WITHOUT F EAR OR FAVOUR Nepal’s largest selling English daily Vol XXIX No. 133 | 8 pages | Rs.5 O O Printed simultaneously in Kathmandu, Biratnagar, Bharatpur and Nepalgunj 36.0 C 17.4 C Thursday, July 01, 2021 | 17-03-2078 Dipayal Jumla Senior citizens increasingly Oli’s one last effort worried as they wait for at party unity fails to Covid-19 vaccines As 1.4 million people aged 65 and above are waiting for convince dissidents their second shots, there are other risk groups who need immediate vaccination, but the jabs are nowhere in sight. Spectre of split looms large over the CPN-UML as both sides continue to see each other with suspicion and distrust. ANUP OJHA arranged for the vaccines.” KATHMANDU, JUNE 30 Khagaraj was referring to the recent government announcement ANIL GIRI rally behind the opposition alliance of Narayani Nainabasti and her husband through the budget that the monthly KATHMANDU, JUNE 30 the Nepali Congress and the Maoist Khagaraj had taken their first shots of allowance for the elderly had been Centre. Covishield, the AstraZeneca type vac- increased to Rs4,000. CPN-UML chair KP Sharma Oli’s one As many as 23 lawmakers from cine against Covid-19, on March 12 The Nainabastis are among the 1.4 last effort to placate the dissident fac- the dissolved House have signed a when the government was inoculating million elderly people aged 65 and tion led by Madhav Kumar Nepal petition submitted by the opposition people aged 65 and above. above who were administered their appears to have fallen flat in what alliance to the Supreme Court, It’s more than three months since, first dose of Covishield in the second looks like a precursor to a formal split demanding restoration of Parliament and they are wondering when they week of March. The government’s in the party. and appointment of Sher Bahadur would be able to get their second dose. plan to give second doses to them, A day after deciding to revive the Deuba as prime minister. “When we were given the first shots, however, has gone awry. It has neither party’s Central Committee as it exist- Party members close to Oli said that we were told we would have to take the been able to get Covishield from India ed on May 16, 2018, prior to the UML’s Wednesday’s was almost a last call by second dose some time after four nor has made a progress on procuring merger with the Communist Party of Oli for keeping the UML unity intact. weeks. But it has been more than AstraZeneca doses from elsewhere. Nepal (Maoist Centre), the party on Informal talks with the Nepal-Khanal three months,” said Khagaraj of Maha Prasad Parajuli, president of Wednesday took a slew of decisions. faction, however, will continue, Ramgha in Madhya Nepal the Senior Citizens Struggle They include bringing the dissident according to them. Municipality of Lamjung district. Committee, blamed the government leaders back to the party, withdrawing The Nepal-Khanal faction, however, Khagaraj is 87 and Narayani 88. for not being sincere to the plight of the May 24 decision to remove senior has termed Oli’s call “inadequate” as “Now we hear from the radio and the elderly. party leaders Madhav Kumar Nepal, well as too little too late. It says Oli is news that the government has not “Nearly half a dozen elderly people Jhala Nath Khanal and nine other still reluctant to meet the demands been able to get the vaccines to give associated with the committee have lawmakers and dissolving the 10th they have been making since the the second dose to the elderly like us,” lost their lives to Covid-19,” said national convention organising com- Supreme Court invalidated the Nepal Khagaraj told the Post over the phone Parajuli. “The elderly are vulnerable mittee. The Madhav Nepal-Jhala Nath Communist Party (NCP) and revived from Lamjung. “Instead of increasing to the virus.” Khanal faction had been asking for the UML and the Maoist Centre. the allowance for senior citizens, the The government has been giving these for quite a while. The Nepal-Khanal faction has been government should have rather Vero Cell, the Chinese vaccine manu- “The national convention organis- demanding that all party organisa- factured and developed by ing committee has been dissolved tions be restored to the pre-merger Sinopharm, to people aged from today, and it has been converted stage (prior to May 18, 2018) and between 60 and 64, but the imme- into the Central Committee that we course correction by Oli as party chair diate concern is about those who had before our party’s merger with and prime minister. took the AstraZeneca type vac- the Maoist Centre,” Pradeep Gyawali, The Nepal-Khanal faction has not cine’s first dose. spokesperson for the UML, told report- made public its official position Dr Janak Sharma Gautam, ers after Wednesday’s meeting. “With regarding the call made by Oli, but its chief of National Immunisation this, action taken against Nepal and leaders said Wednesday’s decisions Programme under the Health other leaders have automatically are not acceptable to them. Ministry, said so far 458,000 become null and void.” “We do not recognise the one-sided people aged between 60 and 64 POST PHOTO: ANGAD DHAKAL Oli’s efforts to make peace with the decision taken by the Oli faction,” said have received the first dose of Police intervene as students aligned with the Maoist Centre burn President Bidya Devi Nepal-Khanal faction come at a time Raghuji Pant, a Standing Committee Vero Cell. Bhandari and Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli in effigies in protest against their move to when his position is becoming untena- member close to Nepal. >> Continued on page 2 dissolve the House of Representatives, at New Baneshwor in Kathmandu on Wednesday. ble, as the dissidents have vowed to >> Continued on page 2 On the auspicious occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, Silk Group Family extends sincere wishes to the Chinese people, the Communist Party of China and the government of the People’s Republic of China. C M Y K THURSDAY, JULY 01, 2021 | 02 NATIONAL Senior citizens ... Koshi Tappu residents protest decision to >> CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 around 22 million, including the elder- “They will be administered the ly, of its 30 million population. With second doses from July 6,” Gautam the government’s failure to act on told the Post. time to procure vaccines, it has turn their homesteads into leasehold forest There, however, is no word from become uncertain when people could government officials on when those be inoculated. Chances of getting The proposed area is home to 500 families, mostly flood and landslide victims, squatters and impoverished households. 1.4 million elderly will get the second vaccines from India faded in March shots of Covishield. when the second wave slid into a Parajuli, chair of the Senior devastating crisis. DILLIRAM KHATIWADA security personnel had to fire eight placed,” said Prakash Budhathoki, a riverbank areas,” said Sah. Citizens Struggle Committee, says the The Oli government, however, did UDAYAPUR, JUNE 30 rounds of bullets into the air and lob resident of Ward No. 3 in Belaka Durga Kumar Thapa, mayor of the government’s misplaced priority has not make any efforts to reach out to six rounds of tear gas canisters to get Municipality. The land was provided municipality, informed that the land exposed the elderly to more risks. China, which so far has provided 1.8 The residents of Koshi Tappu in Ward the situation under control,” he said. on lease to two private companies for at the southern border of the district “First we need to survive to receive million doses of Vero Cell under grant No. 3 of Belaka Municipality vandal- As per the Cabinet decision of May the operation of tourism activities for in wards 1, 2, 3, 8 and 9 have not been government allowances,” said assistance, to buy the vaccines under ised the municipal office on 20, the government has decided to the next 30 years. recommended for lease. Parajuli. “As we are hearing about the commercial deals. Though the govern- Wednesday to protest the government turn a chunk of land in the Koshi Baraha Herbal and Agro Pvt Ltd in “Those living in the southern bor- third wave of the coronavirus, we are ment says it is planning to buy 4 mil- decision to turn 176.23 hectares of Tappu area into a leasehold forest. Sunsari and Safeway Technology in der will not have to move. They will worried.” lion doses from Sinopharm, the com- land in the area into a leasehold forest. The proposed leasehold forest area Lalitpur won the lease to operate receive land ownership certificates Nepal managed to escape the first pany’s proposal for a non-disclosure According to the District Police is home to around 500 families, mostly eco-tourism industries in the pro- soon,” said Thapa. However, the wave of the coronavirus somewhat agreement to sell its vaccine has creat- Office in Udayapur, around 300 local flood and landslide victims, landless posed area. municipality does not have relocation unscathed compared to other coun- ed confusion. residents gathered outside the squatters and impoverished house- According to Jageshwor Sah, assis- plans for those who will be affected tries, including those from the West. Hopes to get vaccines, especially the office to discuss the issue with the holds who have been living in the area tant forest officer of the Division by the government’s decision yet, The most affected ones, however, were AstraZeneca type, from COVAX, an authorities.