These are some of the best stories from The Kathmandu Post (February 16, 2020).

Oli presents a rosy picture of his two years in office, but not all agree

Unless there is an emergency, Parliament meetings are rarely held in Nepal on Saturdays. But Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, who completed his two years in office on Saturday, wanted to address the House. Since Friday’s House meeting ended after passing a condolence message on the death of Durga Prasad Upadhyay, a National Assembly member from Nepali Congress, Oli rescheduled his address for Saturday.

Oli was keen on listing his administration’s “achievements” this time as he was unable to address Parliament last year, when he had completed his first year in office, as the Nepali Congress obstructed the House proceedings.

Read the full story here.

Lumbini Provincial Hospital’s One-stop Crisis Management Centre is crippled by lack of infrastructure and staff

The One-stop Crisis Management Centre has been in operation at the Lumbini Provincial Hospital since 2011-12. The centre’s objective is to facilitate rehabilitation of victims of gender-based and domestic violence by providing them with medical treatment, legal services, security—and even temporary shelter.

But the centre is currently languishing, with the hospital management neither giving the facility the required attention nor the publicity.

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Poor handling of infections at health facilities concerns experts

In September 2012, a 24-year-old woman, who visited the government-run Paropakar Maternity and Women's Hospital in Thapathali for delivering her child, died of an infection she acquired at the hospital's operation theatre. Two newborns also succumbed to a similar infection.

After several other mothers and their babies admitted at the hospital were diagnosed with bacterial infections, the entire hospital had to be shut for several days, and patients transferred to a private hospital.

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Highlighting the climate crisis with Nepali stories

Apprehensive about the ever-increasing climate crisis, journalist and storyteller Neelima Vallangi is roving across the Himalayan foothills, to tell climate change stories from the front lines. From Upper Dolpo to the plains of Gaur, the Indian journalist is capturing people’s curiosity through the stories she is telling.

“I feel the public is not sufficiently informed or worried about this pertinent issue today because of a huge gap in climate change communication. That is why I decided to start my own outreach campaign,” says Vallangi, who decided to tackle the issue head-on, after being overwhelmed by the disastrous consequences of climate change in India and across the world.

Read the full story here.

Two years after merger, differences remain in Nepal Communist Party over ‘people’s war’

When Pushpa Kamal Dahal was delivering a speech at the party headquarters in Dhumbarahi on Thursday on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the “people’s war”, party Chair and Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli was conspicuous by his absence. Nor did former CPN-UML senior leaders Madhav Kumar Nepal and Jhala Nath Khanal attend the function.

Dahal on Thursday shed light on the significance of the “people’s war” that his Maoist party launched 25 years ago. He merged his party in May 2018 with Oli’s UML to form the Nepal Communist Party (NCP).

While former Maoists continue to extol the war as a historic event, former UML leaders are yet to endorse it wholeheartedly.

Read the full story here.