As Crisis Deepens, Ruling Party Factions in Wait and Watch Mode
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WITHOUT F EAR OR FAVOUR Nepal’s largest selling English daily Vol XXVIII No. 259 | 8 pages | Rs.5 O O Printed simultaneously in Kathmandu, Biratnagar, Bharatpur and Nepalgunj 32.9 C -1.5 C Sunday, November 15, 2020 | 30-07-2077 Bhairahawa Jumla The Kathmandu Post wishes its readers, advertisers and well-wishers a Happy Tihar. Since our offices will remain closed on Sunday and Monday for the festival, the next edition of the Post will be published on Wednesday, November 18. POST PHOTO: ELITE JOSHI An illuminated Kathmandu Valley seen from Chandragiri on Saturday evening as people performed Laxmi Puja during the festival of lights. As crisis deepens, ruling party factions in wait and watch mode Leaders close to chairmen Oli and Dahal take sides in calling the other’s move foul while experts say the situation is so murky that how events will pan out cannot be predicted. TIKA R PRADHAN Gautam, Ishwar Pokhrel, Bishnu KATHMANDU, NOV 14 Poudel and Ram Bahadur Thapa—at Baluwatar. Nepal and Gautam have The plot thickens in the war between sided with Dahal in the latest clash one party chairman KP Sharma Oli between the two chairs while Thapa’s and the other chair Pushpa Kamal position is not clear. Pokhrel and Dahal. Poudel are clearly on Oli’s side. And the crisis deepens in the ruling “The prime minister asked the Nepal Communist Party (NCP). intention of the Dahal-led group on After the latest salvo from Dahal holding the Secretariat meeting,” said accusing Oli of incompetence in run- Subas Nembang, a Standing ning the government and the party, POST ILLUSTRATION: KRISHNA GOPAL SHRESTHA Committee member and Oli’s and demanding his resignation, the whom one believes. close confidante. “And whether the prime minister has a job cut out for Oli’s efforts to this end began right document was Dahal’s opinion or him to isolate Dahal and save his posi- after the Secretariat meeting, when he that represents the voice of all five tion. Or he could part ways with Dahal met five of the nine Secretariat mem- members.” and split the party, depending on bers—Madhav Kumar Nepal, Bamdev >> Continued on page 2 Health Ministry has spent Rs20 billion on pandemic but infections continue to surge Officials and public health experts say lack of coordination and collaboration among various state agencies is the main reason behind the losing battle against Covid-19. ARJUN POUDEL devastating quake. control the spread of the coronavirus, KATHMANDU, NOV 14 “Compared to the ongoing pandem- except coordination and cooperation ic, the condition was more scary, peo- among the agencies concerned, with- The April 2015 earthquake was the ple were more panicked by the repeat- out which the pandemic is hard to biggest natural disaster in Nepal’s ed aftershocks or the shock of deaths tame, according to officials and recent history. That is, before the of their relatives and loss of proper- experts. ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. It killed ty,” Dr Senandra Upreti, former secre- It imposed a nationwide lockdown nearly 9,000 and rendered tens of tary at the Ministry of Health and on March 24 when there were just two thousands homeless. Population, who was the then director cases, and again restrictions were Along with the private houses, hun- general at the Department of Health imposed in districts, including for dreds of health facilities were Services, told the Post. three weeks in August in Kathmandu destroyed, health workers were killed “But with coordination and collabo- Valley that saw cases surging, after and injured, roads were blocked ration among all the agencies con- the lockdown was lifted on July 21. due to landslides triggered by the cerned, we had successfully managed And it has spent Rs20 billion in the the situation and prevented pos- past eight months, according to the sible further disasters.” Health Ministry. But that coordination and col- Hundreds of thousands of tests laboration evident during the have been performed, dozens of labo- Nepali Congress-led coalition ratories and hospitals have been set government seems to be lacking up, infrastructure has been built, now in the incumbent majority equipment has been bought, and government’s efforts to fight the health workers have been trained and pandemic, according to former deployed. and current Health Ministry offi- But the number of new cases and cials the Post talked to. the death toll have continued to rise To be fair, the Nepal with no signs of the pandemic coming Communist Party (NCP) govern- under control. ment has been doing much to >> Continued on page 2 C M Y K SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2020 | 02 NATIONAL Rural areas in Salyan and Rukum (West) get access to health services Several local units in the two districts have enhanced the institutional capacity of health facilities and initiated ambulance services for people in rural areas. BIPLAB MAHARJAN IN SALYAN & ous health posts in the district have HARI GAUTAM IN RUKUM (WEST) been providing safe delivery services NOV 14 in Salyan. “The number of patients visiting Three years ago, 24-year-old Kamala the district hospital has also increased Gharti of Jhimpe in Chhatreshwori after the local units started ambu- Rural Municipality, Salyan, gave birth lance services. We are also developing to her first child at home. Two weeks necessary infrastructures and install- ago, she delivered her second child at ing equipment in the hospital to cater Salyan District Hospital. to more patients,” said DC. “When I was pregnant the first time Almost all the villages in Salyan are around, there were no ambulance ser- now connected with road networks. vices in our village,” she said. “We “The villagers can use ambulance didn’t have access to health services services whenever needed. In the past, either. But in the last two years, the we had to take the patients to hospi- local unit has ensured easy access to tals using bamboo baskets and stretch- health services for those of us in rural ers. Many patients died on the way,” areas. This made it possible for me to Narayan Gharti of Kalimati Rural POST PHOTO: ELITE JOSHI deliver my second baby at a hospital.” Municipality-4 told the Post. Kukur Tihar being celebrated at Sneha’s Care, an animal shelter, at Bhaisepati, Lalitpur on Saturday. On this day, dogs are offered treats and worshipped by Hindus for their loyalty, service and Like Chhatreshwori Rural Chhatreswori Rural Municipality companionship. Municipality, several local units in had purchased four ambulances and Salyan and Rukum (West) have handed them over to the local health expanded health facilities in recent posts in wards 2, 4, 5 and 6. years targeting rural populations. “We have allocated Rs 4.5 million to They have prioritised enhancing the buy four more vehicles for ambulance institutional capacity of health facili- services in the current fiscal year. Health Ministry has spent Rs20 billion on pandemic ... ties and providing ambulance services Nobody will die for want of treatment to their rural population. This has in the villages now,” said Santosh KC, helped pregnant women from far- the chairman of Chhatreshwori. >> CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 districts had been damaged. Domestic 25,000 but when the grim milestone Yogesh Bhattarai are in the directive flung villages to opt for safe delivery at The local units have not only initiat- As of Saturday, 208,299 people tested animals were killed in the thousands was reached, it was not imposed. committee of the centre. health institutions, says Gharti. ed ambulance services but they have positive to the coronavirus nation- and their carcasses were scattered all The Health Ministry wanted the The centre has its mechanisms at Jhimpe is around 15 kilometres also managed the service in an effec- wide with 1,215 deaths. In the last 24 over. People, including the elderly and number of tests to be increased but the provincial and district levels, and from the district hospital in Salyan. tive way. hours 1,946 people tested positive, small children who were vulnerable to the Finance Ministry refused, accord- has data of the infected people and “One had to walk for hours to reach “We provide free ambulance servic- according to the Health Ministry. multiple infections, were compelled to ing to an official at the Health Ministry, heat maps, has developed technology a hospital in the past, as there were no es to the poor based on the recommen- There were 36,452 active cases across stay out in the open. who spoke on the condition of ano- for contact tracing, but it doesn’t have ambulance facilities. Most of the dation of the ward office. Pregnant the country on Saturday. The risk of spread of vector borne nymity. the authority to formulate policy. women in rural areas had unsafe women and senior citizens get 25 The number of cases in Kathmandu diseases like malaria and dengue were Even the ways the government has Its role was limited to making rec- delivery. That is no longer the case and 10 percent discount respectively Valley has been going up at an alarm- also high. dealt with non-governmental organi- ommendations to the Cabinet, headed now,” said Gharti. while using the service in our ing rate and time and again the Valley “We had seen 2010 Haiti’s cholera sations and international non-govern- by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli Eight of the 10 local bodies in local unit,” said Chintamani mayors have asked federal authorities outbreak after the earthquake, which mental organisations have been differ- which time and again did not listen to Salyan have arranged for ambulance Regmi, the chief administrative to bar entry of people from outside killed more people than the quake,” ent.