a game, in which political parties are the play-ers. While the players are allowed to prepare themselves for the political game, there needs to be a level-playing field, according to Pokhrel.

Since Oli is in power and he and his loyalists have access to resources, there are concerns that they could misuse them to get an edge over their opponents, if the way is cleared by the court for elections.

According to Pokhrel, Oli, or his government for that matter, must not forget that before the poll body imposes a code of con-duct, there is a moral code that everyone must abide by. “But Oli does not seem to have paid atten-

tion to that,” said Pokhrel. Even though the House dissolution

is being heard by the court, Oli has been repeatedly saying that his deci-sion was a political move, hence it does not need a judicial review. On occasions, Oli has even said that there are no constitutional provisions for reviving the House in contrast to what constitutional experts and civil socie-ty members are claiming, saying the constitution actually does not have any provision that allows a majority prime minister to dissolve the House.

Taking a dig at his opponents and making fun of his critics has become the hallmark of Oli of late and on one recent occasion, he went on to pass disparaging remarks against the ongo-ing hearing, calling it a drama, and legal professionals who are arguing against his House dissolution move.

Responding to two contempt of court cases, the Supreme Court has summoned Oli to appear before the court with his clarification.

Political analysts say Oli is not naive not to understand that there’s still uncertainty over the elections, but since he is vindictive by nature, he has been holding a series of gatherings to counter the Dahal-Nepal faction.

Uddab Pyakurel, who teaches politi-cal sociology at Kathmandu University, said Oli’s focus is now on street shows, particularly because he wants to show his faction’s strength to the Dahal-Nepal faction.

“Despite making claims that he has a huge support, Oli knows that win-ning seats equal to what his party had won in the past elections is a Herculean task,” said Pyakurel. “Therefore, he is making maximum effort to brand his party.”

In the 2017 elections, Oli’s CPN-UML and Dahal’s CPN (Maoist Centre) had forged an alliance. The combined number of seats they won stood at a mammoth 174 in the 275-strong lower house.

But with the division in the Nepal Communist Party, Oli has not only lost the support of the Maoist faction, many former UML leaders, including the senior ones like Madhav Kumar Nepal and Jhala Nath Khanal, too have deserted him. Since both Nepal and Khanal enjoyed a significant clout in the former UML party, leaders loyal to them too have deserted Oli.

Meanwhile, Oli has managed to get some former Maoist leaders like Ram Bahadur Thapa, Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, Mani Thapa, Prabhu Sah and Gauri Shankar Chaudhary into his fold. This, observers say, may have made Oli more confident about his political moves.

Pyakurel said the mass gatherings called by Oli may have been seeing people in hordes, but that could be also because he is currently in power.

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POST PHOTO: ANGAD DHAKAL

A devotee takes a dip at Hanumanghat, Bhaktapur as the month-long Shree Swasthani Madhav Narayan fasting began on Thursday.

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O O

The fate of elections is up in the air, but Oli already seems to be in campaign modeAnalysts say Oli’s gatherings targeting polls need scrutiny given the chances of misuse of state resources as his House dissolution move is still being tested by the court of law.

POST PHOTO

KP Sharma Oli is sparing no effort to promote his faction and attack his opponents.

Court orders Oli to be present with written reply on contempt chargeThe bench has given the prime minister seven days to furnish clarification why he should not be punished for making disparaging remarks against the judiciary.TIKA R PRADHANKATHMANDU, JAN 28

The Supreme Court has summoned Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli to appear before it, in person, within seven days with a written reply explaining why he should not be pun-ished for contempt of court.

A single bench of Justice Manoj Kumar Sharma issued the summons to Oli on Thursday, responding to two cases of contempt of court filed against him for making disparaging remarks against legal practitioners and the judiciary.

“The Supreme Court has sum-moned the prime minister to furnish his reply in writing,” said Devendra Dhakal, assistant spokesperson for the Supreme Court.

“As per the language of the order, the defendant should appear before the court in person.”

On January 26, two contempt of court cases were registered at the court—one by senior advocate Kumar Sharma Acharya and the other by advocate Kanchan Krishna Neupane—against Oli for using derogatory remarks against legal practitioners and trying to influence the court.

On January 22, Oli, while address-ing his cadres in Kathmandu, was

defending his House dissolution move. And in doing so, he said that lawyers were arguing ad nauseum on his House dissolution decision despite the fact that there are no constitutional provisions that allow for the restora-tion of the House.

After finding himself cornered in his Nepal Communist Party, Oli on December 20 took a drastic step of dissolving the House and declared snap polls for April 30 and May 10.

As many as 13 writ petitions against Oli’s House dissolution move are being heard by the Constitutional Bench led by Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana.

Oli, however, is saying in every other public function that his House dissolution decision was a political move and that it does not warrant a judicial review, which analysts say is objectionable, as the prime minister is speaking on a case sub judice in court.

On January 22, Oli not only took a jibe at Krishna Prasad Bhandari, 94, a senior advocate and former chair of Nepal Bar Association, saying that the petitioners were giving trouble to a “grandfather” lawyer, he even described the ongoing hearing on House dissolution as a “drama”, draw-ing contempt of court cases.

>> Continued on page 2

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FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 2021 | 02

NATIONAL

Eight months on, work stalled at Darchula-Tinkar roadMANOJ BADUDARCHULA, JAN 28

The construction work at Sunsera-Mal section of Darchula-Tinkar Road Project has not resumed since it was halted some eight months ago. In June last year, landslides had swept huge boulders off the hills and blocked the pathway of the under-construction road section at Tosarpani, Ward No 2 of Byas Rural Municipality. The boul-ders are yet to be cleared away to resume the construction work, say local residents.

The Darchula-Tinkar Road Project had opened a track from Khalanga, the district headquarters of Darchula district, to Tinkar Bhanjyang at the Nepal-Tibet border 12 years ago. The road project is considered one of the most important highway projects for the development of the Sudurpaschim region.

Most of the funds allocated by the government to the project have remained frozen for the last three years.

“The road track was opened until Sunsera in Byas due to our pressure. The Darchula-Tinkar Road Project has been neglecting the Sunsera-Mal road section. In the past two-three years, 60 percent of the funds meant for the Darchula-Tinkar Road Project was frozen because work did not pro-gress,” said Pulendra Bahadur Karki, chairman of Duhu Rural Municipality.

As work has not progressed on the landslide-hit Sunsera-Mal road sec-tion, the village of Mal has been cut off from other villages in the area, causing hardship for the villages of Mal.

“We at least had a track opened till our village even though the construc-tion was incomplete. But now even the track is blocked,” said Nanda Singh Dhami, who is a resident of Mal vil-lage in Ward No. 2 in Byas.

Raj Kishor Shah, information officer and an engineer of the Darchula-Tinkar Road Project, said Amar Surya JV, a construction compa-ny, was awarded the contract for Sunsera-Ghatibagad section of the Darchula-Tinkar Road Project seven years ago.

The road project has asked the contractor to remove the boulders and

resume construction work at the earliest.

“At least 194,000 cubic metres of boulders have been broken down so far in order to clear the obstruction. We still need to break down 150,000 cubic metres of boulders blocking the pathway.”

According to Achyut Bilash Pant, chief of Darchula-Tinkar Road Project, the clearance work of the boulders has been delayed due to shortage of explosives. “We have to put in a request for explosives with the Nepali Army. But the Army also did not have sufficient explosives,” he said.

Frustrated by the sluggish work, Byas residents have demanded termination of the project contract with Amar Surya JV.

“The contractor should first remove the boulders from the construction site,” said Harak Singh Karki, a local man. “But they are involved in other

tasks. We finally had road connectivity but that too has now been disrupted.”

The project office of Darchula-Tinkar Road Project, says the contractor has been asked to complete the construction work by the end of the running fiscal year.

“The contractor of Sunsera-Mal road has promised momentum in con-struction work in the next few days,” said Shah, the information officer and engineer of the Darchula-Tinkar Road Project. “The construction work of bridges in Lasku and Nijanggad is at the final stage.”

Four years ago, Darchula-Tinkar Road Project was included in the Mahakali corridor, and since then the construction work of the various road sections under the road project has failed to make progress.

“The construction work of most road sections of Darchula-Tinkar Road Project has been affected after the road project was included in the Mahakali corridor, which is considered the lifeline of the Sudurpaschim region,” said Dilip Singh Budhathoki, chairman of Byas Rural Municipality.

“The Darchula-Tinkar Road Project has not prioritised Sunsera-Mal road since they are more focused in the development of the lower region.”

Sunsera-Mal section of the road was obstructed by landslides in June last year.

POST PHOTO: MANOJ BADU

An excavator trapped in a landslide on Sunsera-Mal section of Darchula-Tinkar road.

>> Continued from page 1“He should understand the fact that

he can count heads at his mass gatherings but it will be wrong to count them as his votes,” said Pyakurel. “Even king Gyanedra once was very confident and under a wrong impression that the whole country was behind him.”

While mass gatherings are one of the best ways for political parties to make their case for elections, many say what is also important is when such events should be organised.

Oli was elected prime minister in February 2018 with a mandate to govern for the full five-year term. It was welcomed by the people of Nepal which had seen a never-ending political instability, with frequent changes of government—every nine months on an average over two and a half decades or so.

Oli returned to power on his nationalistic as well as “stability for prosperity” planks.

While his nationalistic postures are on the wane, Oli himself has raised the spectre of instability by dissolving the House, as in both cases—if the House is restored or the country goes to the polls, the country is most likely to have a hung parliament which cannot ensure a government that can govern for the full five-year term.

Observers say politicians have their own ways of gauging the support they have from the people, especially when they are heading for the polls,

but what is important is people in power must not misuse state resources to win votes.

“And Oli has been crossing his limits of late, and there are examples galore,” Pyakurel told the Post. “Showing power from the streets after unconstitutionally dissolving the House is just yet another example of how he has overstepped the constitutional limits.”

In the letter recommending that the President dissolve the House, Oli said the step was necessary because the country needed a two-thirds majority government. But it is not clear what makes Oli so confident that the snap polls would hand him a two-thirds majority, especially when his Nepal Communist Party is cleaved in two.

Experts say Oli is making every attempt to strengthen his position while in power because in case the Supreme Court rejects his move, he will lack resources for mass mobilisation.

Krishna Pokharel, a professor of political science at Tribhuvan University, says no party in Nepal’s political history has fared better after a split and Oli knows the fact very well.

“This is the reason he is trying to play Hindu card by visiting Pashupatinath and trying to woo the Madhesi people through what they called a dhoti rally,” Pokharel said.

A youth wing under the Oli-led

party held a dhoti rally in the Capital on January 9, bringing people from the Madhes to march on Kathmandu streets. Analysts had said then that Oli’s attempt to woo the people from the Madhes was nothing but a farce.

In what came as a surprise for many, Oli on Monday visited the Pashupatinath temple and offered a special puja for more than an hour, which analysts say was a bid to woo pro-Hindu, pro-monarch constituencies.

Observers say Oli knows he is on the backfoot as his chances are slowly slipping through his fingers.

“Even Oli, who is the only person talking about the elections, knows the polls are not possible in April and May,” said Pokhrel. “He should stop spoiling state resources in strengthening his faction.”

Some say Oli, who is under a wrong impression as if he is the state, is pulling out all the stops to check his opponents and he is in a bid to show how strong force he has behind his back.

“Oli and his people know chances of elections in April and May are slim. So these mass gatherings are for their cadres,” Shyam Shrestha, a political commentator who has followed Nepal’s leftist politics closely, told the Post. “As he is in power and has access to resources, it is compara-tively easier for him to mobilise the masses than others.”

The fate of elections is up in the air, but Oli already seems to be ...

>> Continued from page 1Legal practitioners have called the

court order to summon Oli a “bold” decision.

“As per the court order, the prime minister himself should be present in the court. Whether he will come after resigning or with a motorcade is up to him but this is a serious moral ques-tion to the prime minister,” said Sunil Pokhrel, former secretary general of Nepal Bar Association. “The court has taken a very bold decision in this respect.”

Ever since he returned to power in February 2018, Oli has been displaying his authoritarian streaks, but on December 20, he went on to make such a move that the current constitution, according to experts, does not allow him.

Though Oli has cited Articles 85, 76 (1) and 76 (7) for dissolving the House, experts on constitutional matters say the said articles do not allow Oli, as a majority prime minister, to dissolve the House, as all of them are related to government formation.

But after dissolving the House of Representatives, Oli, whose totalitari-an impulses were in full display, has been behaving as though he is the state, as he has not been giving two hoots even about the judiciary.

Raman Shrestha, a senior advocate and former attorney general, said by summoning Prime Minister Oli, the court has taken a bold step as con-cerns were growing over whether the judiciary was becoming a shadow of the executive.

In recent history, other prime min-isters summoned by the court on con-tempt of court charges were Girija Prasad Koirala and Baburam Bhattarai who were asked to present themselves before the court.

Bhattarai was summoned in January 2013 for obstruction of jus-tice—which amounts to contempt of court—over the murder of journalist Dekendra Thapa. Thapa was killed by then Maoist rebels in 2004.

In September 2004, Koirala was asked by the court to furnish clarifica-tion on a contempt of court charge for his remarks that the Supreme Court should be transferred to Narayanhiti Palace, which used to be the residence and workplace of the monarchs until Nepal abolished the monarchy in 2006.

“Earlier, prime ministers used to be weaker due to frequent changes of government and the court would issue summons to them easily,” said Shrestha. “But currently, when Oli is working like an all-powerful person and questions are being raised against

the judiciary, the court’s move of sum-moning him, asking him to appear in person is definitely a bold move.”

The single bench of Justice Sharma on Thursday also summoned four for-mer chief justices—Min Bahadur Rayamajhi, Anup Raj Sharma, Kalyan Shrestha and Sushila Karki—and for-mer House Speaker Daman Nath Dhungana on contempt of court charges.

They also have been asked to be present in person with clarifications why they should not be punished for contempt of court.

The four former chief justices had issued a statement on January 8 say-ing that the House dissolution was unconstitutional, which according to petitioners—Lochan Bhattarai and Dhanjit Basnet, could influence the ongoing hearing on House dissolution and was tantamount to contempt of court.

Former chief justice Karki said that she was ready to follow the court orders.

“We will give our statements as we have done nothing to create pressure on the court proceedings,” Karki told the Post. “The petitioners have demanded maximum punishment and we are ready for that if the court decides so.”

Anup Raj Sharma, another former chief justice who has also been sum-moned to the court, however, said that he, along with other former chief jus-tices, had spoken as Nepali citizens as all of them were concerned about the country.

“Why can’t I put forth my opinion? I have not said one should do this or that,” Sharma told the Post. “This constitution is owned by the people, and not only the justices, so everyone is free to speak up about their con-cerns.”

Sharma also said since the dissolu-tion of the House of Representatives was directly related to the fate of the citizens, they have all the right to express their concerns.

“I’m a general citizen and this con-stitution is related to my fate,” said Sharma. “If the constitution is derailed there won’t be any elections.”

Dhungana, the other public figure to be summoned by the court, said that he felt motivated to fight for free speech.

Advocate Rajaram Ghimire had filed a contempt of court case against Dhungana for making a public state-ment that the justices of the Supreme Court could be targeted if they did not consider the people’s sentiment while delivering justice.

“The court’s decision [to summon me and four former chief justices] also shows where our Nepali society stands and where we are heading towards. We should not stop the free flow of ideas and views,” said Dhungana, reacting to Thursday’s court decision. “Restrictions on them block the healthy growth of our society. Our fight is for open society, a value system and independence of the judiciary.”

Clause 7 (a) of the Supreme Court Act, 1991 on Contempt of Supreme Court and subordinate courts states that Supreme Court may impose pun-ishment of up to one year imprison-ment or a fine up to Rs10,000 or both to the person convicted, in case wherein the Supreme Court has initiated the proceeding of its own contempt or contempt of subordinate courts or judicial authorities.

Clause 7(2) says notwithstanding anything contained in Sub-Section (1), if the accused or convict apologises to the satisfaction of the court, the Supreme Court may pardon or excuse, remit the punishment imposed or may suspend the punishment with condi-tions determined by the court, and if the conditions are fulfilled, the court may order not to execute the penalty.

Opinions are sharply divided lately, as various statements are being made over Oli’s House dissolution move. While some say people should refrain from commenting on a case under consideration of the court, others say since Oli’s move is an attack on the constitution, people must freely speak about the matter irrespective of the fact that the case is being dealt with by the court.

Observers say what matters the most is the rule of law and respect for the judicial process and that Thursday’s summons to Oli, former chief justices and a former House Speaker, who is also a prominent civil society member, is a clear message that everyone should have faith in the independence of the judiciary.

“It shows that nobody is above the law,” said Balaram KC, a former Supreme Court justice. “It’s purely the discretion of the court whether to summon the authorities in person or through their lawyers.”

KC said it is a coincidence that chiefs of all three organs of the state—one sitting and five former—have been summoned simultaneously.

“The court has treated them—the prime minister, former Speaker and former chief justices—equally,” KC said. (Anil Giri contributed reporting)

Court orders Oli to be present with written reply on contempt charge

Mal village has been cut off from other villages due to road obstruction.

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03 | FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 2021

NATIONAL

BRIEFING

Officials yet to implement safety suggestions for Kalanki-Koteshwor road ANUP OJHAKATHMANDU, JAN 28

Nearly two years after commissioning a ‘safety audit,’ of the Kalanki-Koteshwor road section, the Department of Roads has come up with a plan to add only a handful of road infrastruc-tures on the road that has seen numerous acci-dents and lives lost.

The audit, conducted in February 2019 by traffic expert Padma Bahadur Shahi, had rec-ommended that traffic lights be installed at around a dozen locations on the 10.5km stretch-es constructed with Chinese aid.

“The department is planning to install six traffic lights at major intersections such as Koteshwor, Satdobato, and Mahalaxmisthan. Two traffic lights will be built in Balkhu and one in Kalanki, said Krishna Nath Ojha, chief of traffic section under the department.

Ojha said that the new lights will be up and running on the road section, in the next five months

The ‘safety audit’ was conducted after vari-

ous experts and the members of the public raised concerns over safety features of the road section officially handed over to the gov-ernment in January 2019.

The audit report pointed out over a dozen technical faults that need to be corrected on the “killer road” section, built with a budget of Rs5.13 billion. The audit also suggested the installation of traffic signals in 213 places along the entire road stretch. Areas that are in dire need of traffic lights are also pointed out in the report—Balkumari, Gwarko, Satdobato, Chapagaun Dobato, Mahalaxmisthan, Ekantakuna, Nakkhu, Manohara bridge, Kalanki, Dhobighat, Sanepa Chowk, and Khasibazar area.

“This is the most accident-prone area in the city—most of the accidents are taking place due to faulty road infrastructure,” said Superintendent Shyam Krishna Adhikari of traffic police.

Everyday commuters, mostly pedestrians, motorcyclists, and cyclists, are scared to use the road on which vehicles speed up

past speed limits.“With our special request, street lamps have

been installed in a few accident-prone areas such as Satdobato, Gwarko, and in front of

B&B Hospital. But other road sections are forced into darkness at night,” said Adhikari.

“We have time and again requested the con-cerned authorities to add infrastructures but they do not heed our calls. When an accident takes place they blame traffic police,” said Adhikari.

The report also suggested that intersections in Balkhu, Nakhu, Dhobighat, Khasi Bazar, Mahalaxmisthan, and Chapagaun Dobato be improved. But nothing has been done two years after the audit report was submitted.

“It’s always risky to cross the road at Mahalaxmisthan. The intersection is so con-fusing that you feel you will be hit by a vehi-cle,” said Bharat Sharma, 33, a resident of Kusunti.

The overhead bridges on the road are also insufficient, pedestrians complain. “Although there are a few overhead bridges, they are not adequate,” said Sharma. “I would like to request the government to install traffic lights, street lamps, and mark adequate zebra crossings.”

Former minister’s threat to journalists concerns FNJKATHMANDU: Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) has said its atten-tion has been drawn to remarks made by former minister Mahesh Basnet, a close ally of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, threatening editors affil-iated to various media outlets at a public event. At a gathering of youths in Butwal on January 26, Basnet had publicly threatened Kantipur daily editor-in-chief Sudhir Sharma, Ratopati editor-in-chief Om Sharma and ekagaj’s editor Hari Bahadur Thapa, saying that some media outlets had spread chaos in the name of democracy. “This incident is a direct infringement on press free-dom by a person who has been work-ing in a responsible position as a minister,” reads the statement.

Distillery owner found dead in suspicious circumstancesDHANUSHA: Pramod Regmi, the owner of Mahendranagar-based Kshireshwor Distillery, was found dead under suspicious circumstances on Wednesday. Fifty-one-year-old Regmi, a permanent resident of Triyuga Municipality-7 in Udayapur district, was found dead in his quar-ters on the distillery premises with deep injuries to his forehead. “Preliminary investigation shows that Regmi returned to his quarters after consuming excessive alcohol the previous night. An investigation is underway,” said police.

Mother kills self after poisoning two daughtersPARASI: A 35-year-old killed herself after poisoning-her two daughters, aged 10 and 12, in Sarawal Rural Municipality-5 of Nawalparasi (West). According to Deputy Superintendent of Police Raju Lama, the incident happened on Wednesday and the trio died in course of treat-ment in Bhairahawa on Thursday. Villagers rushed them to the hospital after the daughters cried. The wom-an’s husband is now abroad for work.

22,000 houses rebuiltHETAUDA: Around 60 percent of the earthquake-affected houses have already been rebuilt in Makwanpur district so far. According to the District Project Implementation Unit Office, 22,105) have already construct-ed their houses. In Makwanpur, there are 37, 019 quake affected families in the housing reconstruction aid list.

Zero Covid-19 deaths doesn’t mean risk subsided, experts say

ARJUN POUDELKATHMANDU, JAN 28

No one died due to Covid-19 in Nepal on Thursday, 179 days after the first Covid-19-related death was reported in the country, officials said.

Although the number of deaths due to infection came down to zero, it doesn’t mean that no one will die due to the disease from now on as more than 200 people are still testing posi-tive every day.

“We should not forget that a lot of people are still in intensive care units and on ventilator support,” Dr Baburam Marasini, former director at the Epidemiology and Disease Control Division, told the Post. “Despite the decline in testing, over 200 people are

testing positive every day. This shows that the risk of infection hasn’t declined.”

Nepal reported its first Covid-19 death on August 3 last year. The dis-ease has so far claimed 2,020 people throughout the country. The Health Ministry said that 213 people tested positive for coronavirus throughout the country during the last 24 hours. As of Thursday, 270,588 people have been infected with the virus.

“Not only the infection numbers, but the number of deaths is also declining,” Dr Samir Kumar Adhikari, joint spokesperson for the Health Ministry, told the Post. “It is a happy coincidence that no one died due to the disease the very day we launched the immunisation campaign.”

Nepal launched out its Covid-19 vac-cination drive on Wednesday, a little over a year after the country con-firmed its first coronavirus case on January 24, 2020. At present, there are 3,203 active cases throughout the country.

Experts say that the major reason for the decline in the number of peo-ple testing positive for the virus is that the government has stopped providing free tests to asymptomatic people and the number of polymerase chain reac-tion tests conducted each day has declined significantly.

The government’s decision to halt contact tracing completely has also hindered the identification of positive cases and their isolation. Infected peo-ple are seeking tests and treatment

only when they fall seriously ill.“Due to lack of active surveillance

of the infection in the society, no one knows about the condition of the spread of the virus in the society,” Marasini added. “ It is high time we started active surveillance and increased the number of tests.”

Doctors say that even if the infec-tion rates have declined, the figures can again go up and the virus can become more lethal if the country is hit by a second wave of infections.

“Experience from the other coun-tries, where new cases declined simi-lar to the way it has declined in Nepal, shows that infection rate can surge again,” Dr Sher Bahadur Pun, chief of Clinical Research Unit at the Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious

Disease Hospital, told the Post. “We should not forget that risk has not declined and safety measures are still necessary.”

Adhikari, joint spokesperson at the Health Ministry, concedes that the risk of infection has not gone down and safety measures, including the use of face masks, maintaining social distance, and hand washing, are still necessary.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health and Population said that 17,669 people were vaccinated on Thursday. So far, 28732 have been vaccinated in the country.

The ministry said in a statement that 11, 461 people were administered the vaccine in Bagmati; 4,853 in Gandaki; 3,847 in Province 1; 2,417 in Sudurpaschim; 2,303 in Lumbini; 2,174 in Province 2 and 1,677 in Karnali.

“None of the people administered the vaccine suffered from major com-plications,” joint Adhikari informed.

The inoculation drive was launched after India provided one million doses of Covid-19 vaccine, developed by the University of Oxford and pharmaceu-tical giant AstraZeneca and locally manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturing company.

The India-manufactured vaccine, named Covishield, is Nepali authori-ties’ preferred choice, as the country’s existing storage facility supports the vaccine to maintain its cold chain. The Covidshield vaccine needs to be stored in temperatures between 2 to 8 degrees Celsius.

With the available doses, which have been already shipped to all seven provinces, the government plans to inoculate around 430,000 health care providers and frontline workers, including female community health volunteers, security personnel, elder-ly people taking refuge in old age homes, and prisoners.

The first phase of immunisation is taking place as per the Health Ministry’s plan to inoculate people in a staggered manner based on priority.

After frontline and healthcare workers, those above 55 years have been prioritised as Covid-19 death rates are the highest in this age group. Those between 40 and 55 years of age will be immunised in the third phase and the rest in the fourth round

Lack of probe into deaths at hands of police concern for UN

BINOD GHIMIREKATHMANDU, JAN 28

Sambhu Sada Musahar, 23, from Sabaila Municipality, Dhanusha died in judicial custody on June 10 last year. He had been in detention since May 26, 2020, when he had surren-dered himself to the police after he hit two persons, one of whom died, with a tractor.

His family tried to file a first infor-mation report (FIR) to the district police but it was rejected.

The FIR was finally registered at the district attorney’s office after three days following pressure from human rights activists and local resi-dents who held demonstrations claim-ing Sada died due to excessive torture by police.

The district attorney’s office was ready to receive the complaint only after the Office of the Attorney General issued a directive to this effect following a delegation of the human right activists who had approached it in Kathmandu.

“However, there has been no pro-gress in investigating in the case,” Praveen Yadav, programme manager at Terai Human Rights Defender Alliance, told the Post. “There’s always a ready answer from the police saying that they are investigating the case.”

At least six cases of deaths either in police custody or in police action have been reported in a nearly one-year period between October 2019 and August 2020 but there hasn’t been complete investigation into a single case, let alone action against perpetrators.

Such gross negligence of police bru-tality has now caught the eye of the United Nations.

Four United Nations special rappor-teurs on human rights have asked the Nepal government to provide details of investigations and actions taken against perpetrators, if any and sought details on the steps taken towards providing justice to the victims.

In their written correspondence to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the special rapporteurs have mentioned six cases of deaths either in police custody or in police between October 2019 and August 2020. The correspond-ence mentions about five other cases in addition to Sada’s custodial death.

Bijay Mahara, 19, from Garuda Municipality, Rautahat was severely tortured by Nepal Police while in cus-tody and died in course of treatment on August 27, 2020.

Durgesh Yadav, 24, from Aurahi Rural Municipality, Siraha died in police custody on July 1, 2020 and Rajan Yadav from Ramgopalpur Municipality-7, Sahasaula, Mahottari district was shot dead on May 24 last year on charges of drug peddling.

Similarly, Rasikul Alam, 38, from Jhapa Rural Municipality, Jhapa was killed in a police shooting on August 26, while participating in a demonstra-tion against the arrest of two Muslim men who had been accused of slaugh-tering an ox.

“Please provide the details, and where available the results, of any additional investigation, and judicial or other inquiries carried out in rela-tion to the death in custody of the above-mentioned persons,” reads the correspondence.

The Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrad-ing treatment or punishment, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association and the Special Rapporteur on minority issues have also raised concerns over the government’s reluc-

tance towards investigating such cases.

“It is reported that police routinely refuse to accept complaints and to register First Information Reports (FIRs, the initial complaints to police which formally initiate investiga-tions); and when FIRs are registered, police and prosecutors routinely delay in carrying out investigations, even when issued orders and legal rulings are made by the Courts of Appeal and Supreme Court,” reads their corre-spondence.

It is Nepal government’s obligation to investigate, identify those responsi-ble for acts of torture and ill-treat-ment and bring them to justice under articles 7 and 12 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, of which Nepal is a sig-natory.

“If no investigative action has been initiated, please explain how this is compatible with the international human rights obligations of Nepal,” the four rappoteurs said, according to human rights activists.

The officials at the Foreign Ministry say there are different inquiries from the United Nations, so they are una-ware if there has been any response on the issue.

“We send the inquiries to the respec-tive ministries and based on their feedback we report to the special rap-porteurs,” Sewa Lamsal, spokesper-son at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told the Post.

“I am not aware about this particu-lar inquiry.”

Different reports suggest the police is reluctant to receive the complaints against their colleagues allegedly involved in the torture.

Responding to the writs filed against the police’s reluctance in receiving the complaints against criminal cases with the police’s involvement, the Supreme Court last month directed the government to form a separate mechanism, inde-pendent of Nepal Police, to investigate them.

The ruling by the division bench of Justices Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada and Kumar Regmi made public earlier this week said a separate mechanism comprising experts from different sec-tors is necessary as impartial investi-gation by the police against its officers can be doubted.

Constitution of a mechanism sepa-rate from Nepal Police is necessary for an independent, fair, impartial, and effective investigation, the court said in the verdict.

Human rights lawyers, who had filed the petition against police reluc-tance to register complaints against them, had called the verdict a land-mark towards providing justice for the families of victims who have been killed by the police either after taking them into custody or by excessive use of force.

The human rights defenders say the reluctance in investigating the crimi-nal offences is a serious issue. Bikash Basnet, programme manager at Advocacy Forum, said it is high that some steps need to be taken to make the police responsible.

“Maybe we can incorporate such issues in the provincial police laws all the provinces are readying at pres-ent,” he said.

For the first time in six months, Nepal reports zero deaths due to coronavirus infection as more frontline health workers continue to get vaccinated throughout the country.

Four special rapporteurs on human rights remind Nepal of its obligation to look into such cases, punish perpetrators. Officials say they are unaware of such correspondence.

Reports say officials are reluctant to file complaints against police personnel.

POST PHOTO: SANJOG MANANDHAR

Kumari, who is believed to be the living goddess, being carried to Hanumandhoka from her residence during the Changunarayan Jatra in Kathmandu on Thursday.

POST PHOTO

Officials say it is a happy coincidence that no deaths were reported on the very day the vaccination drive was launched in the country.

POST FILE PHOTO

Everyday commuters, mostly pedestrians, motorcyclists, and cyclists, are scared to use the road.

Two years after the safety audit report was submitted, officials are still not implementing the recommendations fully. Pedestrians and other road users still find themselves in danger.

C M Y K

FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 2021 | 04

OPINION

The forest fires sweeping through parts of the country have caught the public’s attention lately, causing people to jump to the conclusion that rising tempera-tures and the dry winter are responsi-ble for extensive fires. The story, how-ever, needs further examination and understanding that goes beyond the usual suspects.

We’ve always had wildfires in Nepal. A youngster in the 1960s, I remember seeing fires on the southern face of the Shivapuri mountain every winter which burned for days, sometimes even weeks. Whether they were deliberately set by herders and foragers in the hopes of getting new grass growth with the first spring rains, or due to human neg-ligence as studies suggest, forest fires were a regular occurrence in many parts of the country. In the mountains, forest fires are difficult to douse as drafts from the Valley below pushes the fire and it spreads in no time. In some cases, people collecting grass on hill slopes were caught unaware by the sud-denly advancing fire from below, leav-ing them with no escape.

What’s worrying now is that not only have forest fires increased in number in recent years, they’ve also increased in coverage; often, they are deadly. The 2009 Ramechhap incident is perhaps still fresh in our collective memory: 13 army personnel lost their lives while trying to douse a fire, some hundred kilometres east of Kathmandu. Moreover, forest fires seem to be destroying large swaths of forests, pro-tected by years of efforts, adding to the already polluted air and throwing plumes of black carbon into the atmos-phere, intensifying the snowmelt.

Fires at a higher elevation, away from settlements, continue for a long time because old and dead trees help keep the fire going for months, espe-cially where there is no one to douse them. If the tree species happens to be pine, even green trees burn. Shifting demographics have gradually changed the way mountain resources are man-aged. Livestock grazing has gone down, leaving unattended high forest undergrowth. Dry winters with higher temperatures have only fueled these fires further.

Like many other grave environmen-tal issues such as soil loss, declining soil fertility, increased level of spring losses, and land degradation, forest

fires, which generally occur away from cities and don’t directly affect city dwellers, haven’t been prioritised in our development discourse.

However, the increased number of forest fires is highlighting other vital issues that have been pushed aside; for instance, groundwater that helped win-ter grass grow, which restricted wild-fires, has depleted considerably in recent years. This loss of groundwater, along with soil moisture, has signifi-cantly altered the local ecosystem. A glaring example is the rapid growth of chir pine, a xeric tree species, in the hills of Panchthar where natural springs have dried, supporting the growth of such species. Many families have migrated elsewhere simply because water isn’t available in the local springs. The loss of water in one area is worrying; the Jhiku Khola in Panchkhal Valley of Kavre, which irrigated farms on the banks for dec-ades, dried up during the mid-1990s and has ceased to flow except during the rains. The drying of springs, rivers, and ponds, including Kamal Pokhari in Kathmandu, needs to be seen in its entirety.

Within a watershed, the most basic unit of natural organisation in a land-scape, whether in the hills or plains, the entire area is physically linked by the flow of water, both surficial and sub-surficial. There is an intricate bal-ance, an interconnected relationship between water flow and natural organi-sations. Thus, the drying of Jhiku Khola or the ponds is the writing on the wall that things have changed irrevoca-

bly within their watersheds. We have noted the loss of springs

since the 1990s across the country, depicting various degrees of the same story. The loss of springs is a clear sign that the upper aquifers in the moun-tains have lost water. Saune mool—springs that appear in mid-monsoon when upper aquifers are full—have dis-appeared from our mountains for more than two decades confirming that the aquifers in the mountains didn’t get to recharge to their full capacity. The high-intensity rain in recent years, like the ones that resulted in widespread landslides killing hundreds of people in 2020, has been of little help to recharge groundwater in the moun-tains where water flows down quickly without feeding the groundwater reserves. Four years ago, the Central Bureau of Statistics confirmed that 100 percent of sub-alpine households per-ceived an increase in drought in the last 25 years, a strong enough revela-tion about the changes that have taken place in the high mountain areas.

The loss of springs is not simply because of chir pine plantation in the early 1970s or road construction that cut the natural flow-lines; the loss has also been reported in road-less areas and areas lacking chir pine.

The 2015 Earthquake has further destroyed our aquifers, leaving the affected mountains dry. The science of mountain aquifers is poorly under-stood. April being a dry month, people seemed happy when water discharge in the springs increased abruptly in the aftermath of the earthquake; in reality,

the earthquake squeezed the aquifers releasing what little water they had. This water was never replenished as the aquifer had gotten deformed. Since one cannot see the drop in the water level in aquifers, unlike in a pond, it didn’t raise any concerns.

On top of these ground realities, when winter rain fails to arrive—like in 2009 and even now—it leaves the for-est floor bone dry, making it an increased fire hazard with the already abundant fuel accumulated in the absence of collectors. Dry winters and rising temperatures will continue to threaten our forests.

Larger issues like climate change, which requires global efforts and more time to tackle, may not be within our reach to influence in the short run. However, the loss of soil moisture and groundwater can be and need to be addressed by large-scale local efforts, and thus should be our main worry. We must cease wasting time blaming pines or roads or even climate change indi-vidually for the loss of water, and by extension wildfires, as it suits one’s objectives. Whether it’s the drying of ponds such as Kamal Pokhari, or Kholas such as Jhiku, or increased for-est fires, they aren’t isolated events. They are the manifestation of these larger issues we’ve neglected over the decades. Unfortunately, neither the gov-ernment nor communities have made any efforts to understand the extent to which our springs or groundwater have been lost, much less to restoring them. In the end, we can continue singing the same tune, with little to show for it.

‘India will use its vaccine production and distribution capacity to help the whole of humanity in fighting the Covid-19 crisis’. These were the words of Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he addressed the 20th Summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Heads of State in November 2020. It was a pledge that was perceived as ambi-tious and utopian, given the unprece-dented nature of adversity and the multitude of concerns, both regional and global, that had to be factored in, without compromising on the efficacy of the end-product.

The year 2020 was, more or less, consumed by the onset and spread of the novel coronavirus. A deadly and previously unknown virus wreaked havoc and death across the globe, kill-ing over 2 million people, infecting many more, and causing economic devastation of untold proportions.

On the one hand, ‘Covid warriors’, such as health care and front-line workers, put in their heart and soul and many even have had to make the ultimate sacrifice of their own lives to minimise the societal impact of the pandemic. On the other hand, the sci-entists were not less than lord Dhanvantari, who rose up from the ocean when it was churned, holding in his hand a pot of elixir of life—the sanjeevani.

The development of vaccines, including the two ‘Made in India’ vac-cines, suggests—if nothing else—that the world may eventually be able to

shrug off the worst of its Covid-19 woes sooner rather than later.

But, for vaccines to do their job, they should first reach the people who require them. For that to happen, countries should have the capacity to satisfy the demand at an affordable rate, the wisdom to treat it as a global good, the will to share it in reality, not just in words, and to not look at it as an economic opportunity alone or a strategic leveraging activity.

India’s pandemic journey has been on three fronts—national, regional

and global. Starting from the onset of the pandemic to coordinating a holis-tic strategy ensuring minimal damage both within the country and in the neighbourhood. From amping up production of essential medicines and equipment to sending consign-ments of medicines and supplies to nearly 150 partner countries, it has been a challenging but encouraging journey so far.

In March 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi issued a clarion call for a collective regional response to

fight the pandemic. A video confer-ence among the leaders of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was organised to streamline and strategise collective efforts; an Emergency Fund was set up with voluntary contributions from all South Asian countries, aiding procurement and supply of Covid-19-related supplies and equip-ment among the member states. Since its inception, the forum has facilitated a range of interactions, drawing experts from across the

region and across fields including medical, pharmaceuticals, clinical tri-als, trade and economy.

Our domestic Covid-19 vaccination drive was rolled out using two vaccines—Covishield and Covaxin. Covishield has been developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University and is being manufactured by Serum Institute of India. Meanwhile, Covaxin has been developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

While India’s call for a regional response was an intuitive one, its commitment to share the responsibili-ty of global health efforts in the pro-duction and distribution of vaccines is derived from its rich civilisational heritage. A heritage that considers the whole world as one interconnected community and that sees fulfilment in collective security, collective develop-ment and collective prosperity.

India firmly believes that ‘no one is safe till everyone is safe’ and the pledge to use India’s capacities in vac-cine development and distribution emanates from this conviction. A nation-wide Covid-19 vaccination drive was launched on January 16 in India; within four days from then, consignments of vaccines were deliv-ered across our neighbourhood and beyond to key partner countries.

Being a neighbour with age-old civ-ilisational ties and buoyant peo-ple-to-people relations underpinned by an open border, Nepal is naturally at the forefront of India’s Neighbourhood First policy and a partner of priority in India’s Covid-19 consciousness. India’s assistance to Nepal has been continuous, based on the needs of its people and includes the supply of RT-PCR testing kits, therapeutic medicines, ICU ventila-tors, advanced ambulances and antivi-ral remdesivir injections.

On January 21, I had the privilege of receiving a consignment of 1 mil-lion doses of India-manufactured Covid-19 vaccines that arrived at Tribhuvan International Airport. I was joined by Minister for Health and Population Hridayesh Tripathi, who along with his team have been positive

and swift in facilitating required per-missions and clearances. The same evening, I had the honour of formally handing over the vaccines to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli at his official residence in Baluwatar. The Covid-19 vaccines are a gift from the people of India to the people of Nepal and are meant to fulfil immediate require-ments of vaccinating Nepal’s health care and frontline workers.

Nepal is among the first few coun-tries that received Indian-manufactured Covid-19 vaccines with-in five days of our own domestic roll-out. The foreign ministers of both countries had discussed the early pro-visioning of vaccines during the recent sixth India-Nepal Joint Commission meeting held on January 15 in New Delhi. In exactly a week’s time since External Affairs Minister of India S Jaishankar promised Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali on the supply of vaccines, we had the actual consignment land in Kathmandu.

The pandemic has been a testing time for all of us, but one that has also brought out the depth and resilience of our underlying bonds. Through the entire pandemic, we have managed to keep the supply chains and trade flows open. Be it the movement of Nepalis returning home or the movement of essential goods across the border, the officials on either side of the border have liaised and coordinated efficient-ly and effectively.

The relationship between India and Nepal exists in various para-digms—be it religious, cultural, social, economic or political. In recent times, I believe that ‘vaccine maitri’ adds another satisfying chapter in our ties.

Nepal embarked on her domestic Covid-19 vaccination drive on January 27, 2021. I wish Nepal’s health profes-sionals and caregivers a successful and smooth roll-out. The people of India stand with the people of Nepal in defeating the virus and will do whatever it takes in our collective fight to prevail over the pandemic.

Kwatra is Ambassador of India to Nepal.

Putting neighbours first

VINAY MOHAN KWATRA

MADHUKAR UPADHYA

Into the infernoEDITORIAL

Pork barrel politics Spend the Rs6.56 billion on vaccines, not some

dubious partnership programme.

SHUTTERSTOCK

POST FILE PHOTO

The loss of soil moisture and groundwater can be, and need to be, addressed by large-scale local efforts.

STARTING

POINT

Nepal is among the first few countries to receive Indian-manufactured Covid-19 vaccines.

After dissolving the lower house of Parliament, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has called snap polls for April 30 and May 10. Whether the planned elections will happen is still up in the air, as it will depend on the Supreme Court which has been conducting a hearing on about a dozen writ petitions filed against Oli’s House dissolution move. Political forces like the Nepali Congress and Janata Samajwadi Party as well as a faction of the Nepal Communist Party led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Madhav Kumar Nepal who have parted ways with Oli are also protesting the dissolution. If the court overturns the government decision, politics will return to Parliament; and if not, there will be no option for the country than to go to the polls.

Amid this, there were concerns about releasing funds for a controversial lawmakers-led programme. But on Monday, the government, which has officially turned into an election gov-ernment, decided to release Rs6.56 billion for the Local Infrastructure Development Partnership Programme. The scheme has faced criticism even during normal times for being distributive, as it gives ample room for misuse of the funds because it is mainly run by local consumer commit-tees usually at the behest of political party cadres. Earlier, the programme was under two headings—Constituency Infrastructure Special Programme and the Constituency Development Programme.

When the Oli government was going to present its first budget, there were calls from several quarters that such a distributive programme must not be continued. However, the then finance minister Yuba Raj Khatiwada could not resist pressure from lawmakers, and continued with the Local Infrastructure Development Partnership Programme, under which Rs4 million is released for each constituency to be spent for various development projects under the supervi-sion of the concerned lawmaker. After the pandemic-induced lockdown stalled the implementation of development pro-jects, the government in the last fiscal year 2019-20 decided to use the unspent money to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.

But this year, the government decided to release the funds even as the elections have been declared. What, however, is problematic is how the government can release money for those who were supposed to utilise it when they held a cer-tain position—the budget is meant for lawmakers-led pro-jects. But since there is no House, those under whom it was to be spent cease to be lawmakers. In a country like Nepal where power is based on the pork barrel and exercised on patronage, distributing money just when there are only 92 days left for the first phase of voting, if the elections do hap-pen, is plain wrong.

The Election Commission, however, has taken a noncha-lant attitude to the government’s decision to release the budget. The commission is mandated to keep a watch on government activities once elections are declared, but it has said it can talk about the issue only after the poll code of conduct is announced. Releasing the budget for such a pro-gramme does not go well also because the country is strug-gling to generate resources for procuring Covid-19 vaccines.

If the elections happen, at least Rs20 billion will have to be spent from the state coffers. The government has estimated that it will require around Rs48 billion to inoculate all eligi-ble citizens in the country. Only when people are safe and protected do development works mean something. It’s not too late to channelise the budget, which is highly likely to be misused, towards procuring Covid-19 vaccines and other pressing needs.

C M Y K

05 | FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 2021

MONEY

GASOLINE WATCH

FOREX

US Dollar 117.17

Euro 141.86

Pound Sterling 159.93

Japanese Yen 11.24

Chinese Yuan 18.11

Qatari Riyal 32.18

Australian Dollar 89.13

Malaysian Ringit 28.96

Saudi Arab Riyal 31.24

Exchange rates fixed by Nepal Rastra Bank

BULLIONPRICE PER TOLA

SOURCE: FENEGOSIDA

Fine Gold Rs 92,000

Silver Rs 1,245

Registrations of new business firms down 45 percent in the first six monthsKRISHANA PRASAINKATHMANDU, JAN 28

The number of new firms registering with the Department of Industry dropped by almost half in the first six months of the fiscal year that started mid-July.

Registrations were down 45.78 per-cent year-on-year in the first half of fiscal 2020-21, largely due to the impact of Covid-19, officials said. They added the ongoing political instability could further erode foreign and domestic investor confidence, resulting in even fewer new compa-nies being registered.

The Department of Industry said 103 new firms were registered in the first half of the year, compared to 190 during the same period of the previous year.

The new companies will create 6,288 jobs as per their applications.

The drop in registrations was accompanied by a 25.73 percent year-on-year fall in domestic and foreign investment pledges in the first half. Commitments totalled Rs72.62 billion, down from Rs91.30 billion during the same period of the previous fiscal.

Jiblal Bhusal, director general at the Department of Industry, said Covid-19 had hurt the registration of new firms. “Investments in industry are expected to increase in the coming days as the country started the Covid-19 vaccination drive on Wednesday,” he said.

“The immunisation campaign will help build investor confidence, and we expect to see some improvement by the end of this fiscal year.”

But recent political developments could be a hindrance to industrial investment if they are not resolved soon, he said.

“There is no doubt political instabil-ity has taken its toll on investments in Nepal. The Doing Business report has been frequently saying that political stability is the key factor for investment.”

Bhusal said that the ongoing politi-cal upheaval had forced many inves-tors into a ‘wait and see’ position.

“The consequences of the current turmoil might not be seen immediate-ly; but if it continues, there will be a disastrous impact on investments and the economy that has already suf-fered greatly due to the Covid-19 pan-demic,” he said.

The department is working to facili-tate the industrial sector at the policy level, Bhusal said.

“The government is facilitating industry in an administrative way. We have amended the private firm renewal regulations and extended the deadline till the end of this fiscal year,” he said.

The department is facilitating regis-tration, capacity enhancement and capital growth. Companies that have missed the deadline for starting opera-tions due to Covid-19 have been given extra time.

On the financial side, Nepal Rastra Bank has made provisions for refi-nancing service and is mulling waiv-ing interest. The government has also introduced a grant for innovative start-ups, he said.With the impact of Covid-19 declining, the government is planning to bring new packages to help revive the economy in the

post-pandemic situation, Bhusal said.Dinesh Shrestha, vice-president of

the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said that the pandemic had discouraged new investments as the existing companies are struggling to operate at full capac-ity due to a slowdown in demand.

“Industry has not been able to oper-ate at more than 54 percent of capacity even after the lockdown was lifted in July as there has been no rebound in demand as expected,” he said. “There is a need to boost consumer confi-dence to increase demand.”

Shrestha said that the government could support industry by slashing taxes and providing facilities accord-ing to the amount of taxes paid.

“It would be a great relief if the government provided discounts on electricity bills and fuel costs. The interest rate charged by banks could be reduced to encourage investment.

Investors fear that political instability will hurt their current investments with new investors fearing to come forward. So the political environment needs to be fixed to revive the econo-my,” said Shrestha.According to the department, 17 large-scale, 21 medi-um-scale and 65 small-scale compa-nies were registered in the first six months of the current fiscal year.

Among the new firms, 28 are in the manufacturing sector, 19 in the tour-ism sector, five in information technology and 13 in the energy sector. The rest are agro and forestry, infrastructure, mineral and ser-vice-based firms.

According to Bhusal, a preliminary strategic draft is being prepared for the development and growth of indus-try, investment and the private sector in the post-pandemic situation. Bhusal said that discussions were going on for the preparation of the draft.

Political instability could further erode foreign and domestic investor confidence, officials say.

Regulator says Australia must address Google ad dominance

ASSOCIATED PRESSCANBERRA, JAN 28

A lack of competition for Google and a lack of transparency in the digital advertising supply chain needed to be addressed because they were impacting publishers, advertisers and consumers, Australia’s competition watchdog said on Thursday.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission released its interim report on its inquiry into the Google-dominated digital advertising services industry in Australia that is worth 3.4 billion Australian dollars ($2.6 billion) a year.

The industry allows advertisers to buy access to consumers’ eyeballs almost instantaneously through an automated bidding process, flashing up products that supposedly align with the individual consumers’ per-sonal interests. Such individually tai-lored ads can follow consumers around the internet.

Google not only powers the digital display technology, it also controls much of the advertising space.

Commission Chair Rod Sims said “there is a real lack of competition, choice and transparency in this indus-try” that add to advertisers’ costs and increase prices paid by consumers.

“Google’s significant presence across the whole ad tech supply chain, combined with its significant data advantage, means Google is likely to have the ability and the incentive to preference its own ad tech business-es in ways that affect competition,” Sims wrote.

He said that during the inquiry, par-ties expressed concern about potential conflicts of interest from Google’s var-ious roles in this industry. “This includes Google very often acting on behalf of both publishers and adver-tisers for the same ad sale across the ad tech supply chain, while also sell-ing its own ad inventory,” Sims added.

The commission had yet to form a view on whether Google’s conduct breached Australian competition law through a misuse of market power, the report said.

A lawsuit announced last month from several US states alleges Google engaged in “anti-competitive conduct” in online advertising and used its “monopolistic power” to control the prices and eliminate competition. Google is calling the suit “meritless” and says the price of online advertis-ing has fallen over the last decade.

According to filing records, Texas is suing along with Arkansas, Idaho,

Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota and Utah.

Sims suggested Australia create rules to manage conflicts of interest and to prevent Google from potentially preferring its own businesses.

The commission noted that compe-tition regulators in Britain and the European Union had raised similar issues.

The commission also suggested mandatory breaking up of datasets held by large incumbents so that rival ad tech providers could more easily compete.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, who called for the investigation, said the government needed to ensure that reg-ulatory frameworks “keep pace with the changes being driven by digital platforms.”

“While this is an interim report, the

government notes the ACCC’s con-cerns over competitiveness and the continued dominance of tech giants,” Frydenberg said in a statement.

“The government looks forward to receiving the final report later this year as we continue delivering reforms to better protect and inform Australian consumers and businesses in the digital age,” he added.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

Google has been battling the Australian competition watchdog on several fronts in recent years.

Google last week threatened to make its search engine unavailable if the government went ahead with plans to make it and Facebook pay for Australian news content.

The government has drafted legisla-tion based on the watchdog’s media code to force the US tech giants pay Australian news businesses fair com-pensation for their content.

The commission has also sued Google, alleging the platform broke consumer law by misleading Android users about how their location data was collected and used. Google has denied the allegation.

The commission will make its final report to the government of its digital advertising services inquiry on August 31.

India’s gold demand to rebound in 2021, World Gold Council saysREUTERSMUMBAI, JAN 28

India’s gold consumption is expected to rebound in 2021 after falling to its lowest in 26 years last year as pent-up demand and higher economic growth are seen boosting sales, the World Gold Council (WGC) said on Thursday.

Higher purchases by the world’s second-biggest bullion consumer could support gold prices, which hit a record high last year, although that could increase India’s trade deficit and weigh on the ailing rupee.

Coronavirus led-lockdowns slashed India’s gold demand by 35 percent in 2020 to 446.4 tonnes, the lowest since 1994, the WGC said in a report pub-lished on Thursday.

However, demand is expected to rebound in 2021 to around 2019 levels as economic growth is forecast to rebound helped by falling Covid-19 cases, said Somasundaram PR, the managing director of the WGC’s Indian operations.

India’s economy is seen growing 11.5 percent in 2021, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday.

“As lockdowns eased and normali-sation efforts were phased in, imports in the December quarter rose 19 percent year-on-year, pointing to the positive impact of pent-up demand. This can be expected to continue into 2021,” Somasundaram said.

India’s gold imports of 164.4 tonnes in the December quarter were the highest in six quarters, fuelled by improving demand during the key Hindu festivals of Dussehra and Diwali, the WGC said.

India’s investment demand rose 8 percent in the December quarter on the year to 48.9 tonnes, its highest in two years, as people boosted purchases of gold coins and bars in expectations that bullion pric-es would rise further, Somasundaram said.

“We will see a sharp rise in invest-ment demand. Amid low interest rates and higher stock prices, people are looking at gold to diversify their investments,” he added.

In rural areas gold demand in the last few months was robust follow-ing surplus monsoon rainfall that yielded a record harvest of sum-mer-sown crops, the WGC said.

POST FILE PHOTO

A 1,600-metre long cable car system being built on Prithvi Highway to link Dumre Thuladhunga and Bandipur at a cost of Rs2 billion.

AP/RSS

A file photo shows a woman walking past the logo for Google at the China International Import Expo in Shanghai.

Google powers the digital display technology and controls much of the advertising space.

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C M Y K

BRIEFING

FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 2021 | 06

WORLD

Government of NepalMinistry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport

Department of Roads Development Cooperation Implementation Division

Strategic Road Connectivity & Trade Improvement Project (SRCTIP)Notice No. SRCTIP/ 6 /077-78Date of first publication: 29th January, 2021

Notice for Shortlisted Consulting Firms Short List of Consulting Firms has been prepared for contract identification numbers SRCTIP-DOR-KDP-CS-QCBS-2 & SRCTIP-DOR-CS-QCBS-7; notice published in The Kathmandu Post national daily dated 4th June, 2020 & 11th August 2020 respectively. Please refer website: www.dor.gov.np/home/notices for details of shortlisted consultants and submission deadline. Shortlisted firms are requested to collect Request for Proposal (RFP) from the Department of Roads, Development Cooperation Implementation Division, SRCTIP, Jwagal, Lalitpur and hereby invited to submit their RFP for their respective packages. The date of pre-proposal conference, the last day of proposal submission, date of opening of technical proposal and other details are mentioned in the RFP documents.

SN Contract Identification Number Assignment Title

1. SRCTIP-DOR-KDP-CS-QCBS-2Detailed Design of Upgradation of Kamala-Dhalkebar- Pathlaiya Section of Mahendra Highway and Bridges

2. SRCTIP-DOR-CS-QCBS-7 Detailed Design and Technical Support Consultant for Research and Training Centre at Gajuri

Project Director

India says China ties at crossroads amid border disputeNEW DELHI: India on Thursday said its relationship with China is at a cross-roads with the months-old military standoff in mountainous border areas profoundly disturbing the ties. “Peace and tranquillity in the border areas is the basis for the development of relations in other domains,” External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said in a speech at a conference discussing India-China ties. “If they are dis-turbed, so inevitably will the rest of the relationship.” “Choices that are made will have profound repercus-sions, not just for the two nations but for the entire world,” Jaishankar said. Indian and Chinese soldiers brawled again last week in the Naku La area of northeastern Sikkim state. Last year, 20 Indian troops died in a clash with Chinese soldiers using clubs, stones and fists in another por-tion of the disputed border.

Pakistan court frees Islamist accused of killing US journalist Daniel PearlKARACHI: Pakistan’s Supreme Court ordered on Thursday the release of an Islamist accused of beheading US journalist Daniel Pearl, a decision that has let his family in “complete shock”, lawyers said. Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was the main sus-pect in the 2002 kidnapping and mur-der of Wall Street Journal reporter Pearl, was released by a panel of three judges. “By a majority of two to one, they have acquitted all the accused persons and ordered their release,” a provincial advocate gener-al, Salman Talibuddin, told Reuters. It was not immediately clear whether “acquittal” meant a finding of not guilty, or that they had merely fin-ished their jail terms. Sheikh had served 18 years in jail and a life sentence is usually a maximum of 14 years. Pearl, 38, was investigating Islamist militants in Karachi after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States when he was kidnapped.

North Korea, US should aim for initial nuclear freeze, South Korean prime minister saysSEOUL: North Korea and the United States should seek an initial denuclearisation deal that includes a halt to the North’s nuclear activity and a cut in its programme in exchange for some sanctions relief, South Korea’s prime minister said on Thursday. Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun told Reuters that “creative” thinking and mutual incentives were needed to get negotiations going again and prevent another breakdown. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and former US President Donald Trump promised to build new relations and work towards the denu-clearisation of the Korean peninsula at their first summit in 2018, but a second summit and ensuing working-level talks fell apart. (AGENCIES)

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSEWUHAN, CHINA, JAN 28

A team of experts from the World Health Organization left quarantine in Wuhan on Thursday to begin a heavily scrutinised probe into the ori-gins of the Covid-19 pandemic, after Washington urged a “robust and clear” investigation.

The group started a two-week quar-antine on arrival on January 14 in the central Chinese city where the first known cluster of virus cases emerged in late 2019.

The virus is believed to have come from bats and to have initially spread from a wet market in Wuhan where wild animals were sold as food.

The WHO insists the visit will be tightly tethered to the science of how the virus—which has killed more than two million people and laid waste to the global economy—jumped from animals to humans.

But in a sign of the political bag-gage attached to their mission, US President Joe Biden’s new administra-tion weighed in before the experts had even left their hotel.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, new White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said it was “imperative we get to the bottom” of how the virus appeared and spread worldwide.

In a mission dogged by delays and obfuscation from their Chinese hosts, it was not clear what the expert team will be allowed to see in Wuhan—or what useful evidence remains a year after the outbreak in a country which has vigorously controlled the narra-tive of how the pandemic began.

The early days of the outbreak remain among the most sensitive top-ics in China today, with the Communist leadership seeking to stamp out any discussion that shows its governance in a poor light.

Beijing has also sought to seed doubt into the origin story, floating the unsubstantiated theory that the virus emerged elsewhere.

Another theory, amplified by for-mer US President Donald Trump, is that it leaked from a laboratory in

Wuhan where researchers were study-ing coronaviruses.

Relatives of Wuhan’s coronavirus dead have called for a meeting with the team from the UN health agency, saying they have been facing new lev-els of official obstruction since the WHO team arrived.

They accuse the Chinese govern-ment of taking down a WeChat group used by scores of next-of-kin to dis-cuss the outbreak shortly after the WHO team arrived.

Early days of the outbreak remain a sensitive topic in China today, with the Communist leadership seeking to stamp out any discussion that shows its governance in a poor light.

WHO team to start Wuhan virus probe under global glare

REUTERS

A health worker and a volunteer take part in a nationwide trial run of the Covid-19 vaccine delivery systems in New Delhi, India, on January 8.

ASSOCIATED PRESSWASHINGTON, JAN 28

The Biden administration paused or put under review a wide swath of Trump-era foreign policies as America’s new top diplomat took the helm of the State Department.

The administration placed at least temporarily holds on several big-tick-et arms sales to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, while newly installed Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he is looking urgently at a terrorism designation against Yemen’s Houthi rebels that his predecessor enacted shortly before leaving office.

On his first full day on the job, Blinken said on Wednesday the admin-istration has initiated a comprehen-sive review of the US relationship with Russia and is examining details of a US-Taliban peace deal signed nearly a year ago.

Blinken also said the administra-tion is willing to return to commit-ments under the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, which former President Donald Trump withdrew from.

In his remarks to a demoralised diplomatic corps that was often deni-grated or ignored over the past four years, Blinken vowed to rebuild the ranks of the foreign service and rely on its expertise as the Biden adminis-tration tries to restore US global standing.

Blinken on Wednesday spoke to the foreign ministers of Britain, France, Germany, Israel, Australia, the Philippines and Thailand, as well as to NATO’s secretary general, following calls late Tuesday to his counterparts in Canada, Mexico, Japan and South Korea.

On policy matters, Blinken said he was particularly concerned by the “foreign terrorist organisation” desig-nation for the Iran-backed Houthis that former Secretary of State Mike

Pompeo announced just 10 days before the end of the Trump administration.

Of all the steps that Trump and Pompeo took in their waning days “that’s the priority in my book,” Blinken said of the designation.

The pause in the arms sales to the UAE and Saudi Arabia, which were announced just days after the November 6 election that Trump lost to now-President Joe Biden, is also related to Yemen. Critics fear the two Arab nations may use advanced US weaponry to continue the Saudi-led war in Yemen. The department billed the temporary suspension, which includes a halt to a $23 billion transfer of stealth F-35 fighters to the UAE, as “a routine administrative action” for a new administration.

On Afghanistan, Blinken said the Biden administration wanted to take a detailed look at the February 2020 peace deal negotiated between the Trump administration and the Taliban to try to extricate US troops from the country after nearly 20 years of war. “We need to understand exact-ly what is in the agreement” before deciding how to proceed, he said. Khalilzad, the chief US negotiator, has been asked to remain on the job so he can “continue the vital work he is per-forming.”

On Iran, Blinken repeated com-ments Biden has made previously and that he himself made to lawmakers at his confirmation hearing just last week. Blinken said the administration is prepared to ease sanctions that the Trump administration re-imposed on Iran as long as Iran returns to full compliance with the 2015 deal.

Biden has vowed to reverse Trump’s approach, which had alienated many traditional US allies who perceived it as a hardline unilateral approach that left no room for negotiation. Blinken said that after four years, the United States would again engage with allies on a reciprocal basis.

REUTERSNEW DELHI, JAN 28

India said on Thursday it had curbed an increase in Covid-19 infections, with a fifth of its districts reporting no new cases for a week, even as its immunisation campaign has covered 2.4 million people.

The country of 1.35 billion has recorded the highest number of cases in the world after the United States, though the rate of infection has come down significantly since a mid-Sep-tember peak. Some studies have suggested pockets of India have attained herd immunity through natural infection.

“India has successfully contained the pandemic,” Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said, noting that fewer than 12,000 cases were reported in the past

24 hours.He said 146 of India’s 718 districts

have had no new cases for a week and 18 districts for two weeks.

“India has flattened its Covid-19 graph,” Vardhan added.

With infections falling, the govern-ment said that from February 1 it would lift curbs on the use of public swimming pools, allow cinema halls and theatres to seat more than 50 percent of capacity and let all types of exhibition halls to operate.

The world’s second most populous country started its Covid-19 immunisation programme on January 16.

India has so far reported 10.7 mil-lion infections and 153,847 deaths-one of the world’s lowest fatality rates from the disease, attributed partly to its younger population.

India says it contains spread of Covid-19, no new cases in fifth of country

Biden pauses Trump policies as Blinken takes diplomatic helm

AP/RSS

Newly confirmed Secretary of State Antony Blinken addresses a welcome ceremony at the State Department in Washington on Wednesday.

ASSOCIATED PRESSMOSCOW, JAN 28

Russian authorities on Thursday detained several allies of opposition leader Alexei Navalny and issued warnings to social media giants after tens of thousands of people took to the streets in over 100 Russian cities last weekend to demand his release.

The detention of Navalny’s brother Oleg, his top ally Lyubov Sobol, Dr Anastasia Vasilyeva from

the Navalny-backed Alliance of Doctors and Maria Alyokhina from the Pussy Riot punk collective comes as authorities try to stem another wave of protests set for Sunday.

All four were detained for 48 hours

as part of a criminal probe into alleged violations of coronavirus regulations during the weekend’s protests.

The 44-year-old Navalny, the most well-known critic of President Vladimir Putin’s government, was arrested January 17 upon his return from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin.

A court in Moscow is to consider his appeal against the arrest later on Thursday.

The overnight detentions came after more than a dozen searches of apartments and offices of Navalny’s family, associates and supporters in con-nection to the probe. Those sites included Navalny’s apartment, where police detained his brother, and a rented apartment where Navalny’s wife, Yulia, has been living.

Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the searches and detentions were a legitimate part of police efforts to investigate the alleged violations during Saturday’s rallies.

“Law enforcement agencies are doing their job,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters. “There were numerous violations of Russian laws, and law enforcement agencies are at work.”

Russian prosecutors on Thursday also issued warnings to Facebook, Google, Twitter, TikTok and Russian social networks demanding that they block calls for more protests.

“The state doesn’t want the social networks to become a platform for promoting such illegal actions,” Peskov said.

Earlier this week, Russia’s state communica-tions watchdog Roskomnadzor said it would fine Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube and two Russian social networks for their failure to block calls on minors to join Saturday’s protests.

Also on Thursday, Russia’s Investigative Committee said it opened a criminal probe against Navalny’s top strategist Leonid Volkov, accusing him of encouraging minors to participate in unau-thorised rallies. Volkov, who lives in Germany, rejected the charges.

In a challenge to Putin two days after Navalny’s arrest, his organisation released an extensive video report on a palatial seaside compound alleg-edly built for the president. It has been viewed over 98 million times, further stoking discontent.

Demonstrations calling for Navalny’s release took place in more than 100 cities across the nation last Saturday, a strong show of rising anger toward the Kremlin. Nearly 4,000 people were reported detained at those protests and some were handed fines and jail terms.

Navalny fell into a coma while aboard a domestic flight from Siberia to Moscow on August 20. He was transferred from a hospital in Siberia to a Berlin hospital two days later. Labs in Germany, France and Sweden, and tests by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, estab-lished that he was exposed to the Soviet-era Novichok nerve agent.

Russian authorities have refused to open a full-fledged criminal inquiry, citing a lack of evidence that Navalny was poisoned.

Russia detains Navalny’s allies, warns social networks

C M Y K

07 | FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 2021

SPORTS | MEDLEY

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTION

CROSSWORD

HOROSCOPE

SUDOKU

CAPRICORN (December 22-January 19) ****The only thing that matters today is doing what you want to do. Stick to it. Some very flighty people have been inviting you to join in on their adventures, but you are wise to decline politely and focus on your own agenda now.

AQUARIUS (January 20-February 18) ***

Not every romance is constantly a sizzling affair. From time to time things cool off. They have to. So if your current romance is feeling less than dynamic, don’t assume it’s headed for the end.

PISCES (February 19-March 20) ***Everybody wants something different today, and try-ing to get your people on the same page will be a frustrating experience. So focus on activities that are best done alone. Save time for things like reading, napping, and relaxing.

ARIES (March 21-April 19) ****Not every romance is constantly a sizzling affair. From time to time things cool off. They have to. So if your current romance is feeling less than dynamic, don’t assume it’s headed for the end.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) ***

Today is a great day to clean out your emotional clos-et and say what you have been wanting to say to that certain someone. Holding on to your feelings is not wise. It could cause your imagination to run wild and fear to overtake you.

GEMINI (May 21-June 21) ****

Lots can be communicated with body language today, so get moving. Arch an eyebrow to ask for an explanation. Bat your eyelashes to turn the current conversation into a more flirtatious one.

CANCER (June 22-July 22) ***Fake it ‘til you make it today! It’s fun, it’s exciting, and it can be incredibly effective. If you get stuck in a situation that’s a bit over your head, call upon your best acting abilities to bluff your way through it.

LEO (July 23-August 22) ***

Your quick thinking in a tricky situation will leave others quite impressed, although you might not completely understanding why. In your mind, you did what anyone else would have done in that position.

VIRGO (August 23-September 22) ****There’s a fine line between being charmingly talka-tive and being a blabbermouth. You know how to walk that line, but not all people do. Keep an eye out for a friend or co-worker who isn’t watching what they say today.

LIBRA (September 23-October 22) ***Good and bad energy is floating around you today, and you need to figure out how to avoid the bad. Sure, negative vibes are just a part of life. Sometimes a bummer of a day provides the motivation you need to make a change.

SCORPIO (October 23-November 21) ***

If you’re looking for more insight into your latest dilemma, turn to your co-workers or friends. You need to consult with someone who is either in the same situation or has been there before.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22-December 21) ***Be careful not to go along with that latest theory people are pushing right now. As you know, new ideas aren’t always good ideas. In terms of your romantic life, you shouldn’t adhere too rigidly to some new self-help philosophy.

Army thump Bagmati to storm into finalSPORTS BUREAUKATHMANDU, JAN 28

Tribhuvan Army Club entered into the final of the Prime Minister Cup National one-day cricket tournament for the fourth time in a row with a resounding 94-run victory over Bagmati Province in the second semi-final at the TU grounds in Kirtipur on Thursday.

Army, defeated by Nepal Police Club in all three previous editions, will meet arch-rivals Nepal Armed Police Force (APF) Club in the final on Saturday at the same venue.

Put into bat first, Army posted 229 runs in the alloted 50 overs losing all the wickets and bowled out Bagmati for 135 runs in 40.2 overs.

Army made a shaky start to their innings losing first three wickets for 17 runs on board as they lost openers Hari Chauhan for three runs and Anil Mandal for two runs. The departmen-tal team lost number three batsman Rohit Paudel for a duck.

But the departmental team’s middle and lower middle order lifted the innings. Bhim Sharki and Lokesh Bam played a 56-run partner-ship for the fourth wicket before Bam was out for 23 runs.

Sharki contributed 40 runs from 61 deliveries before he was caught by wicketkeeper Aakash Thapa off Tilak Bhandari.

Rajesh Pulami, the highest scorer for Army with 65 runs under his belt, shared a 92-run partnership with Bikram Sob for the seventh wicket. Sob scored 35 runs off 58 before he was

caught by wicketkeeper Thapa off Ramnaresh Giri. Pulami, the next wicket to fall, hit four boundaries and two sixes. The man-of-the-match Pulami was stumped by wicketkeeper Thapa off Gautam KC.

Army skipper Binod Bhandari and Sushan Bhari were other contributors with 10 runs and 16 runs in their names.

KC was the peak of Bagmati bowl-ing as he grabbed five wickets in his 10-over spell. He conceded 61 runs with a maiden over.

Bagmati made a poor start to their run chase losing five wickets for just 18 runs on board.

They lost the first four batsmen—openers Aakash Thapa for a duck and Adil Khan for 10 runs, Bibhatsu Thapa for four runs and Prithu Baskota for one run.

Bagmati skipper Gyanendra Malla, who came to bat at number five, scored the highest 47 runs of 60 runs that included four fences. He was trapped leg before by Sushan Bhari.

Bipin Acharya and Nandan Yadav were other major contributors for Bagmati with 23 and unbeaten 22 runs in their kitty.

Army’s Jitendra Mukhiya grabbed four wickets in his 8.2-over spell. He gave away 24 runs with a maiden over.

Bikram Sob and Sushan Bhari pock-eted three wickets each. Sob came up with impressive bowling figures. He gave away 25 runs in his 10 overs bowl-ing with five maiden overs. Bhari con-ceded 36 runs in his 10-over spell with a maiden over.

The departmental team edge Bagmati Province by 94 runs to set up a final showdown with fierce rivals APF on Saturday.

APF thrash Police to cement lead, Waling demolish Chaudandigadhi 10-0SPORTS BUREAUKATHMANDU, JAN 28

Sabitra Bhandari netted a hat-trick as Nepal Armed Police Force (APF) Club beat Nepal Police Club 3-0 at the ANFA Complex in the National Women’s Football League to go seven points clear at top of league standings on Thursday.

Sabitra put APF ahead capitalising on a mistake from Police defender Ghim Kumari Gurung in the 32nd minute. The captain failed to clear the ball just outside the box which then fell into the path of Sabitra who fired into the net giving goalkeeper Sapana Rai no chance.

The 23-year-old national striker next put on a brilliant show dribbling past three defenders to score her sec-ond goal of the game in the 56th min-ute, and completed her hat-trick six minutes before the time, again, taking advantage of a mistake from a Police defender.

This is Sabitra’s third hat-trick of

the league—her first coming in the 6-0 thumping of Chandrapur Municipality on January 21 and then scoring four goals in 7-0 humiliation of Biratnagar Metropolitan City three days later.

Sabitra leads the scoring chart with 10 goals out of APF’s 18 this season. APF have not conceded yet.

The win also cemented APF’s place at top with 12 points from four match-es. Police remain second with five points.

Despite going seven points clear, APF coach Bhagawoti Thapa ruled out title talks saying, “It’s still far from over”.

“We are in the title race for sure, but there are still a lot of matches to be played and challenges are coming.”

“We have defeated both the depart-mental sides but they are strong teams. Waling have also improved a lot,” Thapa added.

The women’s league is being played in a double leg format for the first time.

Police coach Sanjeev Joshi said injury to their key defender Puja Rana cost them the match.

“We conceded because of the weak-ness of our defenders. If Puja was fit, it would have been a lot different,”

said Joshi.Earlier in the day, Waling

Municipality romped to their first victory with a 10-0 win over bottom placed club Chaudandigadhi Municipality thanks to a double hat-

trick from Cameroonian Metho Eludie Ruth.

Ruth scored her first hat-trick inside the first 19 minutes and got her second after the break in the biggest rout of the tournament so far. Samjhana Sharma scored a brace, and Manmaya Damai and another Cameroonian signing Touta Oranella Evanick Noelle also netted a goal each for Waling.

Ruth opened the scoring in the sev-enth minute and added two more in the ninth and 19th minutes, as Waling went ahead 4-0 before the break with Manmaya finding the net in the 33rd minute. Noelle made it 5-0 four min-utes after the break. Ruth then scored her fourth and fifth goals in the 63rd and 71st minutes before Sharma bagged her brace in the 80th and 82nd minutes to make it 9-0. Ruth then added her sixth in the injury time to finish off the game.

With the win, Waling have five points after three matches and are level with Police. Tribhuvan Army

Club and Biratnagar have four points each.

Waling coach Dilip Thapa was full of praise for foreign players after the win. “After conceding seven goals, we were focused on scoring and we did score indeed. The foreign players have started to find form now and their impact is outstanding,” said Thapa.

“Our upcoming matches are impor-tant. We next play APF on Saturday and we will give our best,” he added.

This is another disappointing loss for Chaudandigadhi who are yet to win this season and remain at the bot-tom. They have now conceded 23 goals in three games and scored just one.

“We were unable to keep possession today. The goal difference in today’s game has rocked the confidence of our players. But in the next match, we will play for three points,” said Chaudandigadhi coach Dipak Thapa.

They next play Biratnagar on Saturday.

Chandrapur Municipality will face the Army on Friday.

Title not realistic target for new boss TuchelREUTERSLONDON, JAN 28

Winning this season’s Premier League title is not a realistic target for new Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel and the German said it was more impor-tant to focus on getting the team to play to its full potential as quickly as possible.

Tuchel, who replaced the sacked Frank Lampard on Tuesday, saw his team held to a dull goalless home draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers on Wednesday. The result left Chelsea eighth on 30 points, 11 behind leaders Manchester City, and Tuchel said he did not think his new side could make up that gap.

“The title? Wow. I don’t think so. We have to be realistic,” he told reporters. “When you sign for Chelsea as a player or manager, you sign for the expectation to challenge for titles ... the Premier League, the Champions League and all the cups. At the same time, we have to be realistic. There are a lot of teams between us and fourth place, a lot of points between us. Maybe the best thing now, by stepping up in the middle of the sea-son, is not to lose focus when we look too far ahead.”

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Manchester United, enjoying a 13-match unbeaten league run, including 10 wins, looked certain to reclaim top spot from Manchester City against bottom club Sheffield United who had only won once all season. But in a seismic shock they lost 2-1 to leave a rampant City

top by a point having played a game fewer. Substitute Oliver Burke grabbed the 74th-minute winner after Harry Maguire had cancelled out Kean Bryan’s first-half opener for the strug-gling Yorkshire side.

“Disappointed, we couldn’t get to the heights of the last few months’ football we played,” Solskjaer said. “That little spark, that edge, we didn’t have that creativity, imagination, the X factor — it’s happened, we look at it, agree it’s not good enough and go again.”

For Sheffield boss Chris Wilder it was a rare night of joy in a miserable campaign, although they still remain 10 points behind 17th-placed Brighton and Hove Albion.

“We have got it right tonight, Manchester City away on Saturday... that’s what the league is all about,” he said. “They got the job done and I am delighted with them.”

Leicester City missed the chance to join Manchester City at the top as they were held 1-1 at Everton. James Rodriguez gave Everton the lead with a 30th-minute stunner but a dominant Leicester deservedly levelled after the break when Everton keeper Jordan Pickford fumbled a skidding Youri Tielemans shot into the net.

Burnley’s revival continued as they twice came from a goal down to beat Aston Villa 3-2 — Chris Wood grab-bing a 79th-minute winner at the Turf Moor.

The day’s other game saw 17th-placed Brighton and Hove Albion draw 0-0 with 18th-placed Fulham.

PHOTO COURTESY: ANFA

APF Club’s Sabitra Bhandari has scored three hat-tricks in four matches.

POST PHOTO: HEMANTA SHRESTHA

Rajesh Pulami (right) scored 65 runs and Bikram Sob picked three wickets for the Army.

REUTERS

Cast member Robert Downey Jr poses at the premiere of ‘Iron Man 3’ at El Capitan theatre in Hollywood, California.

REUTERS

In this file photo, actress Cloris Leachman arrives at the 2011 Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards in Los Angeles.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 2021 | 08

CULTURE & LIFESTYLE

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No Mardi Gras parades, so thousands make ‘house floats’

JANET MCCONNAUGHEYNEW ORLEANS

Y

ou just can’t keep a good city down, especially when Mardi Gras is coming.

All around New Orleans, thousands of houses are being decorated as floats

because the coronavirus outbreak can-celed the elaborate parades mobbed by crowds during the Carnival season lead-ing to Fat Tuesday.

Some smaller groups announced no-pa-rade plans before the city did. Pandemic replacements include scavenger hunts for signature trinkets that normally would be thrown from floats or handed out from a streetcar, as well as outdoor art and drive-thru or virtual parades. The prominent Krewe of Bacchus has an app where peo-ple can catch and trade virtual trinkets during Carnival and watch a virtual parade February 14, when the parade had been scheduled.

But the “house float” movement started almost as soon as a New Orleans spokes-man announced November 17 that parades were off.

That morning, Megan Joy Boudreaux posted what she later called a silly Twitter joke: “We’re doing this. Turn your house into a float and throw all the beads from your attic at your neighbours walking by.”

But the more she thought about it, the more she liked it. She started a Facebook group, the Krewe of House Floats, expect-ing a few friends and neighbours to join. The numbers rose. Thirty-nine subgroups evolved to discuss neighbourhood plans.

By Carnival season’s official start January 6, the group had more than 9,000 members, including out-of-state “expats.” About 3,000, including a few as far afield as England and Australia, will have their houses on an official online map, said Charlotte “Charlie” Jallans-Daly, one of two mapmakers.

Houses are to be decorated at least two weeks before Fat Tuesday, which is February 16 this year. With widespread

addresses and two weeks to gawk, the hope is that people will spread out widely in time and space.

“I didn’t think I was starting a Mardi Gras krewe. Here I am,” Boudreaux said. “I’ve got myself a second full-time job.”

Discussions in the Facebook groups include how-tos, ads for props and neigh-bourhood themes. Artists have given lives-

treamed outdoor lessons.Katie Bankens posted that her block’s

theme was Shark Week staycation para-dise. When a resident worried that she was not “crafty” enough, administrator Carley Sercovich replied that if they could play music and throw trinkets to neigh-bours, “you are perfect for this Krewe!”

Boudreaux also suggested that people

could hire or buy from out-of-work Carnival artists and suppliers hit by the parade cancellation. A spreadsheet of art-ists and vendors followed. One of them, artist Dominic “Dom” Graves, booked more than 20 five-person classes in profes-sional papier mache techniques, at $100 a person.

Devin DeWulf, who already had started

two pandemic charities as head of the Krewe of Red Beans walking club, kicked the house float idea up a few notches at the suggestion of Caroline Thomas, a profes-sional float designer.

Their “Hire a Mardi Gras Artist” crowd-funded lotteries collected enough money to put crews to work decorating 11 houses, plus commissioned work at two more houses and seven businesses.

“We’ve put about 40 people to work, which is nice,” DeWulf said. With Mardi Gras approaching, he said a 12th lottery would be the last.

One commissioned house is rented by a pair of nuns. Sisters Mary Ann Specha and Julie Walsh, who run a shelter for homeless women with children, had to get permission for their own crowdfunding from the motherhouse of the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Dubuque, Iowa. “They loved it,” Specha said.

The crowdfunded decorations may be auctioned after Mardi Gras to raise more money, DeWulf said. Several mansions along a short stretch of St Charles Avenue had elaborate displays with signs noting their creation by one of the city’s biggest float-making studios.

Tom Fox, whose wife, Madeline, painted a Spongebob Squarepants scene and made jellyfish from dollar store bowls, said he thinks a new tradition may have begun.

“Even when Mardi Gras comes back, I think people are going to keep doing this,” he said.

— Associated Press

‘Iron Man’ Downey launches funds in environmental fight

MARIE-LOUISE GUMUCHIANLONDON

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s inventor Tony Stark, Hollywood actor Robert Downey Jr transformed into superhero Iron Man. Now the Oscar nominee is taking action

against environmental threats to the planet.

Downey is looking to sustainable technology to tackle issues like deforestation and microplastics.

The “Iron Man” and “Avengers” star, 55, announced on Wednesday he was launching venture capital funds, aim-ing to “accelerate groundbreaking technologies that are addressing the world’s largest environmental chal-lenges”.

Downey’s FootPrint Coalition, founded in 2019 and made up of “investors, donors and storytellers committed to scaling technologies to restore our planet”, has already invest-ed in companies like Ynsect, which breeds mealworms, and Cloud Paper, which makes bamboo toilet paper, among others.

Now he wants to “quickly mobilise more people and catalyse more capital”.

“There’s groundbreaking technolo-gies we’re going to vet and ... keep doing what we’re doing, finding the best in class and accelerate scaling them up,” Downey told Reuters.

“We feel [the funds] is a move towards just a little bit of democratisa-tion in this usually very exclusive space.”

FootPrint Coalition Ventures will have an early- and late-stage fund, with

a $5,000 quarterly subscription fee and minimum one-year subscription.

It says it wants to invest in food and agriculture technology, sustainabili-ty-focused consumer products and ser-vices, energy and transport, materials and industrial tech, education and media and advanced environmental solutions.

“Rather than raising money infre-quently from very large anonymous institutions ... we do the opposite,” Jonathan Schulhof, who will co-lead FootPrint Coalition Ventures, told Reuters.

“We raise money constantly because it’s constantly an opportunity to tell the story and activate and mobilise the audience.”

Downey, who also took part in a panel about the Arctic at the virtual World Economic Forum on Wednesday, narrates short videos made by his crea-tive team on the coalition’s site, talking about topics like aquaculture and deforestation.

“I always feel that if you have great content and the community feels that, the audience grows, that helps us with our access to deals and then we get better outcomes,” Downey said.

— Reuters

US comedy legend Cloris Leachman dies at 94

BILL TROTTLOS ANGELES

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merican actress Cloris Leachman, who won eight Emmys for her work on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and other television pro-grams as well as an Academy

Award for “The Last Picture Show,” died on Wednesday at the age of 94, her representa-tives said.

Leachman’s publicist said in a statement that the actress died of natural causes at her home in Encinitas, California.

“It’s been my privilege to work with Cloris Leachman, one of the most fearless actresses of our time,” her manager, Juliet Green, said in a statement.

“There was no one like Cloris. With a single look she had the ability to break your heart or make you laugh till the tears ran down your face. You never knew what Cloris was going to say or do and that unpredicta-ble quality was part of her unparalleled magic,” Green added.

Leachman, who appeared in three of Mel Brooks’ comic movies, kept acting regular-ly well into her 90s. She was a contestant on “Dancing With the Stars” at age 82 and appeared in the 2019 reboot of the comedy series “Mad About You.”

Two films that she made in 2019 and 2020 have yet to be released.

Brooks on Wednesday called her “insane-ly talented.”

“She could make you laugh or cry at the drop of a hat... Every time I hear a horse

whinny I will forever think of Cloris’ unfor-gettable Frau Blücher,” Brooks wrote on Twitter, referring to her role in “Young Frankenstein.”

Leachman grew up in Des Moines, Iowa, and studied under Elia Kazan at the Actors Studio in New York, where Marlon Brando was a classmate. Starting in the late 1940s, her early jobs included working on stage with Katharine Hepburn in “As You Like It,” as well as small roles in movies and live television dramas.

One of her first regular jobs was playing the mother on the popular “Lassie” show in the late 1950s and television would provide many of Leachman’s greatest successes. She won best-supporting actress Emmys in 1974 and 1975 for playing the nosy landlady on the popular “Mary Tyler Moore Show,” which led to a two-year run for Leachman in her own spin-off series, “Phyllis.”

She also won Emmys for playing cranky Grandma Ida on “Malcolm in the Middle” in 2002 and 2006, as well as roles in the drama “Promised Land” in 1998, a Screen Actors Guild variety show in 1984, a 1975

appearance on Cher’s variety show and “A Brand New Life,” a 1973 television movie.

She was nominated 12 other times and also won a Daytime Emmy in 1972.

Leachman’s movie work also was distin-guished, highlighted by “The Last Picture Show” in which she played Ruth Popper, the emotionally crippled wife of a small-town football coach who has an affair with one of his players. As director Peter Bogdanovich predicted, she won an Oscar for the role.

Leachman made an impression in three of Brooks’ movies, playing comically vil-lainous characters in “Young Frankenstein” and “High Anxiety” and Madame Defarge from “A Tale of Two Cities” in “History of the World: Part 1.”

Age did little to slow Leachman. In 2008, she became the oldest contestant ever—and a fan favourite—on “Dancing With the Stars” and followed that up with an appearance on the reality show “Celebrity Wife Swap.”

Leachman took a light-hearted and unpredictable approach to life. A lifelong vegetarian, she was in her 70s when she appeared nude—but with her body painted with fruits and vegetables—on the cover of Alternative Health magazine in 1997.

Asked in 2010 how she managed to keep professionally busy at her age, Leachman told the New York Times, “I don’t like that word ‘busy’ because that’s not how I live at all ... When I do work, it’s not work; it’s great fun and exciting and fresh.”

Leachman and director-producer George Englund married in 1953 and divorced in 1979. They had five children.

—Reuters

Pandemic replacements include scavenger hunts for signature trinkets that normally would be thrown from floats or handed out from a streetcar, as well as outdoor art and drive-thru or virtual parades.

AP/RSS

Parade float workers position a pelican while fellow crew member Chelsea Kamm (right) looks on while decorating a house in New Orleans.

With two weeks to gawk, the hope is that people will spread out widely in time and space.

Leachman, who won eight Emmys as well as an Academy Award, died on Wednesday.

The actress died of natural causes at her home in Encinitas, California.

Downey is looking to sustainable technology to tackle issues like deforestation and microplastics.

Downey also took part in a panel about the Arctic at the virtual World Economic Forum.