A joint bench of Justice Deepak Raj Joshi and Justice Purushottam Bhandari upheld the verdict handed down by the Patan Appellate Court in 2013, overturning the ruling of the Kathmandu District Court in the case.
The Kathmandu District Court had ruled out the attempted murder charge and ordered a two-year jail sentence to Manange in aggravated assault conviction. The court had also acquitted four of Manange’s accomplices, including gangster turned politician Ganesh Lama.
Dissatisfied by the court’s ruling, the government lawyers had knocked the door of the Patan Appellate Court, seeking punishment against the defendants.
The Patan Appellate Court in 2012 ruled the incident as an attempted murder case and ordered five years jail sentence to Manange, but upheld the Kathmandu District Court’s decision to acquit Manange’s four accomplices.
The Attorney General’s Office in May 2013 had moved the SC, seeking punishment to four of Manange’s accomplices as well.
Nearly five years after the case was registered for a reveiw of judgment, the SC on Tuesday decided to uphold the ruling of the Patan Appellate Court.
With the SC ruling, Manange will have to go back to prison. He also have to give up his provincial assembly seat since a convicted criminal cannot become a praliamentarian, according to the apex court.
Earlier, the CPN-UML’s Manang District Committee had unanimously recommended Manange’s name for the polls. The party’s Standing Committee, however, rejected his name, mainly owing to public criticism, according to a party source.
Just few weeks back, Manage defected the Rastriya Prajatantra Party and joined the UML with a hope to contest the polls. He was the elected chairman of the RPP Manang District Committee and all members of the committee had joined the UML along with him.
The UML has decided to field Khanda Lama Gurung in the constituency. Gurung had also joined the UML by defecting the RPP along with Manange.
Manange escaped from police custody
Independent candidate, former Notorious gangster Rajiv Gurung alias Deepak Manange, who have elected as the province assembly member from Manang Province ‘Kha’ constituency is able to abscond from police custody. Police has formed a team to search him and get back to prison.
Manange, who was recently elected as an independent candidate to a provincial assembly seat from Manang district, has had several run-ins with the law on numerous criminal charges in the past.
Manange, who won the election as a candidate for the CPI (Maoist) election, has been convicted of criminal offenses as per Article 178. Now as the post of the Rajya Sabha member will also be dismissed.
The Tuesday’s SC ruling is related to a gang war that took place 13 years ago in the Capital, in which Manange and his men had attacked the rival gang leader Milan Gurung aka Chakre and his lackeys.
A joint bench of Justice Deepak Raj Joshi and Justice Purushottam Bhandari upheld the verdict handed down by the Patan Appellate Court in 2013, overturning the ruling of the Kathmandu District Court in the case.
The Kathmandu District Court had ruled out the attempted murder charge and ordered a two-year jail sentence to Manange in aggravated assault conviction. The court had also acquitted four of Manange’s accomplices, including gangster turned politician Ganesh Lama.
Dissatisfied by the court’s ruling, the government lawyers had knocked the door of the Patan Appellate Court, seeking punishment against the defendants.
The Patan Appellate Court in 2012 ruled the incident as an attempted murder case and ordered five years jail sentence to Manange, but upheld the Kathmandu District Court’s decision to acquit Manange’s four accomplices.
The Attorney General’s Office in May 2013 had moved the SC, seeking punishment to four of Manange’s accomplices as well.
Nearly five years after the case was registered for a reveiw of judgment, the SC on Tuesday decided to uphold the ruling of the Patan Appellate Court.
With the SC ruling, Manange will have to go back to prison. He also have to give up his provincial assembly seat since a convicted criminal cannot become a praliamentarian, according to the apex court.
Earlier, the CPN-UML’s Manang District Committee had unanimously recommended Manange’s name for the polls. The party’s Standing Committee, however, rejected his name, mainly owing to public criticism, according to a party source.
Just few weeks back, Manage defected the Rastriya Prajatantra Party and joined the UML with a hope to contest the polls. He was the elected chairman of the RPP Manang District Committee and all members of the committee had joined the UML along with him.
The UML has decided to field Khanda Lama Gurung in the constituency. Gurung had also joined the UML by defecting the RPP along with Manange.
A joint bench of Justice Deepak Raj Joshi and Justice Purushottam Bhandari upheld the verdict handed down by the Patan Appellate Court in 2013, overturning the ruling of the Kathmandu District Court in the case.
The Kathmandu District Court had ruled out the attempted murder charge and ordered a two-year jail sentence to Manange in aggravated assault conviction. The court had also acquitted four of Manange’s accomplices, including gangster turned politician Ganesh Lama.
Dissatisfied by the court’s ruling, the government lawyers had knocked the door of the Patan Appellate Court, seeking punishment against the defendants.
The Patan Appellate Court in 2012 ruled the incident as an attempted murder case and ordered five years jail sentence to Manange, but upheld the Kathmandu District Court’s decision to acquit Manange’s four accomplices.
The Attorney General’s Office in May 2013 had moved the SC, seeking punishment to four of Manange’s accomplices as well.
Nearly five years after the case was registered for a reveiw of judgment, the SC on Tuesday decided to uphold the ruling of the Patan Appellate Court.
With the SC ruling, Manange will have to go back to prison. He also have to give up his provincial assembly seat since a convicted criminal cannot become a praliamentarian, according to the apex court.
Earlier, the CPN-UML’s Manang District Committee had unanimously recommended Manange’s name for the polls. The party’s Standing Committee, however, rejected his name, mainly owing to public criticism, according to a party source.
Just few weeks back, Manage defected the Rastriya Prajatantra Party and joined the UML with a hope to contest the polls. He was the elected chairman of the RPP Manang District Committee and all members of the committee had joined the UML along with him.
The UML has decided to field Khanda Lama Gurung in the constituency. Gurung had also joined the UML by defecting the RPP along with Manange.
DoTM formally Initiated Digital Driving License from all over Nepal
After the successful issuance of Digital Driving License since last year, finally Department of Transport Management (DoTM) has initiated online-based application system for driving licenses based on the decision all over Nepal from January 9. The Transportation Management Office, Bagmati has been issuing smart licenses from December 20, 2015.
The new licenses are similar to ATM cards issued by banks. They contain electronic chips similar to SIM cards and store information like the driver’s identity and vehicle registration number.
The cards will eventually be issued from all the zonal offices of the department, except Karnali zone.
According to Shrestha, the department plans to complete replacing the technology enabled license within three to five years. Till date, the DoTM has issued around 2 million driving licenses, out of which around 1.5 million are estimated to be active.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Bijay Kumar Gachhadar launched the new licenses by unveiling a license issued in the name of DoTM Director General Chandra Man Shrestha and a replica.
Speaking at the event, Gachhadar stressed the need to make people aware about the newly introduced licenses. He added that the use of technology would end anomalies prevailing in the sector.
As per the decision made by DoTM, the department will fix a quota for each office and this could vary on a daily basis.
However, according to Rupnarayan Bhattarai, director general of DoTM, the online-based system has not been applied in the Karnali Zonal Office.
Based on the confirmation code, the process of written and trial exams will begin.
The implementation of fully online-based system is expected to facilitate the general public, who otherwise would have to queue for hours just to submit their applications for the driving licence.
The DoTM has changed manual system of accepting applications after receiving a large number of complaints from service seekers about the huge inconvenience due to the earlier system.
DoTM has categorized the vehicles in different groups. For example, motorcycles have been categorized in Group ‘A’, scooters in Group ‘K’ and cars in Group ‘B’ in the new system. People can choose the appropriate group through the website of the DoTM and apply for the driving license.
While the data recorded on the smart driving licences will be accessible to all the transport offices across the country, linkages will be made available to the traffic police, police and insurance agencies, among others, so that they can get complete information about the driver.
Meanwhile, driving licence applicants will have to give a fingerprint impression, get a passport-size photograph made and place their signature on the licence card by visiting the transportation office. This means that people will not be able to get their colleagues or friends obtain or renew licences on their behalf.
The DoTM has fixed the quota for two-wheelers between 100 and 600 units based on the zonal office. The highest number of quota has been fixed for offices belonging to the Bagmati Zonal Office. “As per demand in the zonal offices, we have fixed the quota and this may be changed on a daily basis,” Bhattarai clarified.
“Different quotas have been fixed for different zonal offices. Service seekers will get confirmation code and based on the code, the next process will be started,” Bhattarai stated. “So, if the quota for that day is finished, the additional applications will automatically be pushed to the following day.”
However, the new system will provide no relief to more than 250,000 people who have passed the trial examination and applied to renew their driving license as the DoTM has been unable to distribute the licenses to them due to scarcity of smart driving license cards.
The DoTM has changed manual system of accepting applications after receiving a large number of complaints from service seekers about the huge inconvenience due to the earlier system.
DoTM has categorized the vehicles in different groups. For example, motorcycles have been categorized in Group ‘A’, scooters in Group ‘K’ and cars in Group ‘B’ in the new system. People can choose the appropriate group through the website of the DoTM and apply for the driving license.
While the data recorded on the smart driving licences will be accessible to all the transport offices across the country, linkages will be made available to the traffic police, police and insurance agencies, among others, so that they can get complete information about the driver.
Meanwhile, driving licence applicants will have to give a fingerprint impression, get a passport-size photograph made and place their signature on the licence card by visiting the transportation office. This means that people will not be able to get their colleagues or friends obtain or renew licences on their behalf.
The DoTM has fixed the quota for two-wheelers between 100 and 600 units based on the zonal office. The highest number of quota has been fixed for offices belonging to the Bagmati Zonal Office. “As per demand in the zonal offices, we have fixed the quota and this may be changed on a daily basis,” Bhattarai clarified.
“Different quotas have been fixed for different zonal offices. Service seekers will get confirmation code and based on the code, the next process will be started,” Bhattarai stated. “So, if the quota for that day is finished, the additional applications will automatically be pushed to the following day.”
However, the new system will provide no relief to more than 250,000 people who have passed the trial examination and applied to renew their driving license as the DoTM has been unable to distribute the licenses to them due to scarcity of smart driving license cards.
Officials to Brussels, shatter off European Airspace Ban
Since last December for the second time, Nepal from flying into European Union. A bunch of high level officials from Nepal’s civil aviation authority has headed to the European Commission (EC), located at for Brussels, Belgium to talk to EC and debar the ban.
EC has agree to make the fly from Nepal to EU, however they has identified Nepal as shortcomings EC four years ago and now has been fixed and have adequate evidences to prove that. They will have to assure EC that Nepal can “provide the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) necessary resources to make it competent to execute various responsibilities independently”.
Nepal’s aviation sector has been progressing very well and Nepal plans to expand to European airspace. It is also planned to resume flights to London after it gets the Airbus A330 jets in mid-2018. However, this ban from the EC blocks all these plans. As long as the restriction is in place, Nepali airlines will not be able to fly in Europe and other countries.
Last July, the International Civil Aviation Organizations (ICAO) had removed the Significant Safety Concerns (SSC) tag on Nepal placed four years ago. The officials are optimistic that on their next meeting in June, EC will remove Nepal from its air safety list.
If the officials can convince EC representatives, there are high chances that EC may remove Nepal from its “air safety list”. The officials from Nepal aviation include Tourism Joint Secretary Buddhi Sagar Lamichhane and Caan Director General Sanjiv Gautam. The officials only have four hours to represent their case.
Rajan Pokhrel, deputy director general of the Caan said, “We will be presenting our progress report at the technical meeting. So far, we have addressed all the safety shortcomings cited by the EC.”
Last year, EC decided that it would continue to impose the ban placed against Nepal four years ago. But as Nepal’s issues were not discussed during EC’s aviation safety committee meeting, Nepal was formally invited to present its case in the technical committee meeting.
Nepal’s aviation sector has been progressing very well and Nepal plans to expand to European airspace. It is also planned to resume flights to London after it gets the Airbus A330 jets in mid-2018. However, this ban from the EC blocks all these plans. As long as the restriction is in place, Nepali airlines will not be able to fly in Europe and other countries.
Last July, the International Civil Aviation Organizations (ICAO) had removed the Significant Safety Concerns (SSC) tag on Nepal placed four years ago. The officials are optimistic that on their next meeting in June, EC will remove Nepal from its air safety list.
If the officials can convince EC representatives, there are high chances that EC may remove Nepal from its “air safety list”. The officials from Nepal aviation include Tourism Joint Secretary Buddhi Sagar Lamichhane and Caan Director General Sanjiv Gautam. The officials only have four hours to represent their case.
Rajan Pokhrel, deputy director general of the Caan said, “We will be presenting our progress report at the technical meeting. So far, we have addressed all the safety shortcomings cited by the EC.”
Last year, EC decided that it would continue to impose the ban placed against Nepal four years ago. But as Nepal’s issues were not discussed during EC’s aviation safety committee meeting, Nepal was formally invited to present its case in the technical committee meeting.
Nepal Government plans to cancel another Hydropower with China
With almost eradication of blackouts so called “Loadshedding”, Nepal has cancelled the queued another hydropower deal project with a Chinese company. Project had aimed as West Seti Hydropower Project signed has signed with China Three Gorges International Corporation to be constructed and well functioned. Earlier, government has already scraped Budhigandaki hydroelectric project with China.
The company wrote to Nepal Investment Board’s (NIB) last December citing the dissatisfaction over project conditions proposed by the board. Following this, NIB has decided to cancel the deal. Since, the Chinese firm has also been planning to scrap the deal as they too are dissatisfied with the Nepal Investment Board’s (NIB) power purchase rate policy.
According to the company, “If Nepal Government or Nepal Electricity Authority does not like to revise the Power Purchase Rate policy in order to improve the economic conditions of the project, the project will become economically infeasible according to the result we carefully calculated. Therefore, it becomes no necessary to consider any next work plan or action.”
The letter ends on a good note saying, “We truly appreciates your continuous support on our work and we kindly hope your party could try the best to make the project economically feasible.”
Google S9, S9+ Release Dates, Price and iPhone-Rivalling AI Chip
Tech, January 20: Samsung’s new flagship phone is just a month away from being official. The new Samsung S9 is set to be launched in February 2018.
According to the leaks via Eveleaks, the flagship will be launched on 26th February and the pre-sale will begin by 1st of March.
The Samsung S9 and S9+ will come with a display of 5.8″ and 6.2″ respectively. The phone will be built with Gorilla Glass 5 on both the front and back side. The phone will come with a pre-installed Android 8.0 (Oreo) which is the latest Android OS.According to a C-level executive at a major casemaker, the go-to-market schedule for Galaxy S9 / S9+ is as follows:
Launch – 2/26 Pre-orders – 3/1 Ships/releases – 3/16 — Evan Blass (@evleaks) January 16, 2018
Specifications
The specs that are known for Samsung S9 and S9+ are as follows:- Body Build: Front/Back glass (Gorilla Glass 5), Aluminium Frame
- Display Type: Super AMOLED Capacitive Touchscreen, 16M Colors
- Display Size: 6.2″ (S9+) & 5.8″ (S9)
- Dislay Resolution: 1440 x 2960 pixels, (~531 ppi S9+, ~568 ppi S9)
- OS: Android 8.0 (Oreo)
- Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 845
- Core: Octa-core
- Internal Memory:
- S9+: 128 GB, 6 GB RAM or 64 GB, 4GB RAM
- S9: 64 GB, 4 GB RAM
- Primary Camera:
- S9+: Dual, 12 MP (f/1.6, 26mm, 1/2.55″, 1.4 µm, Dual Pixel PDAF) + 12MP (f/2.4, 52mm, 1/3.6″, 1 µm, AF), OIS, phase detection autofocus, 2x optical zoom, LED flash
- S9: 12 MP (f/1.5, 26mm, 1/2.5″, 1.4 µm, Dual Pixel PDAF), phase detection autofocus, OIS, LED flash
- Video: 2160p@30fps, 1080p@60fps, HDR, dual-video
- Secondary Camera: 8 MP, f/1.6, auto focus, 1440p, dual video call, Auto HDR
Price
The price hasn’t been confirmed by Samsung yet. The Inquirer has suggested that the price may be around £689 and £779 SIM-free. The international launch date for Nepal and Price in Nepal is yet to be revealed.Nepali National Cricket Team Skipper Honored
Kathmandu January 20: Nepalese National Cricket Team Skipper, Paras Khadka, has been honored with the 1st Madan Bhandari Cricket Recognition ‘Samman’ this Friday.
Khadka was given this award by President of Nepal, Bidhya Devi Bhandari, during the First Cricket Mahotsav organized by Madan Bhandari Sports Academy at Kirtipur Cricket Ground.
The Madan Bhandari Cricket Recognition ‘Samman’ was instituted and awarded for the first time in Nepal. This award will be given every year to the contributors in Nepali Cricket. The award carries a purse of NRs. 25,000.
Mount Everest to be Scaled by Three Women Mountaineers
Kathmandu, January 20: A team of three mountaineers led by Lakpa Yangjee Sherpa is set to scale Mt. Everest on coming April.
The mainstream news about the scaling of the World’s Highest Mountain is true and has been further shared by Tourist Journalist Association this Friday during a Press Conference. Lakpa Yangjee Sherpa, Yangdi Sherpa, and Pashang Lhamu Sherpa are set to begin their expedition from April 7, 2018.
The Logistic Support will be provided by the Everest Hardware and will be climbing the peak through Ascent Himalayan Trek and Expedition Company.
Lakpa Yangjee was available for a comment during the conference.
We will start climbing the Everest for promoting tourism in the country, as well as increasing women’s participation in the mountaineering sector.Note: The comment has been modified slightly for the easy understanding of the readers.
Manange may lose his assembly seat
Rajib Gurung aka Deepak Manange, who was recently elected to the provincial assembly of Province 4, could lose his seat due to his conviction in an attempt to murder case and sentenced to the prison. But his disqualification for the seat will have to be ruled by the Supreme Court.
Patan Appellate Court had convicted Gurung five years ago for attempting to murder Milan Gurung alias Milan Chakre in 2007 and had imposed a five-year jail sentence on him.
According to Section 13 (9) of Provincial Assembly Member Election Act, 2017, a person who is slapped a minimum of five year jail sentence or more, cannot contest on election for six years after serving his/her jail sentence. Manange has served only for two years of his jail sentence and has to serve the remainder of his jail sentence himself as per rule.
The government had filed a case of attempted murder against 11 persons, including Rajib Gurung. Manange was imposed a two-year jail sentence by the Kathmandu District Court in this case. The Patan Appellate Court later struck down the sentence and imposed a five year sentence on Gurung for attempted murder.
Four other convicts in the case had moved the Supreme Court against the verdict but the SC upheld the appellate court verdict. Gurung had not challenged the appellate court verdict, nor can he appeal it now, as it had to be done within 130 days of the verdict.
Senior advocates Surendra Kumar Mahto, Satish Krishna Kharel and Ram Narayan Bidari said Gurung could be disqualified from the provincial assembly by an order of the Supreme Court if his election was challenged. Gurung was not barred from contesting provincial assembly election since nobody challenged his candidacy.
Joint Attorney of Election Commission Gita Prasad Timsina said, “EC cannot disqualify Gurung, as he has already been elected. The court will have to rule that he is disqualified to hold the post. The EC cannot know if somebody is ineligible to contest the election unless somebody lodges a complaint,” he added. EC Spokesperson Navaraj Dhakal said the EC was responsible for holding election and not disqualifying anybody after the election.
Senior Advocate Kharel said the governor of Province 4 could refuse to administer the oath of office and secrecy to Gurung if somebody submitted the court’s verdict and relevant documents.
Nepal’s export slights down
Nepal’s export to India and other countries has slowed to a crawl in the first five months (mid-July to mid-December) of this fiscal as major export items recorded negative growth in the given period.
Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) unveiled their macroeconomic data of the first five months where India’s share in total import of Nepal is increasing; export to India in terms of total export has been falling gradually over the months of this fiscal after the southern neighbor enforced goods and services tax (GST) on July 1.
As per the central bank’s report, exports to India stood at 53.3 per cent of total exports in first five months of this fiscal against 55.6 per cent in corresponding period of previous fiscal.
The total exported goods worth Rs 17.96 billion to India in the review period. According to NRB, export growth to India was just 5.5 per cent in the first five months compared to 22.6 per cent growth in first five months of last fiscal compared to the same period of 2015-16
Export of major export items like juice, cardamom, plastic utensils, GI pipes, among others, plunged heavily after the integrated GST increased the tariff to export to India.
Export of cardamom plummeted by 68.4 per cent to Rs 393.5 million in the first five months of this fiscal compared to the corresponding period of the previous fiscal. The country had exported cardamom worth Rs 1.25 billion in the first five months of last fiscal 2016-17.
“The exporters need to diversify the market of their products to minimize the risk of market concentration”, said Commerce Secretary Chandra Kumar Ghimire.
“As per the principle of not putting all the eggs in the same basket, exporters should pay attention to market diversification. For instance, Gulf countries, Pakistan and other nations could be the potential export markets for cardamom,” he said.
However, exporters have said that lack of market predictability had affected the investment in the country. Mainly, India is a huge market for Nepali primary goods. “To tap the market potential, processing of products, value addition, branding and marketing are must,” said Ghimire.
In contrast to the belief that multinational companies and foreign direct investment companies can crack the barrier in the concerned countries, export of juice plummeted considerably in the review period even as the Indian multinational, Dabur Nepal, has been exporting juice to India.
Experts have said that trade concentration in a single country can create huge problems like the Nepali exporters have been facing in export to India in the GST regime. India’s import tariff increased on juices, cardamom, processed foods, GI pipes and footwear, among others, in the current tax regime.
Imports from India have not been affected because there is zero GST in export of goods and services from India.
When GST was enforced, India had considered service export only if the service supplier received payment in convertible foreign currency. However, considering the request of landlocked Nepal and Bhutan, which use Indian transit for third-country trade, India has provided special provision for Nepal and Bhutan that payment in Indian rupee would also be considered as service export in the case of these two countries.
NT landline subscribers to as Prepaid
The only Public Switched Telephone Network service (PSTN) in Nepal popularly known as landline phone service has implemented real-time-billing system , from today.
Real-time-billing is also popularly referred for pre-paid system in telecommunication services; however PSTN is a postpaid service by Nepal Telecom.
Before the landline phone users of Nepal Telecom had used to settle bills after using the service and NT had not fixed any credit limit for its landline phone customers. Their billing was on the monthly basis and has to pay at the end and beginning of the new month.
However, now that NT has enforced the pre-paid system for PSTN service as well where the customers will be required to deposit certain amount before using the PSTN service and consumers will not be able to use the service exceeding the credit limit.
“We have enforced the real-time-billing system for PSTN service in a bid to make the service more effective. This move is also a part of NT’s long-awaited plan to switch all of its services to real-time billing system,” said Prativa Baidhya, spokesperson for NT.
Previously it also used to happen that you may have a little money in your wallet than that is actually billed. So you have to again visit the NT counter to pay the actual bill. Still some people visit Nepal Telecom counter to know and pay the bill but majority can check the bill themselves easily and then pay it through recharge cards or online services like esewa and some payment service from different banks. Here we are discussing the two easiest way to know the landline bill in Nepal and pay it online. Nepal Telecom is only the landline service provider here in Nepal. To know the PSTN landline bill, there two easy ways Namely IVR and SMS means.
Along with this, all telecommunication services of Telecom except the post-paid GSM service now follow the real-time-billing system. This system certainly believed to be more efficient and transparent.
However, NT officials have hinted that they will not start cutting connections of customers abruptly for the next few days as majority of PSTN customers are unaware of the new system. Since NT has been sending the variant of SMSs to its subscribers about their changes.
Until now, NT had been charging its PSTN customers a monthly rental of Rs 200 letting customers make an average of up to 175 phone calls, depending on the time (peak hours or off-hours) that a customer makes the calls. NT customers will now have to deposit a minimum of Rs 200 to use the PSTN service. Baidhya said PSTN customers could fix their credit limit themselves from now on.
In case a subscriber uses total credit before the month ends and the phone network is disconnected, Baidhya said PSTN customers could top up their balance using NT recharge cards or e-banking services. However, NT will have the system that could alert customers when they are about to exceed their credit limit. NT officials said PSTN customers would have to renew their credit on the first day of the Nepali month.
NT’s statistics show that there are almost 600,000 customers of PSTN service of the company.
Meanwhile, NT has also urged its landline customers to dial 197 for additional information about the new system and give feedback.
