Nepal Highlights

The cabinet meeting on Tuesday has approved Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal’s impending US visit and finalised the list of persons accompanying the PM. PM Nepal is leaving for New York, USA on September 20 to participate in the 64th UN General Assembly. Those acompanying the PM in his US trip include his spouse Gayatri Nepal, political advisor Raghuji Pant, foreign affairs advisor Rajan Bhattarai, personal secretary Yadav Sharma and two ADCs. The cabinet has decided to make the delegation ‘a small one’ with 23-members. Health minister Umakant Chaudhary, health secretary Sudha Sharma, foreign secretary Gyan Chandra Acharya, chief of protocol Mohan Krishna Shrestha, UML leaders Amrit Kumar Bohara and Bhanu Bhakta Dhakal and three journalists will also join the PM’s team. Nepal’s permanent representative to the UN Madhu Raman Acharya and acting ambassador the US Kali Prasad Pokhrel will join the Nepali delegation in the US.

Former Supreme Court justice and chairman of the Interim Constitution Drafting Committee Laxman Prasad Aryal has died at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, Wednesday morning. Aryal was suffering from cancer, kidney and heart ailments since a long time. He died while undergoing treatment at TUTH at about 7.30 am, this morning. Aryal was also a member of the Constitution Drafting Committee in 1990. Aryal is survived by his wife, two sons and three daughters.

Home ministry has sent the draft of National Security Policy to the Council of Ministers for approval, reports say. The report was prepared by a task force including representatives from the home ministry, defence ministry and the security council. Other concerned agencies including the Constituent Assembly (CA) committee for the protection of national interest, political parties and experts were not consulted while preparing the policy, Annapurna Post daily reported. The proposed draft includes policies to be adopted on various issues including concept of security, factors affecting it, responsible agencies and their responsibilities, internal and external challenges and threats to national security, role of civil administration in security, information security, social and economic security. This is the first time a National Security Policy is being prepared in Nepal. Earlier, the army used to prepare its own security policies, while other security agencies, too, had their own pol

Two villagers of Rajgan Sinwari, Sunsari, along Nepal-India border have been shot dead by Indian looters when the villagers tried to retaliate them, last night, reports say. Armed looters in a group of about 24 persons had entered the village around midnight, Tuesday. They opened fire when the villagers tried to retaliate against them. They also looted more than two dozen livestock from the village. One of the deceased is Laljeet Sardar. Rajgan Sinwari villagers say, they have been suffering from looting and killing by looters from across the border since many years. They have staged demonstrations from early Wednesday morning demanding better security in the village.