RAUTAHAT: Senior CPN-UML leader Madhav Kumar Nepal was greeted with black flags in Rautahat on Friday. He is Constituent Assembly member of Rautahat constituency-1. Leaders and cadres of Madhes-based parties showed black flags when Nepal, along with CA members Lalbabu Yadav and Ram Kumar Bhattarai, arrived in the district on Friday evening. Members of the parties, including Federal Socialist Forum Nepal, Sadbhawana Party, Tarai Madhes Democratic Party, Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum-Nepal and Nepal Sadbhawana Party, had started sloganeering as soon as Nepal entered the District Administration Office to attend a meeting. Former prime minister Nepal was in the district as part of preparations to collect feedback on the draft constitution.

Cabinet decisions

KATHMANDU: The government has decided to provide Rs six lakh each as compensation to the kin of Kanchan Kumari Thakur of Kalaiya, Bara, who was murdered after rape and Indian national Ashish Kumar Sah, who was murdered after abduction. According to Minister for Information and Communications Minendra Rijal the Cabinet also decided to promote Dr Kiran Regmi and Dr Madhu Dev Bhattarai of Nepal Health Service. Friday’s Cabinet meeting also decided to appoint Kul Bahadur Basnet as Vice-chairman of the Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT) and extend the term of local peace committees till mid-July next year. The Cabinet also extended the term of Relief and Rehabilitation Unit and distribution of relief till mid-January next year. The term of the Executive Vice-Chairman of Poor Household Support Coordination Board also has been extended by a year. The government also decided to support Swami Prapannacharya with Rs 30,000 per month until he lives.

TI seeks changes

KATHMANDU: Transparency international Nepal chapter has demanded amendments in the preliminary draft of constitution for the promotion of good governance in Nepal. The transparency watchdog on Friday submitted a memorandum to the Citizens Relations and Constitution Recommendation Committee of the Constituent Assembly for the promotion of good governance, reducing level of corruption. TI’s demands include inserting constitutional provisions for all those bearing public positions of disclosing property details, including right to good governance as a fundamental right and making clear the bases of citizenship in the constitution, shared TI Nepal Chairperson Bharat Bahadur Thapa. “The removal of the provision of full press freedom that was enshrined in the Interim Constitution of 2007 has increased doubt over the promulgation of media-friendly constitution. Article 107 of the draft of the new constitution seems to have limited press freedom in which it is stated that ‘news on the Parliament shall not be written in a twisted manner’. It should be subject to amendment”, he said. The TI has also demanded to fix the number of Cabinet members at both centre and federal units in a way to avoid burden on taxpayers. As corruption will go unchecked with the effort to curb press, the provisions on press freedom should be flexible, the TI noted.