WITHOUT F EAR OR FAVOUR Nepal’s largest selling English daily Vol XXVIII No. 113 | 8 pages | Rs.5 O O Printed simultaneously in Kathmandu, Biratnagar, Bharatpur and Nepalgunj 36.7 C 13.5 C Wednesday, June 17, 2020 | 03-03-2077 Dipayal Jomsom Court orders use of foreign employment welfare fund to bring migrants home Tens of thousands of Nepalis willing to return home are still stranded abroad for a lack of money to buy air tickets and clarity on the repatriation modality. SANGAM PRASAIN & CHANDAN KUMAR MANDAL migrants around the world, according KATHMANDU, JUNE 16 to a report by the World Bank. The money remitted by migrant The Supreme Court has issued an workers is equivalent to 28 percent of interim order to the government to Nepal’s gross domestic product. use the foreign employment welfare The court ordered an immediate fund to repatriate Nepali workers liv- process to rescue them by a ‘judicious ing abroad in highly vulnerable condi- utilisation’ of funds. It also ordered tions. discussions with the writ petitioner The order is expected to provide and all concerned stakeholders while relief for tens of thousands of migrant formulating repatriation guidelines. workers who have been stranded in The ruling came in response to a several countries due to the Covid-19 petition alleging that the govern- pandemic and are unable to finance ment’s executive order to repatriate hefty chartered airfares to fly back Nepali nationals was against the legal home. provision of rescuing stranded work- A single bench of Justices Ananda ers who are unable to pay for their Mohan Bhattarai and Hari Prasad flight tickets. Phuyal on Monday issued the order. Hundreds of migrant workers who POST PHOTO: ELITE JOSHI The bench has asked the govern- have been criticising the govern- A woman reads a book as protesters changed their way of demonstration, at Patan in Lalitpur on Tuesday. Amid fears of the spread of Covid-19, the protesters maintained physical distance and ment to immediately rescue the ment’s delayed response to bring them wore face masks as they held books open and read out lines in a creative demonstration against the government’s poor handling of the crisis. Nepalis who have gone for foreign home had to face another storm when employment with labour permits, as the government unveiled the char- they have made contributions to the tered fare list for 25 destinations welfare fund. They have been strand- which they said was three times the ed in various countries as internation- normal rate. al flights have been suspended since The petitioners had demanded that India, China troops clash at Himalayan March 20, four days before Nepal the case of migrant workers should be imposed a complete lockdown, due to viewed in a different light, as they the Covid-19 pandemic. contribute to the worker welfare The government has suspended funds. border with ‘casualties on both sides’ scheduled international flights until On June 5, nearly two and a half July 5. months after Nepal enforced the lock- “It’s the responsibility of the gov- down, 169 Nepalis arrived from the Indian army says 20 soldiers killed in first deaths in decades in border skirmish between the nuclear-armed Asian giants. ernment to rescue the stranded United Arab Emirates—the first batch migrant workers and send them to of workers to return to Nepal. But der area. It made no mention of casu- the two sides had now disengaged. their respective destinations when those who arrived home then either alties but India’s foreign ministry said The two sides had been discussing they arrive in Nepal,” said the bench. paid airfares on their own or they there had been casualties on both sides. ways to de-escalate but at some point, “Nepalis go abroad to work not only boarded the plane at the mercy of the An Indian government source said an Indian government source said, for their personal economic gains; companies they were working for. the troops had fought with iron China’s People’s Liberation Army had they also make huge contributions to The Nepal government, however, is rods and stones, and that no shots had turned on a group of Indian soldiers the country’s economy.” in a dilemma whether to charge the been fired. that included an officer. Nepali migrant workers sent home workers or arrange flights for free for The deaths were the first since the “They attacked with iron rods, the $8.1 billion in 2018, making it the 19th the returning citizens. last major border clash in decades commanding officer was grievously biggest beneficiary of funds sent by >> Continued on page 5 between the nuclear-armed neigh- injured and fell, and when that hap- bours--also the world’s two most popu- pened, more soldiers swarmed to the lous countries--which have been una- area and attacked with stones,” said ble to settle the dispute along their the source, who had been briefed on lengthy frontier. the matter. China and India have traded accusa- >> Continued on page 7 tions over who was to blame for Monday’s clashes in the snow deserts of Ladakh, which came after military commanders held REUTERS meetings to resolve the situation. Indian army soldiers rest next to artillery guns at a makeshift transit camp before heading to Since early May, hundreds of Ladakh, near Baltal, southeast of Srinagar on June 16. soldiers have fronted up against each other at three locations, REUTERS border site, in a major escalation of a each side accusing the other of NEW DELHI/SRINAGAR, JUNE 16 weeks-long standoff between the two trespassing. Asian giants in the western Himalayas. On Monday night, a group of India’s army said on Tuesday that 20 China’s foreign ministry confirmed soldiers came to blows in the of its soldiers had been killed in clash- there had been a “violent physical Galwan Valley, the Indian army POST PHOTO: HEMANTA SHRESTHA es with Chinese troops at a disputed confrontation” on Monday in the bor- said in a statement, adding that An evacuation flight for Nepali women who returned from Kuwait under an amnesty last week. C M Y K WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17, 2020 | 02 MEDLEY Inside the Post Quote of the day Nepali embassies’ ill-treatment of workers continues National even during pandemic, Page 3 The Department of Passports will stop issuing passports to ordinary applicants from Wednesday following a request from the Ministry of Home Affairs. The ministry said the decision was taken to make the distribution fair as people in “People are visiting the embassy and some areas can’t visit their district administration office to apply for their organising sit-ins outside the gate. passports due to mobility restrictions in place due to the Covid-19 pandemic. We have not seen the ambassador Opinion even once during our several The petroglyphs in Shar-ri are a rare find. However, such discoveries have been made before in Mustang. visits to the embassy.” Ramesh Budhathoki, a stranded Nepali migrant worker in the UAE, on how Money Nepali migrant workers have little to no access to the embassies. In order to help businesses knocked down by the virus get back on their feet, the Province 5 government has unveiled tax breaks in the budget statement for the coming fiscal year. Most read online World More than two dozen new coronavirus cases in China and the first New Zealand Provinces announce budgets with strong infections in almost a month on Tuesday underlined the immense challenges still ahead in containing the deadly pandemic, even as some EU nations reopened focus on health and employment their borders to fellow Europeans. All the seven provinces announced their annual budgets for the next fiscal year on Monday, focusing on specific programmes to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. Largest portions of the budgets have also been allocated to infrastructure devel- Culture & Arts opment in hopes of creating more employment for those who’ve lost jobs or The pandemic and the lockdown has been a stressful time for everyone. The peri- returned from abroad. od has also given many of us the time to reflect on our lives, relationships, goals, and make new plans for the future. Odd-even rule for motorcycles irks commuters After coming up with a rule to ban pillion riding on motorbikes last week, offi- cials on Monday strictly enforced the odd-even rule for two wheelers as well without providing prior notice to the public. Hundreds of riders, most of them News Quiz members of the working class, have been forced to rely on motorbikes and scoot- ers to go to work as public transport remains suspended. 1. Which province has announced youths killed in Rukum (West) the biggest budget for the fiscal torched and vandalised which POST PHOTO: HEMANTA SHRESTHA A woman shares her family’s harrowing journey from year 2020-21? hospital claiming that the post- A bumblebee sucks nectar from a flower at the National Botanical Garden in Godavari, Lalitpur. India to Surkhet during pandemic a. Bagmati province mortem reports were falsified? When Maan Kumari’s husband and her brother-in-law were temporarily laid off b. Province 1 a. Rapti Provincial Hospital from their jobs at a hotel in Lucknow, India due to the Covid-19 outbreak, they c. Gandaki province b. Seti Hospital decided to return to their home in Nepal. Without monthly salaries to pay the d. Province 2 c. Jajarkot District Hospital rent, it would have been difficult for them to survive there. d. Dadeldhura Hospital On this day in history 2. Which party has decided to take to the streets alongside the 5.