Here are some of the stories from The Kathmandu Post (January 17, 2020)

Oli insistent on passing MCC pact via House’s winter session

After failing to quell the ongoing dispute within the Nepal Communist Party regarding the Millenium Challenge Corporation’s Nepal compact, party Co-chair Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has issued a strongly worded directive to his Cabinet members to refrain from making any negative comments regarding the US-led project.

“I have heard that some senior party leaders and even ministers are speaking out against the MCC,” Oli said, according to a minister who was present at the Monday meeting. “If someone needs to speak, try to read the Nepal compact carefully before making any statements.”

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Police’s intelligence continues to fail them as Chand party claims explosion

On Wednesday evening, an improvised explosive device went off at Sano Bharyang in Kathmandu. The explosion, which was targeted at the house of Shova Kanta Dhakal, allegedly a key person in the Lalita Niwas land scam, was quickly claimed by the Netra Bikram Chand-led Communist Party of Nepal.

More IEDs were discovered in the Baluwatar area, where the prime minister and the chief justice's residences, and Nepal Rastra Bank are located. The Nepal Army managed to defuse the explosives and there were no casualties.

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Speaker post has become a matter of prestige for co-chairs, say party insiders

As indecision in the ruling Nepal Communist Party over the candidate for the House Speaker continues, insiders say party leaders have now come to terms with the fact that the issue has become a matter of prestige for the two co-chairs.

The past week saw an uncanny silence between KP Sharma Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal—there was no dialogue at all, even though it had become a norm for Dahal to consult Oli on almost every issue. Oli and Dahal only met on Thursday.

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Private hospitals still burning, burying and disposing of hazardous waste together with municipal waste, a new study shows

The practice of burning, burying and disposing of hazardous immunisation waste mixing up it with the municipal waste by private hospitals has continued unabated, a report published by the Ministry of Health and Population shows.

The study, “Assessment of Immunisation Services in the Private Sector in Kathmandu Valley”, carried out by a consortium of Atlanta’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Johns Hopkins University, John Snow Institute and the Health Ministry, shows that health facilities in Kathmandu Valley have been jeopardising environment as well as public health by defying the rules that prohibit burning, burying and disposing of hazardous immunisation waste with the municipal waste.

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Janakpur-Jayanagar rail service to resume operations by March

Nepal's only surviving train service will resume operations by March after a five-year break, the Railways Department said.

The rail line links the holy town of Janakpur in the southeastern plains with Jayanagar across the border in the Indian state of Bihar. The track is being extended from Janakpur and will eventually link Bardibas.

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