National
ICYMI: Here are our top stories from Wednesday, August 21
Here are some of the top stories from The Kathmandu Post (August 21, 2019).Here are some of the top stories from The Kathmandu Post (August 21, 2019).
Nepal’s prime minister has had it with the world using the word rhino
Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has once again professed his aversion to the rhino—no, not the animal, but the word ‘rhino’.
On Monday, addressing 400 delegates from over 43 countries at the 56th Director Generals of Civil Aviation conference in the Capital, Oli went off script, imploring the audience to use the Nepali word for the armour-plated one-horned beast found in the jungles of the plains, instead of its English name.
Nepal Airlines resumes its Osaka flights after a decade but it may fly almost empty
In a desperate bid to salvage its image, Nepal Airlines Corporation had attempted to resume flights to Osaka, Japan after more than a decade, but those plans seem to have gone awry. Flights are resuming next week, but only 15 tickets for Kathmandu-Osaka and 18 tickets for Osaka-Kathmandu have been sold so far. At least 30 officials, including Tourism Minister Yogesh Bhattarai, are also flying.
The national flag carrier, which will make its first flight on August 29 to Osaka after 12 years, said that the bookings are “much worse than expected”. After the inaugural flight, not more than eight tickets per flight have been sold for September, according to a top official at the airline told the Post on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.
Retired government employees see a rise in pensions thanks to salary hike of incumbent staff
Retired government employees have witnessed a rise in their pensions after the government hiked the salary of civil servants from this fiscal year.
According to the Pension Management Fund, the pension of retired non-gazetted fourth-ranked officers (Bahidars) has increased by Rs 2,300 and that of retired chief secretaries by Rs 6,627.
Nepal’s note of dissent is likely to reignite conflict within ruling party
Infighting in the ruling Nepal Communist Party is likely to snowball in the coming days, as senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal has launched an attack on the party leadership, especially Co-chair KP Sharma Oli. Nepal’s dissatisfaction emanates from Oli’s decision, backed by Co-chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal, to elevate Jhala Nath Khanal to the third position, relegating Nepal to the fourth.
Nepal on Tuesday registered a note of dissent at the party secretariat and demanded strict implementation of the ‘one person, one responsibility’ principle in the party, bringing the once widely debated issue back to life.