WITHOUT F EAR OR FAVOUR Nepal’s largest selling English daily Vol XXVIII No. 212 | 8 pages | Rs.5 O O Printed simultaneously in Kathmandu, Biratnagar, Bharatpur and Nepalgunj 32.3 C 12.7 C Thursday, September 24, 2020 | 08-06-2077 Dhangadi Jomsom Supreme Court blocks Bamdev Gautam’s way to the Cabinet, for now Responding to a writ against Gautam’s nomination to the Assembly, Justice Ananda Mohan Bhattarai has ordered not to give any additional constitutional positions to him. TIKA R PRADHAN KATHMANDU, SEPT 23 The prospects of Bamdev Gautam, who was recently nominated to the National Assembly by the President, of becoming a minister have been thwarted, at least for now. A single bench of Justice Ananda Mohan Bhattarai on Wednesday issued an interim order, asking the authorities not to give Gautam any additional constitutional responsibili- ties for now. RSS The order came in response to a Bamdev Gautam was appointed a National writ filed by Dinesh Tripathi, a senior Assembly member last week. advocate, in which he had demanded that Gautam’s appointment as a mem- Nepal Communist Party. ber of the National Assembly be Guatam, who was appointed the annulled and that the authorities be vice-chair of the Nepal Communist ordered not to give any constitutional Party (NCP) in February after amend- responsibility to him. ing its statute, had lost 2017 parlia- The bench has taken cognizance of mentary elections from Bardiya the case as first of its kind since the Constituency 1. adoption of the new constitution and Gautam’s appointment to the said the petition has given rise to the National Assembly has met with criti- POST PHOTO: DEEPAK KC possibility of “serious constitutional cism from several quarters because A motorcycle crosses a waterlogged road in Gothatar, Kathmandu, on Wednesday. Heavy rainfall has continued across the country for the last couple of days. explanation”. experts and analysts say taking a per- “Until a further interim order, put son rejected by the people to the upper the issue on hold,” the bench has house is tantamount to undermining observed. democratic principles. Gautam was appointed to the upper In his petition, Tripathi said that house of parliament by President Gautam’s nomination is against the Bidya Devi Bhandari on September 17 constitution. Tripathi has made the As Covid-19 cases soar, test numbers are as per the recommendation of the gov- Office of the President, Office of the ernment. The Cabinet, on September Prime Minister and Council of 14, had decided to recommend to the Ministers, chairman of the National President that Gautam be appointed a Assembly, the Nepal Communist Party National Assembly member as per the and Gautam as defendants. declining and contact tracing is ineffective September 3 decision of the ruling >> Continued on page 2 The authorities that were too slow to recognise the looming threat seem to have given up the fight against the virus, public health experts say. ARJUN POUDEL waiting for their turn to give samples. ment is making serious attempts to KATHMANDU, SEPT 23 They were waiting without food. respond to the Covid-19 pandemic. “We decided to collect money on our The Health Ministry was conduct- On Tuesday, doctors at Sukraraj own so that we could provide some ing around 10,000 tests, on average, Tropical and Infectious Disease food to them,” said Dr Sagar across the country, but the number Hospital decided to take matters into Rajbhandari, director at the hospital. over the past few days has come down. their own hands as people in an over- “We felt really bad that there were Public health experts say that with whelming number stood in queue for small children waiting in line for the risk level rising, the number of hours to get tested for Covid-19. days.” tests should have increased. But the Doctors said they were by and large With whatever money that was col- authorities seem to have surrendered helpless as hundreds of people were lected, according to Rajbhandari, noo- now, according to them. spending nights on the hospital prem- dles and beaten rice were provided. “We are heading towards a catastro- ises, under staircases and the passage, One way to address the situation phe and the government seems to be was increasing the number of absolutely apathetic towards such a tests so that people would give looming crisis,” said a member of the swabs and go home as early as Nepal Medical Council requesting possible. anonymity because he was concerned Even though the hospital labo- about getting into a controversy. ratory can test only 300 swabs a “The number of tests performed day, it started collecting 600. since the restrictions were lifted But regardless of the situation has drastically gone down. To make in the government hospital, the matters worse, the government has number of overall tests—poly- not done anything to make contact merase chain reaction tests— tracing effective. This clearly shows across the country over the past the government has given up the fight few days has gone down, raising against Covid-19.” concerns whether the govern- >> Continued on page 2 Cricket governing body announces central contracts for players, but gender pay gap is huge ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ grade male cricketers would get Rs 50,000, Rs 40,000 and Rs 30,000 each month but female players offered only Rs 15,000, Rs 12,000 and Rs 10,000, respectively. get Rs 15,000, Rs 12,000 and Rs 10,000, respectively. This is the first time women cricket- ers in Nepal have been “employed”, as they will now get monthly remunera- tion even though they made their for- ays into international cricket some 13 years ago. The male players have been getting the central contracts since 2012. Former national men’s team cap- tain LB Chhetri though appreciated the move to award central contracts to the women players, he expressed his concerns over the disparity and pay gap. “Such disparity shows that we are still far behind when it comes to acknowledging the contributions women cricketers have made for the sport,” Chhetri told the Post. “It looks like we are showing mercy to female cricketers who make an equal effort POST FILE PHOTO: KESHAV THAPA for their country.” Women cricketers now onwards will draw a monthly salary. Nineteen women cricketers have been graded for the monthly salary PRAJWAL OLI ers likely to rake in three times more with six as grade “A” players, eight as KATHMANDU, SEPT 23 than their female counterparts. grade “B” players and six as grade “C” The cricket body announced central players. Cricket Association of Nepal, the contracts has categories players in National women cricket captain country’s cricketing governing body, three groups. Rubina Chhetry and Nary Thapa, on Tuesday announced central con- While the ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ grade male Indu Berma, Karuna Bhandari and tracts for Nepali cricketers—both cricketers would get monthly salaries Sita Rana Magar have been catego- male and female. However, the gender of Rs 50,000, Rs 40,000 and Rs 30,000, rised as “A” listed players. pay gap was glaring, with male play- respectively, the female players would >> Continued on page 2 C M Y K THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2020 | 02 NATIONAL Dhaulagiri Hospital in Baglung yet to get a PCR machine It’s been three months since the decision to place a PCR machine at the hospital was taken but Ministry of Health and Population is yet to release the budget. PRAKASH BARAL the procurement process,” Pokharel PCR testing from Dhaulagiri Hospital. BAGLUNG, SEPT 23 said. As of Monday, one person died and 349 Shalikram Sharma, a representa- individuals tested positive for corona- On June 26, the Ministry of Health tive of the hospital management com- virus in the district, according to the and Population had decided to place a mittee, said the hospital has already data of the District Health Office in PCR machine in 10 government hospi- managed a room to install the PCR Baglung. tals, including Baglung-based machine. Dhaulagiri Hospital had established Dhaulagiri Hospital. Three months “The purchase of the machine has three ICU beds in its ICU ward in into the decision, the hospital is yet to been delayed due to delay in budget April. But there are no skilled health be equipped with a PCR machine. release. The ministry has delayed the workers to work in the ward. According to the hospital adminis- process,” Sharma said. “Currently, the ICU ward has tration, the ministry has not released In the absence of a PCR machine, become a general ward due to a lack of the budget for the machine and the the hospital has been sending swab skilled health workers. We had hospital is yet to receive the work samples to the Pokhara-based provin- demanded the provincial government POST PHOTO: SANJOG MANANDHAR order. The representatives of the hos- cial laboratory for Covid-19 testing. to provide nine additional staff nurses A homeless man shields himself from the rain with a plastic sheet at Bhagwanpau in the Capital on Wednesday. pital management committee said “We are collecting around 100 to 300 and eight medical officers to run the The Valley is expected to receive rainfall for the next few days. they have repeatedly asked the minis- swab samples on a daily basis. The ICU ward. But the government only try and the concerned stakeholders to entire process of testing and tracing permitted five nurses. This is why we implement the decision, but neither would be expedited if we had our own are facing difficulties in running the the ministry nor other offices have machine to test samples,” said Dr.