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Madhes Province Chief Minister Saroj Kumar Yadav will seek a vote of confidence on Tuesday. Likewise, the election of the Speaker of Madhes Provincial Assembly will take place the same day. Secretary of the Provincial Assembly Secretariat Ranjit Kumar Yadav said that the programmes scheduled for today have been postponed for tomorrow following Sunday's plane crash in Pokhara and subsequent declaring of a national holiday to mourn the incident today. The provincial assembly will meet at 1 pm Tuesday. Chief Minister Yadav took the oath of office and secrecy on Friday. Meanwhile, Ram Chandra Mandal of CPN-UML and Jangi Lal Rai of the Nepali Congress have filed their nominations for the post of the Speaker.

It has been confirmed that Parbat lost 10 of its residents in the Yeti Airlines plane crash that took place in Pokhara on Sunday. All the ten have been identified as Tribhuvan Paudel, central member of Federation of Nepali Journalists, of Kushma Municipality-14, Arun Paudel,46, and his 11-year-old daughter Prashti of Kushma-9, Rachna Kafle and her 10-month-old son Rihan Paudel of Kushma-1. Similarly, Bijay Gurung of Modi Rural Municipality-1, and four members of the Sharma family including mother Jamuna Sharma and her Yubaraj Sharma and grand-children Ayurdi Sharma and Bebi Sharma of Uram in Bihadi-5 Pokhara also have been confirmed dead in the crash. Assistant Chief District Officer of Kaski Gurudatta Dhakal said that the bodies of all those who lost their lives from Parbat have been identified and hence the bodies will be handed over to their relatives today. ALSO READ: 69 dead, 3 missing in plane crash at Seti gorge  

The Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) has resumed its flights to Ilam after a year-long gap. An agreement was inked between the NAC and Ilam Municipality to make a flight to Ilam in a week. Following the agreement, an NAC aircraft made a flight to Phalgunanda Sukilumba Airport from Kathmandu this morning. Tara Air had made some flights to Phalgunanda Sukilumba Airport for three months last year but no flights were made since then. Mayor of Ilam Municipality Kedar Thapa said that the NAC aircraft will return to Kathmandu after its Kathmandu-Ilam flight today. With the resumption of flights, we hope better touristic activities in Ilam, Mayor Thapa said. The NAC will run 19-seater Twin Otter and the one-way plane fare from Ilam to Kathmandu has been fixed at Rs 6,300 while the fare is Rs 6,500 from Kathmandu to Ilam. However, the municipality said that senior citizens, students and children have been provided with special subsidies in the fare. Passengers from Ilam, Panchthar, Taplejung and neighboring Darjeeling of India would also be benefited after the flights.  

The people in the Tharu community, mostly from Dang to Kanchanpur in west Nepal, are observing Maghi, the greatest festival of the community.  The Tharu community observes this festival with much fanfare and gaiety for five consecutive days. Maghi festival is celebrated as the New Year by sharing sweet dishes and performing cultural dance and selecting community leaders known as Bhalmansa. The Sakhiya dance performed with the tune of madal (hand drum) is popular among Tharu community people of all ages for centuries, which demonstrates the costumes, traditions and folk culture of Tharu, Man Bahadur Chaudhary, a leader of Tharu community from Kailari of Kailali district said. Each and every household is preparing for the celebration of Maghi festival here, according to Chaudhary. Chaudhary is also a Bhalmansa, a leader of the Tharu community who decides the key issues at the community. Celebration of the Maghi festival is not likely to be a personal decision by going beyond the decision of Bhalmansa. The people should manage meat, especially pork, a day before Maghi festival while the women remain busy cooking local dishes including Jaad and Dhikri. Dhamar and Dumru dances are also equally popular in the Tharu community in this festival. Married women visit their maternal home to reunite with their parents, brothers and relatives to celebrate the Maghi festival. Furthermore, selection of Bhalmansa is equally crucial in the village during the Maghi festival. The tradition of Bhalmansa carries a great significance since the post has to carry some vital responsibilities in the community. The people here pick Bhalmansa unopposed if an agreement was forged but election and lottery draw are also exercised. Similarly, a community postman known as Chirkiya, and Guruwa to serve as a community health worker are also selected who perform their jobs under the leadership of Bhalmansa. In general, these leaders oversee the overall tasks of the community including protection of the village, development works, irrigation, drinking water supplies, power supplies and other issues that could surface in the community. Defiance of the orders of Bhalmansa is considered as violation of social norms in the Tharu community and every individual should abide by the directive of Bhalmansa since this helps maintain discipline and collectivism in the community.

Province 1 Chief Minister Hikmat Kumar Karki is scheduled to take a vote of confidence from the Province Assembly meeting today. The Province Assembly meeting is summoned for 1:00 pm this afternoon. Province Assembly Secretary Gopal Prasad Parajuli said that the vote of confidence motion will be presented at the meeting and later would be tabled for decision. In the 93-member Province Assembly, UML’s Karki was appointed the Chief Minister with the backing of UML, CPN (Maoist Centre), Rastriya Prajatantra Party and Janata Samajwadi Party. After taking the vote of confidence, the Chief Minister is likely to appoint two ministers from the Maoist Centre. Earlier, ministers without portfolio have been appointed from UML, RPP and JSP in Province 1.

Gandaki Province Chief Minister Khagaraj Adhikari is taking a vote of confidence from the Province Assembly meeting on Friday. UML Gandaki Province Parliamentary Party leader Adhikari was appointed the Chief Minister on January 9. Province Assembly Secretariat said that the Chief Minister is scheduled to take a vote of confidence from the Province Assembly meeting at 1 pm today. With support of 33 Province Assembly members, Province Chief Prithvi Man Gurung had appointed Adhikari as the Chief Minister as per the Article 168 (2) of the Constitution of Nepal. After getting the vote of confidence, the Chief Minister is expected to expand the Cabinet.

Commercial banks are reducing the interest rate for the month of Magh (from January 15- February 12). A meeting of the Nepal Bankers' Association, an umbrella organization of commercial banks, held on Wednesday decided to reduce the interest rate by 1.13 per cent for the month of Magh. Presently the interest rate for personal fixed deposit is 12.13 per cent and 9.13 per cent towards institutional fixed deposit. Similarly, 15.33 percent interest has been fixed towards remittance fixed deposit accounts. However, the commercial banks have determined 11 percent interest towards personal fixed deposit, nine percent interest towards institutional fixed deposit and 12 per cent towards remittance fixed deposit account for the month of Magh. Meanwhile, Sunil KC has been elected President of Bankers' Association. Chief Executive Officer of NMB Bank, KC, was elected to the post unopposed. A special general assembly held on Wednesday elected KC as the new Chairperson.  CEO of Machhapuchchhre Bank, Santosh Koirala, was elected Vice-President of Association unopposed. Likewise, Ajay Bikram Shah of Laxmi Bank, Deepak Kumar De of Nepal SBI Bank, Krishna Bahadur Adhikari of Nepal Bank, Roshan Kumar Neupane of NIC Asia, Sudesh Khaling of Everest Bank and Suman Sharma of Sunrise Bank are executive members of the Association.

A Royal Bengal tiger and a rhino were found dead in the Chitwan National Park. The male tiger aged around 15 years was found dead on Wednesday at the Narayani river bank of Champa Salghari area in Amaltari, and the rhino aged about five years at Sauraha area, said the CNP information officer Ganesh Prasad Tiwari. This is the first death of a tiger so far in the current fiscal year, 2022/23. It died a natural death, he said, adding that the rhino died when a tiger attacked it. With this, eight rhinos have died so far in the current FY.