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The Election Commission (EC) has warned of taking stern action against those involved in spreading misinformation and hate speech targeting political parties and candidates on social networking sites in the wake of local level elections.

In view of the rising spread of such content in digital spaces, the EC urged everyone not to misuse social networking sites to assassinate characters and spread rumours as it would impact elections.

In order to monitor the use of social networking sites in terms of the election, the EC has formed a task force, comprising cyber experts of security agencies.

The EC has however expected that misuse of social media would be reduced with its stern warning that no activities would be allowed against the free and fair elections. The Election Code of Conduct, 2078 has mentioned that if the social networking sites were used by ignoring the election code of conduct, EC would take action as per Section 23 of the Election Commission Act, 2073, and Election (Crime and Punishment) Act, 2073, according to EC Spokesperson and Joint Secretary Shaligram Sharma Poudel.

Moreover, the EC has initiated to contact the offices of Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Viber and Google in a bid to regulate social networking sites as per the Election Code of Conduct, 2078. Even the Nepali Embassies in India, China, and the US have been directed via the Foreign Ministry to establish contact with such social media and cooperate in curbing the spread of misinformation.

A long-awaited evacuation of civilians from a besieged steel plant in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol was under way Sunday, as US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi revealed that she visited Ukraine’s president to show unflinching American support for the country’s defense against Russia’s invasion, Associated Press reported.

Video posted online by Ukrainian forces showed elderly women and mothers with small children bundled in winter clothing being helped as they climbed a steep pile of debris from the sprawling Azovstal steel plant’s rubble, and then eventually boarded a bus. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said more than 100 civilians, primarily women and children, were expected to arrive in the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia on Monday.

“Today, for the first time in all the days of the war, this vitally needed (humanitarian) corridor has started working,” he said in a pre-recorded address published on his Telegram messaging app channel.

The Mariupol City Council said on Telegram that the evacuation of civilians from other parts of the city would begin Monday morning. People fleeing Russian-occupied areas in the past have described their vehicles being fired on, and Ukrainian officials have repeatedly accused Russian forces of shelling evacuation routes on which the two sides had agreed.

Later Sunday, one of the plant’s defenders said Russian forces resumed shelling the plant as soon as the evacuation of a group of civilians was completed, according to the Associated Press.

Denys Shlega, the commander of the 12th Operational Brigade of Ukraine’s National Guard, said in a televised interview Sunday night that several hundred civilians remain trapped alongside nearly 500 wounded soldiers and “numerous” dead bodies.

“Several dozen small children are still in the bunkers underneath the plant,” Shlega said. “We need one or two more rounds of evacuation.”

Sviastoslav Palamar, deputy commander of the Azov Regiment, which is helping defend the steel plant, told The Associated Press in an interview from Mariupol on Sunday that it has been difficult even to reach some of the wounded inside the plant.

“There’s rubble. We have no special equipment. It`s hard for soldiers to pick up slabs weighing tons only with their arms,” he said. “We hear voices of people who are still alive” inside shattered buildings.

As many as 100,000 people may still be in blockaded Mariupol, including up to 1,000 civilians hunkered down with an estimated 2,000 Ukrainian fighters beneath the Soviet-era steel plant — the only part of the city not occupied by the Russians. 

Mariupol, a port city on the Sea of Azov, is a key target because of its strategic location near the Crimea Peninsula, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014, Associated Press reported.

UN humanitarian spokesman Saviano Abreu said civilians who have been stranded for nearly two months at the plant would receive immediate humanitarian support, including psychological services, once they arrive in Zaporizhzhia, about 140 miles (230 kilometers) northwest of Mariupol.

Mariupol has seen some of the worst suffering. A maternity hospital was hit with a lethal Russian airstrike in the opening weeks of the war, and about 300 people were reported killed in the bombing of a theater where civilians were taking shelter.

A Doctors Without Borders team was at a reception center for displaced people in Zaporizhzhia, in preparation for the U.N. convoy’s arrival. Stress, exhaustion and low food supplies have likely weakened civilians trapped underground at the plant. 

Ukrainian regiment Deputy Commander Sviatoslav Palamar, meanwhile, called for the evacuation of wounded Ukrainian fighters as well as civilians. “We don’t know why they are not taken away, and their evacuation to the territory controlled by Ukraine is not being discussed,” he said in a video posted Saturday on the regiment’s Telegram channel, according to the Associated Press.

The ruling five-party alliance has decided to focus on ensuring people’s partnership for socioeconomic development of the country.

The five parties in their election manifesto stressed on practically reaching ‘Singha Durbar’, the centre of authority and power, to each village along with maximum mobilization of local levels.

As the government closed to the people, the local level’s empowerment is in the alliance’s priority.

The election manifestos made public by the parties have kept in centre the empowered and pro-people local level in a bid to ensure effective implementation of federalism.

Implementation of fundamental rights as citizen’s access to basic health service, free school education, food security, housing, employment, clean environment, regional and gender equality are reiterated as common issues by their manifestos.

In addition to the manifestos, the alliance has mobilized leaders and cadres of their parties for smooth coordination and collaboration in the elections.

The selection of election candidates in consensus is one of the significant features of the electoral alliance.

The leaders have informed that they were going to prepare common election manifestos in Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Bharatpur, Biratnagar and Biratnagar Metropolises.

Pokhara Metropolis and Ghorahi Sub Metropolis have prepared common manifestos of the alliance.

In this regard, Nepali Congress central member Krishna Kishor Ghimire said for the candidates fielded on behalf of alliance, there is joint mobilization of alliance parties.

Another NC leader and lawmaker Anita Devkota also informed that up to the ward level, NC, Maoist Centre and Janamorcha have forged electoral alliance, so there was no point in worrying about electoral performance.

Spokesperson of the CPN Maoist Centre, Krishna Bahadur Mahara said his party had given priority to socialism oriented prosperity via socio-economic transformation.

“It is local level government, so making manifesto based on the need of respective local levels is imperative. It will be focused,” he added.

Deputy mayoral candidate in Lalitpur Metropolis Baburaja Bajracharya also has the belief that the social justice-focused development model would be viable to pay heed to people’s need at present and ensure socialism in the country.

Vinay Mohan Kwatra has taken charge as the new foreign secretary of India on Sunday.

The Ministry of External Affairs of India appointed Kwatra as the foreign secretary when he was the Indian Ambassador to Nepal.

He succeeded Harish Vardhan Shringla who retired from the service on Saturday.

"Shri Vinay Kwatra assumed charge as Foreign Secretary today morning. #TeamMEA wishes Foreign Secretary Kwatra a productive and successful tenure ahead," MEA Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi tweeted on Sunday.

Before his diplomatic posting to Nepal in 2020, he served as the Ambassador of India to France from August 2017 to February 2020.