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A complaint has been filed at the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority against five CPN-UML leaders including Chairman KP Sharma Oli on Thursday.

Bagmati Province Committee of the CPN (Unified Socialist) led by Madhav Nepal filed the complaint against Oli, senior Vice-Chairman Ishwor Pokharel, Secretary duo Yogesh Bhattarai and Padma Aryal and leader Bhanu Bhakta Dhakal.

The committee said that the then Prime Minister Oli and then Minister for Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation Aryal committed corruption by amending the law to exchange the land worth billions of the rupees of Giribandu Tea State of Jhapa and demanded investigation into the case.

Similarly, the committee has demanded action against Pokharel and then Health Minister Dhakal for embezzling millions of rupees while procuring health materials.

Likewise, the committee has also demanded action against then Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Yogesh Bhattarai for misappropriating millions of rupees from the state coffers in the name of Visit Nepal 2020.

Bagmati Province Committee Coordinator Deepak Budhathoki and leader Sudesh Parajuli among others filed the complaint this afternoon.

A meeting of the ruling coalition is taking place this evening to hold discussions on the issues including the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).

The meeting has been scheduled for 5 pm today with the coordination of Prime Minister and Nepali Congress President, Sher Bahadur Deuba, said PM Deuba’s Press Chief, Govinda Pariyar.

Top leaders of the Nepali Congress, CPN (Maoist Centre), CPN (Unified Socialist), Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal and Rastriya Janamorcha would participate in the meeting scheduled at the official residence of the Prime Minister.

It is said that the meeting would hold a discussion on the issue of making a common view to table the proposal related to MCC in the meeting of the House of Representatives scheduled for February 18.

Although the government was ready to table the MCC proposal in the HoR meeting on Wednesday, it was not tabled after the ruling coalition failed to forge consensus in this regard. RSS

CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal (Prachanda) has once again urged Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba not to table the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) compact in the Parliament.

He said so during a meeting with Prime Minister Deuba in Baluwatar on Thursday morning.

Saying that the local level elections are just round the corner, he urged the Prime Minister not to table the MCC for now.

“Prachanda Ji had come to Baluwatar to meet the Prime Minister. He urged him not to table the MCC for now. But, in response, Prime Minister Deuba said that he cannot backtrack as the Nepali Congress has already made a decision on the MCC,” a Nepali Congress leader said.

A meeting of the ruling coalition scheduled for today will hold a decisive discussion.

Though preparations were being made to table the MCC in the Parliament on Wednesday, the government did not table the compact at the request of Dahal and CPN (Unified Socialist) Chairman Madhav Nepal at the eleventh hour.

The government did not table the MCC after Dahal and Nepal sought more time to hold discussions on the issue.

A diplomat who vanished while working for the government's Covid taskforce took his own life, an inquest has found, BBC reported.

The body of Richard Morris was discovered in a forest near to his home in Bentley, Hampshire, in August 2020.

The 52-year-old former ambassador to Nepal was last seen running in the area on 6 May 2020.

The inquest in Winchester heard he was under "severe stress" prior to his death.

Mr Morris had worked long hours under high-pressure, helping co-ordinate briefings to ministers at a time when the UK was battling the fierce first wave of coronavirus, the inquest heard.

On Tuesday, a coroner concluded that Mr Morris had taken his own life after suffering stress working for the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) and amid worries about his future.

Senior coroner Christopher Wilkinson said: "Richard Morris took his own life while suffering severe and acute stress.

"I recognise the very difficult circumstances in which Richard, the wider taskforce and the FCDO were working in at the time against the backdrop of a very fast-moving pandemic."

He described the taskforce in the early days of the coronavirus crisis as "much like a plane being flown at the same time as building it".

Mr Wilkinson mentioned Mr Morris' history of stress and worries about performing to the best of his ability.

Previously at the inquest, his widow Alison Morris said her husband feared there was not enough time to process information in the fast-moving period and if any information error got past him the government "would be torn apart in the press".

As a result he was "desperate" to keep on top of what was going on, working every day with "no real time off", she said.

She said her husband was a "quiet extrovert" who "thrived on interactions with others".

"He was genuinely interested in people.

"His kindness and compassion shone through even when there was a language barrier."