These are some of the best stories from The Kathmandu Post (February 11, 2020).

With just over half their terms remaining, constitutional commissions remain vacant

The Constitutional Council, which recommends members to the various constitutional bodies, has not met for nearly a year. The last time the council met was on March 25 last year, when Dinesh Thapaliya was recommended as chief commissioner of the Election Commission and Bishnu Maya Ojha as a member of the Inclusion Commission.

The council, which convenes under Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, had been called to meet on October 22 and again on November 13, but they were deferred each time as Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba, a council member, failed to show up.

Read the full story here.

Government to send a plane on Saturday to evacuate Nepalis stranded in Wuhan

The government is preparing to send a Nepal Airlines plane on Saturday to evacuate Nepalis stranded in Wuhan, the Chinese city at the epicentre of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

The plan comes as Nepalis stuck in Hubei, most of them students, sought international support, alleging that Kathmandu failed to heed their repeated requests.

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Despite Oli’s assurances, two dozen died of cold in Humla this winter

"People in Humla die of seasonal flu,” said Dr Bibek Shah, a doctor at the Karnali Provincial Hospital, Surkhet. "Due to heavy snowfall and the chill, the entire district has been affected this year."

The Provincial Health Directorate organised several health camps in the disease-hit villages, but it hasn’t helped prevent deaths. According to data from the provincial government, two dozen people have died of cold-related ailments in Humla this winter, despite assurances from Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli that no Nepali would die of cold.

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Daraz slapped with Rs300,000 fine for wrong item delivery

The Forum for Protection of Consumer Rights has said it will move the court if the Department of Commerce fails to take appropriate action against online seller Daraz for wrong item delivery, forum president Prem Lal Maharjan said on Monday.

On February 3, the department had decided to penalise the online seller under the Consumer Protection Act 2018 after a shopper registered a complaint that they had sent a Force watch instead of a Mini Focus watch which he had ordered.

Read the full story here.

A decision that benefits a few individuals cannot be a policy decision, judges and lawyers say

The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority’s decision to exempt two former prime ministers from corruption charges in relation to Lalita Niwas land grab has given rise to a question: what constitutes a policy decision?

The anti-graft agency has said that investigations into the Cabinet’s policy decisions are beyond its jurisdiction, citing law. The commission has presented two grounds—a verdict of the Special Bench of the Supreme Court on September 24, 1996 regarding what constitutes policy decisions, and Section 4 (B) of the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority Act.

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