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Nepali Congress province presidents urged party leaders to set criteria for an alliance in the forthcoming elections.

During the Central Executive Committee meeting that started at the party office in Sanepa from today, they suggested leaders to forge a necessary alliance, giving continuity to the coalition in the elections.

Some were of the opinion that it would be appropriate for the Nepali Congress to contest the elections alone.

The Local Level Election Central Mobilization Committee presented a report of local level elections in the meeting.

During the meeting, leader Shekhar Koirala urged the party president to hold a policy convention at the earliest, saying that the 14th general convention only selected the leadership but could not work on formulating the policies.

Central members Koirala, Pradeep Paudel, Dev Raj Kandel, Dila Sangraula, Krishna Kishor Ghimire, Narayan Bahadur Karki, Taraman Gurung, Dinesh Kumar Yadav, Nain Singh Mahar, Guru Baral and Dinesh Koirala among others floated their opinion in the meeting.

Visiting Chinese Communist Party International Liaison Department head Liu Jianchao held a meeting with CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal at the latter’s residence in Khumaltar on Monday.

He arrived in Kathmandu at a time when Beijing had been expressing concern over the growing anti-China activities in Nepal in recent times.

China sent Liu as an envoy to unite all the Communist parties.

He paid courtesy calls on Prime Minister Sher Bahadur and Foreign Minister Narayan Khadka on Sunday.

Similarly, the Chinese leader also extended an invitation to Prime Minister Deuba to visit China.

Leading an eight-member delegation, Liu arrived in Kathmandu on a four-day visit to Nepal on Sunday.

Sri Lanka’s beleaguered President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has confirmed his resignation, says the prime minister’s office, after protesters stormed both leaders’ official residences, BBC rerported.

Demonstrators are still occupying the presidential palace and prime ministerial residence and have refused to leave until the leaders step down.

The parliament speaker said on Saturday the president would resign on 13 July.

But many protesters were strongly sceptical of the announcement.

On Monday, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s office said in a statement it had been officially informed by Mr Rajapaksa that he would step down on Wednesday. However, there has been no direct word from Mr Rajapaksa.

Under Sri Lanka’s constitution, his resignation can only formally be accepted when he resigns by letter to the parliament speaker – which has yet to happen.

Mr Rajapaksa’s location is currently undisclosed but military sources have told the BBC he is on a navy vessel in Sri Lankan waters.

His brother, former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, is on a naval base in the country, the sources say.

Thousands descended on the capital on Saturday demanding the president’s resignation after months of protests, according to BBC.

Mr Rajapaksa has been blamed for the country’s economic mismanagement, which has caused shortages of food, fuel and medicine for months.

Protesters inside the palaces have refused to budge until both leaders leave office.

“Our struggle is not over,” student protest leader Lahiru Weerasekara said, quoted by AFP. “We won’t give up this struggle until [President Rajapaksa] actually leaves,” he said.

“The next couple of days are going to be extremely uncertain times as to see what transpires politically,” political analyst and human rights lawyer Bhavani Fonseka told Reuters, adding that it would be interesting to see if the two leaders “actually resign”.

Political leaders held further meetings to discuss a smooth transition of power on Sunday.

The speaker of Sri Lanka’s parliament told the BBC World Service Newshour programme that a new cross-party coalition government must be formed within a week of the president officially stepping down.

Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, a member of the president’s governing party, also mostly blamed Covid-19 for the country’s economic woes, BBC reported.

“The Covid pandemic has created havoc in the country economically so we had to spend all our money on vaccinations,” he said.

The House of Representatives (HoR) has passed the ‘Nepal Police and Province Police (Work Operation, Supervision and Coordination) First Amendment Bill, 2022.

The bill has made provisions for the Nepal Police to look after Kathmandu Valley’s security in coordination with the Province Police.

Minister for Home Affairs Bal Krishna Khand had presented a proposal in the House seeking passage of the bill. The House passed the proposal unanimously.

An agreement was reached after clause-wise discussions on the bill in the State Affairs and Good Governance Committee that the Nepal Police shall look after the security in the Kathmandu Valley in coordination with the Province Police.

The HoR had held discussions on a report including this agreement.

Taking part in the discussions on the bill, Khagaraj Adhikari said the report has been prepared on agreement after extensive deliberations on the bill in the Committee and it has been presented in the HoR accordingly.

Mana Kumari GC stressed on the need of strengthening collaboration and co-existence for the implementation of federalism. She drew the Home Minister’s attention towards the demand from the police to incorporate the provision of giving pension in 16 years.

Prem Suwal called attention, saying the amendment bill has been brought without the implementation of the related Act.

Bharat Kumar Shah and Yashoda Gurung Subedi were among the lawmakers participating in the debate over the bill.
Responding to lawmakers’ questions before the passage of the bill in the HoR, Home Minister Khand said that Nepal Police and the Province Police were the security agencies formed for maintaining peace, security and good governance.

He expressed the belief that the Police force would be able to face up challenges in regards to dealing with new types of crimes, searching for the accused and taking action against them.

He made it clear on the occasion that the bill has in no way made the Province Police weaker and the government was conscious towards the possibility of security challenges coming due to the internal and external causes.

Stating that although the concept of Metropolitan Police has been brought in Nepal, he said so far quasi-judicial authority has not been given to it. The Home Minister informed the House of the practice of giving the quasi-judicial powers to the Metropolitan Police in various countries and this could be followed in Nepal as well.

Informing the parliament that the State Affairs and Good Governance Committee has also passed the provision that the Nepal Police shall look after the security of the Kathmandu Valley in coordination with the Province Police, he opined that the Nepal Police going on pension after completing 16 and 18 years of service is positive. He added that necessary study is on in this connection.