A total of 65 passengers were travelling on the bus.

The H5N1 influenza virus, commonly known as bird flu, has been detected among the chickens reared by a farmer at Madhyabindu Municipality in Nawalparasi (East).

Sugarcane farmers will now receive a subsidy of Rs60 per quintal, according to the provision put forth by the Cabinet which met last Friday. The move is expected to provide some respite to sugarcane producers who are facing late payments from sugar mills yet again.

Most of the fair price shops operated by cooperatives with government grants have shut down, marking a failure of the programme to make essential goods available at low cost to low-income groups. The cooperatives received Rs100,000 each to establish these outlets.

Sugarcane famers of Nawalparasi district have staged a sit-in at the entrance of Indira Sugar Mill demanding payment for their crop. The protest was held after the mill failed to release the payment of around Rs80 million to sugarcane farmers, who had supplied the crop three months ago.

Sugarcane farmers of Nawalparasi district have not been able to sell their produce so far, as the government is yet to fix the price of the crop for this fiscal year. This has raised the spectre of the crop drying in the fields.

The planned upgradation of the Butwal-Narayanghat section of the East-West Highway will be delayed as the Department of Roads (DoR) has scrapped the process to appoint a contractor for the project.

Sugar production in Nawalparasi has gone down significantly because of low sugarcane production.

A team of geologists from the Department of Mines and Geology has arrived at Dhauwadi in Nawalparasi district to conduct a detailed study on extraction of iron from ores found in the village.