On the occasion of Martyrs’ Day,  the statues of martyrs Shukraraj Shastri, Dharma Bhakta Mathema, Gangalal Shrestha and Dashrath Chand, who fought for our democracy and against the then Rana regime were tribute by putting garland. The visitors on memorial today, shared that the nation should not only respect and honour the contribution of the martyrs in bringing democracy to the country for the benefit of the people, but should also focus on the conservation of Shahid Gate The formal programme organized at the historical site, where between BS 2018 and 2063, more than 200 nation and government heads had visited and offered their respects. The memorial, designed by Engineer Shankar Nath Rimal, was inaugurated in BS 2018. Shastri, Mathema, Shestha and Chand were executed in 1997 BS for their fight to bring democracy in the nation. On the initiation of Kathmandu Metropolitan City Office, the second week of Magh (of the lunar calendar) is observed as Martyrs’ Week and Magh 16 as the Martyrs’ Day, a public holiday. Various organisations, institutions, and individuals have been paying tributes at Shahid Gate on the said date. Shahid Gate, which was originally called ‘Nepal Smarak’, has late King Tribhuvan’s statue on top with the statues of the four martyrs below. Laxman Singh Khadka has been involved in taking care of the memorial.

Ministry of Energy has initiated a necessary homework to establish Nepal Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), are nod by Ministry of Finance. With this plan, the idea to set up a new tariffs and implementing a National Grid Code to govern power sector in the Country has come alive after 16 years since its inception of forming a high level body that would regulate generation and transmission of electricity. On August 2017, the parliament had endorsed the Electricity Regulatory Commission Bill, now as an Act, presented by the former Energy Minister Janardan Sharma with an acknowledgement with the need of an independent regulatory body to regulate electricity market for its further development. Ministry of Finance, after the amendment of the financial and liability aspects, the regulations proposed by the Energy Ministry gave an approval allowing the energy ministry to seek further counsel from other ministries prior to formation of NERC. As per Ghimire, the regulator after its inception will develop a National Grid Code to begin the power entities in the Country. Moreover, the Commission is said to administer the power purchase agreements, fix tariffs and transmission-network charges and initiate license-compliance monitoring in the beginning and work for creating a competitive market in power sector later on. “The Ministry will soon call upon applications from interested candidates to take up the posts of Chairman and other members of the Commision,” Ghimire said. The Commission will have one chair, and four members and the appointments are said to be made on the basis of principle of proportional inclusion. Earlier, an Energy Crisis Prevention Action Plan was issued by the government on February 18, 2016 incorporating a provision on the formation of a high-level Electricity Regulation Commission.  

Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT) has drafted a plan to establish institutions in all the seven provinces of the country. CTEVT announced to be all the Model Technical College in an event organized in Bhaktapur. As per Prof Dr. Geeta Bhakta Joshi, member of National Planning Commission, it is difficult to align CTEVT in federal structure due to instability circumstances. He shared that it would be better to reform existing institutions rather than forming new ones and the government is carrying on financial planning and policy formulation for the establishment of Model Polytechnic Centers all over the nation. He also pinpointed enormous number untrained workforce in Nepal. , “Every year, 5,00,000-strong youth workforce is produced in the country but only 1,14,000 of them are trained.” he asserted. “CTEVT would highlight systematic and transparent monitoring and evaluation of technical education in the country. We want to improve the technical and vocational training in the country.” said Pushpa Raman Wagle, a member secretary at CTEVT. He further expressed that the plan to establish a model multi-technical college in every province is the major motive of CTEVT.

With the medial of Magh, the temperature in Kathmandu Valley is to see further decline in the temperature. The minimal temperature of the capital valley has to 2.3 degree Celsius on Sunday. Since, it was 3.3 degree Celsius on Saturday. As the minimum temperature is going down, colder days are ahead, said Meteorologist Raju Pradhananga. For few days, the minimum temperature would remain stable to three degree Celsius in the next few days. Similarly, the western Tarai belt was covered with thick fog today morning. Earlier on January 7, the mercury of the Capital had plummeted to zero degrees Celsius. Most of the places of the country had witnessed rainfall while hill and mountain areas experienced snowfall on January 24. According to the Division, Jumla recorded the lowest temperature of minus 5 degree Celsius today while Dipayal recorded highest temperature of 23 degree Celsius.

National Reconstruction Authority, lead by Sher Bahadur Deuba-led government published a notice offending not able to grant of Rs 100,000 as per announced. NRA has set a target of rebuilding at least 60 per cent houses of earthquake victims this fiscal, which means 50,000 houses should be rebuilt this fiscal. A total of 93,000 houses have been built with the NRA’s assistance so far, and 230,000 houses are under construction. Chief Executive Officer of National Reconstruction Authority Yuba Raj Bhusal told that NRA needed another Rs 100 billion to provide grants of Rs 300,000 to quake victims, but the government had allocated only Rs 53 billion this fiscal. “If we provide additional Rs 100,000 to quake victims, that will increase financial burden of Rs 100 billion on the NRA and I do not think we will be able to provide such a huge amount to victims this fiscal,” Bhusal added. Bhusal said although the government made provisions for bank loans to quake victims, only 659 people took the loan, which was not even one per cent of quake victims who had to rebuild their houses. “Only those victims who have taken Rs 300,000 grant from the government are eligible for bank loans. Bhusal said quake victims needed to meet technical requirements to get the second tranche of the grant but since many victims had not received technical assistance, they were unable to get the second tranche. Bhusal said 100,000 houses were damaged by the quake in Kathmandu, but only 4,300 houses had been reconstructed and 15,000 houses were under construction. “Owners of 80,000 quake-damaged houses have not started reconstruction yet and I believe the victims have not been able to do so mainly due to financial crunch.” He added that he would hold a meeting with the banks tomorrow to discuss how they could provide  loans to quake victims. “In urban areas, a grant of Rs 300,000 may be just enough to demolish a quake victim’s house,” he argued. CEO Bhusal said his office was collecting data of quake victims who were unable to rebuild their houses due to their age, social and physical conditions. “I am planning to rebuild the houses of victims who are above 70 and single women above 65,” Bhusal said, adding that his office would rebuild houses of orphans below 16 and quake victims with physical disability. “Old people, juvenile orphans and quake victims with physical disability cannot rebuild their houses even if the government gives them one million rupees,” Bhusal said and added that once his office collected data from all ward offices of local levels, his office would request Red Cross and other organisations to rebuild their houses. There are 767,705 households that are eligible for housing grants.