A constitutional amendment that will allow the president and vice president to take their oaths of office in any Nepali mother tongue is set to pass after the Maoists and Tarai-based parties agreed to support it. As part of the deal, ex-vice president Paramanda Jha, who lost his post after he controversially delivered his oath in Hindi, will become vice president again. The Himalayan Times reports:
“The Unifed CPN-Maoist, the Nepali Congress (NC) and the CPN-UML have agreed to settle the vice president issue immediately after the Bill is passed,” Hridayesh Tripathi, leader of the Terai Madhesh Democratic Party (TMPD), said today.The Bill, which seeks to amend Article 36 of the interim constitution, states that the president and vice president, before taking charge of their respective offices, will be able to take the oath of office and secrecy in any mother tongue spoken in Nepal.
The Supreme Court continued the stay order on the promotion of Major General Toran Jung Bahadur Singh until 17 January because of a delay in proceedings. Kathmandu Post reports:
This came after advocated pleading on behalf of the government could not complete their pleading on Sunday, according to SC assistant spokesman Hemanta Rawal.
It has also ordered the CA not to fill two seats left vacant after the memberships of Matrika Yadav and Jagat Yadav of CPN(Maoist) were scrapped.
The short-term central bank lending rate is down to 7.41 per cent from about 12 per cent last week after the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) pumped Rs 10 billion into the market in order to ease the three-month long liquidity crunch. Republica reports:
“It seems that the latest issuance will be enough to put positive impact on increasing interbank lending rate --- a barometer to gauge the gravity of liquidity crunch,” said Sitaula and added that the central bank will closely watch the market situation on Mondy and take decisions on whether or not to release more repo.
Here’s some good news for bird enthusiasts: Hundreds of people began gathering in wetlands around the country yesterday to kick off the 24th Mid-winter Bird Count, which ends on 25 January.
So, if you’re fan of birds, what are you waiting for?