THE CABINET MEETING, on Thursday (August 23), nationalized seven royal palaces including the Narayanity Royal Palace. Likewise palaces of Hanumandhoka, Patan, Bhaktapur, Nuwakot, Gorkha and Lamjung have also been nationalized. "In total, these palaces occupy 1533 ropanis. Narayanhity palace now belongs to the government," said Minister for Information and Communication Krishna Bahadur Mahara. However, the King will be allowed to stay in the Narayanhity palace till the fate of monarchy is decided by the first meeting of Constituent Assembly (CA). Apart from the Narayanhity palace, which will be in the name of the government, other six palaces will be handed over to the Department of Archaeology for their historic significance. The cabinet has also frozen these assets and has directed land revenue offices to stop transactions of these properties. Earlier, the cabinet had formed a committee led by Home Minister Krishna Sitaula to nationalize the palaces.
THE CHIEF OF THE NEPALI ARMY (NA) has said that as a professional national army, the NA will never challenge the political and state authority. Addressing the two-day seminar titled "Democratic Transition and Nepalese Army Reforms," on Thursday (August 23), General Rookmangud Katawal said, "The National Professional Army can debate or discuss or express its opinions to the political masters on national security issues. But the national professional army cannot challenge the political and state authorities." General Katawal also said that NA as a professional army is not interested in politics. "Politics is not the job of a professional national army," he said. He said the NA will abide by the directives of the legitimate state authorities in every manner. At the program, which was organized by the NA, Minister for Peace and Reconstruction Ram Chandra Poudel said such debates during the transitional period would help in the democratization of the army.
BIRENDRA DAHAL ENDED HIS FAST-UNTO-DEATH, on Sunday (August 26), following commitments to respect press freedom by the Speaker, Home Minister and Information and Communication Minister. On the fifteenth day of his strike, Dahal ended the fast issuing a statement that Speaker of the parliament Subas Nemwang, Home Minister Krishna Sitaula and Information and Communication Minister Krishna Mahara expressed commitment to respect press freedom. Speaker Nemwang, Sitaula and Mahara had reached the site of agitation in Sanchargram on Sunday to break Dahal's fast. Dahal had launched the agitation demanding that all parties represented in the parliament express their commitment towards press freedom. He sat in the agitation within the premises of Nepal Press Council after pro-Maoist Republican Radio Workers shut down the Radio HBC FM, where Dahal is a manager.
THE COUNTRY'S SOLE SECONDARY SHARE MARKET, Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse), has adopted automated system by replacing the outdated Open Cry system. The automation of the stock exchange was inaugurated on Friday (August 24) by Finance Minister Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat. "Now we can avoid human error that was associated with the Open Cry system," said Pramod Bhattarai, a manager at Nepse. Besides, the automated system will also help control price-rigging in share transactions," Bhattarai added. The automation of Nepse was carried out by Comdaq Limited under a project financed by the Asian Development Bank. The Aries Group from USA was primary consultant to this project and Mercantile Office System (MOS) partnered with Comdaq Limited in supplying the advanced hardware needed to run the platform.
A SENIOR OFFICIAL OF THE Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has said that there will be up to eleven hours of load shedding in winter days. Sher Singh Bhat, chief of the Load Dispatch Center of NEA, said that as total generation will not be able to cater to the demands, the load shedding is unavoidable. He said that during winter months, NEA will incur 354 MW shortfall between demand and supply. At an interaction with business community, he advised industries to close down for three days a week. He said there are plans to import 50 MW of power from India. But the import as well as generation in full capacity will only reduce the load shedding hours by two hours, he said.
THE NEPALI ARMY (NA) has started withdrawing the portraits of the King and the Queen from its office premises as per the directive of the Office of the Prime Minister. The royal portraits, slogans and quotes will be removed as per the instruction by the Office of the Prime Minister, the NA has said. The NA has also covered the big slogans eulogizing the monarchy outside the NA headquarters and Army Officers' Club with red clothe. The NA has said that since it would take time to erase the slogans, they had covered it up for the time being. "We are removing the portraits as per the order we received. We have instructed to remove the portraits from offices all over the country but in faraway places, it might take time (to carry out the instruction)," Brigadier General Ramindra Chhetri, spokesperson of the NA, told Kantipur daily.
