My Republica

Ashok Dahal

Ashok Dahal has been covering political and parliamentary affairs for Republica since 2013. He has worked for different media houses—print, television and radio.
asokdahal@gmail.com

Govt does U-turn to let INGOs hand out medical supplies, food, cash directly

Published On: April 4, 2020 08:00 AM NPT By: Ashok Dahal

KATHMANDU, April 4: After International Non-Government Organizations (INGOs) working in Nepal snubbed a call for financial contributions to its COVID-19 pandemic response fund, the government has decided to allow them to distribute relief materials or medical equipment directly-- a move that goes against its own earlier decision.

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8,500 lockdown flouters faced action in a week

Published On: March 31, 2020 04:05 AM NPT By: Ashok Dahal

KATHMANDU, March 31: Police briefly detained as many as 8,500 individuals for wandering outside their homes against the government order during the first week of nationwide lockdown.

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Govt extends lockdown by a week, borders to remain sealed

Published On: March 30, 2020 05:25 AM NPT By: Ashok Dahal

KATHMANDU, March 30: The government has decided to extend the nationwide lockdown for the second week until next Tuesday as the country continues to record new cases of coronavirus.

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Lockdown alone not enough to contain virus spread

Published On: March 27, 2020 07:16 AM NPT By: Ashok Dahal

Kathmandu, March 27:A massive swab testing campaign including the establishment of drive-thru test centers and mobile booths across the the country is hailed as one of the major successes of South Korea to limit the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. The second country to cope up with the virus outbreak after China developed a testing capacity of 20,000 per day from 633 sites across the nation

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Weeklong nationwide lockdown from today

Published On: March 24, 2020 10:30 AM NPT By: Ashok Dahal

KATHMANDU, March 24: Hours after the government confirmed second case of coronavirus in the country on Monday, it took an extraordinary measure to enforce a complete 'lockdown' across the country for a week starting from Tuesday morning.

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Borders with India, China closed for a week from today

Published On: March 23, 2020 07:59 AM NPT By: Ashok Dahal

KATHMANDU, March 23: To prevent a possible spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus from the neighboring countries into Nepal, the government has decided to close all the entry points with India and China for a week starting 10 am Monday.

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Bills session passes just two bills in three months

Published On: March 16, 2020 07:41 AM NPT By: Ashok Dahal

KATHMANDU, March 16: The winter session of the federal parliament is also known as the bills session because it focuses solely on lawmaking unlike the budget session, which is just round the corner.

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Parliament put off for eight days over coronavirus fears

Published On: March 13, 2020 08:32 AM NPT By: Ashok Dahal

KATHMANDU, March 13: A day after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic, a meeting of the lower house on Thursday decided to suspend parliament for eight days.

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‘Presidential quota in upper house meant for experts, not politicians’

Published On: March 11, 2020 07:36 AM NPT By: Ashok Dahal

KATHMANDU, March 11: With the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) exerting pressure on Prime Minister KP Oli to nominate party Vice-chairman Bamdev Gautam as an upper house member under the presidential appointments quota, constitutional experts are saying that these quota seats should not be given to politicians.

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Nepal on the verge of losing $500m MCC grant

Published On: March 9, 2020 01:10 PM NPT By: Ashok Dahal

KATHMANDU, March 9: With the deadline to implement the $500 million US grant under the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) getting closer and the parliament yet to start deliberations on the grant, a debate on the grant has intensified outside parliament.

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Lawmakers complain of lack of water for sanitation at parliament building

Published On: March 7, 2020 09:12 AM NPT By: Ashok Dahal

KATHMANDU, March 7: The House of Representatives on Friday held nearly four hours long deliberations on precautionary measures against coronavirus, which has spread to over 90 countries by the end of Friday. Ironically, lawmakers complained of not having water to wash their hands in the parliament building itself.

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Govt plans more surveillance over foreign nationals

Published On: February 22, 2020 08:26 AM NPT By: Ashok Dahal

KATHMANDU, Feb 22: The government has proposed revisions to the existing immigration law to increase supervision and monitoring over the activities of foreign nationals.

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127 civil servants recruited by PSC given no place by local units

Published On: February 19, 2020 08:15 AM NPT By: Ashok Dahal

KATHMANDU, Feb 19: As many as 127 newly recruited government staffers have remained jobless for months because of lack of coordination between the federal and local governments in the adjustment of civil servants to the local level.

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PM’s website taken over for porn upload on failure to renew domain

Published On: February 15, 2020 08:20 AM NPT By: Ashok Dahal

KATHMANDU, Feb 15: Concerned over the growing incidence of rape in the country, the KP Sharma Oli government banned digital pornography some two years ago. But Oli himself has now become an unwitting victim of that decision.

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SAC taskforce wants army ex-chief Chhetri’s property probed

Published On: February 14, 2020 07:35 AM NPT By: Ashok Dahal

KATHMANDU, Feb 14: A taskforce formed by the State Affairs Committee (SAC) of the House of Representatives has sought investigation into the property of former chief of Nepal Army Rajendra Chhetri. The move of the taskforce comes in response to ‘several complaints’ that allege Chhetri’s involvement in ‘massive financial irregularities’ during his term in office. Chhetri served as army chief from September 2015 to September 2018.

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Parties sharply divided along ideological lines over MCC

Published On: February 12, 2020 08:12 AM NPT By: Ashok Dahal

KATHMANDU, Feb 12: As the debate over the $500 million US grant under its  Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) rolls on, major political actors in the country appear sharply divided along the ideological lines of their respective parties rather than over the substance of the compact.

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Upper house drops mandatory licensing for journalists

Published On: February 7, 2020 07:53 AM NPT By: Ashok Dahal

KATHMANDU, Feb 7: The upper house of parliament removed controversial provisions on mandatory licensing for all working journalists and licensing examinations for aspiring new journalists from the much-talked-about Media Council Bill on Thursday.

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Citizens still deprived of fundamental rights in lack of regulations

Published On: February 3, 2020 07:29 AM NPT By: Ashok Dahal

KATHMANDU, Feb 3: Nepali citizens are still deprived of the opportunity to exercise their fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution even a year after the promulgation of all necessary laws for the implementation of those rights.

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House panel removes Rs 1m fine for journalists

Published On: January 28, 2020 08:03 AM NPT By: Ashok Dahal

KATHMANDU, Jan 28: The Legislative Committee of the National Assembly has endorsed the much-talked about Nepal Media Council Bill, removing the provision of fining journalists up to Rs 1 million for violating media code of ethics. But the committee has added a new provision to the bill, making it mandatory for journalists to obtain a license for the job.

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House meeting postponed as ruling NCP fails to pick its candidate for speaker

Published On: December 27, 2019 01:28 PM NPT By: Ashok Dahal

KATHMANDU, Dec 27: A meeting of the House of Representatives called for 1 pm today has been postponed to January 1.

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