Kathmandu: Nepal’s President Ramchandra Poudel was admitted to a hospital here on Tuesday for the second time within a month after he complained of shortness of breath, a senior leader of the Nepali Congress said.
Poudel, 78, was taken to the Teaching Hospital in Maharajgunj, Kathmandu. According to Baikuntha Thapaliya, the hospital’s administration chief, President Paudel is undergoing treatment.
“We rushed him to the hospital after his oxygen level dipped. He has been taking antibiotics for 15 days but his situation has not improved,” one adviser to the president was quoted as saying by the Kathmandu Post newspaper.
Prime Minister Pushpakamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ visited the hospital to inquire about Poudel’s health condition.
This is the second time President Poudel has been hospitalised within a month. Last week, the president complained of pain in his stomach.
A Cabinet meeting on Tuesday decided to deploy a team of government officials to facilitate his treatment.
The team will assess the nature of the president’s illness and report to the government, a minister said. Further decisions on the president’s treatment will be taken after the team submits its report.
Poudel of the Nepali Congress was elected as the new president of Nepal last month, in a relief to the fragile coalition government headed by Prime Minister ‘Prachanda’.
Poudel, a common candidate of the eight-party alliance that included the Nepali Congress and Prime Minister ‘Prachanda’-led CPN (Maoist Center), received the vote of 214 lawmakers of Parliament and 352 provincial assembly members.
Kathmandu: Baljeet Kaur, a 27-year-old prominent Indian woman climber was rescued on Tuesday, a day after she went missing near Camp IV of Mt Annapurna while descending from the summit point, an official of the expedition organiser said.
Kaur, who scaled the world’s 10th highest peak without using supplemental oxygen on Monday, was rescued from 7,363m after an aerial search team located her above Camp IV, Chairman at Pioneer Adventure Pasang Sherpa, was quoted as saying by the Himalayan Times newspaper.
“She has suffered from frostbite and is now being rushed to CIWEC Hospital from Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu,” Sherpa said.
Kaur was seen descending alone towards Camp IV by the aerial search team, according to Sherpa.
The leading Indian woman climber, who was left alone below the summit point, remained out of radio contact till this morning, the report added.
An aerial search mission was initiated on Tuesday morning only after she managed to send a radio signal asking for ‘immediate help’.
A series of heroic airlifts from Annapurna including Baljeet Kaur, Shehroz Kashif, Naila Kiyani & two others. Two deaths reported so far on the dangerous Annapurna #Nepalpic.twitter.com/QbNtP5eOR8
According to Sherpa, her GPS location has indicated an altitude of 7,375m (24,193ft). She climbed Mt Annapurna along with two Sherpa guides at around 5:15 pm on Monday. At least three helicopters were mobilised to trace her.
In May last year, Kaur, from Himachal Pradesh, scaled Mt Lhotse and became the first Indian climber to have climbed four 8000-meter peaks in a single season.
On Monday, Anurag Malu, a resident of Kishangarh in Rajasthan, went missing while descending from Camp III of Mt. Annapurna.
A team of five Sherpa climbers has been conducting a ground search for Malu, the report said.
According to Mingma Sherpa, chairman at Seven Summit Treks, Noel Hanna, the first person from Ireland to reach the summit of K2 during the winter season, died at Camp IV last night. Hanna’s body was also brought back to Kathmandu on Tuesday, the report said.
Indian climber Arjun Vajpai was also evacuated from Camp IV along with Pakistani climbers Shehroze Kashif and Naila Kiani after they fell ill while descending from the summit point, Seven Summit Treks’ Expedition Director, Chhang Dawa Sherpa, was quoted as saying in the report.
Annapurna is the tenth-highest mountain in the world, standing at 8,091 metres above sea level.
It is well known for the difficulty and danger involved in its ascent.
New Delhi: Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, also known as Prachanda, is likely to visit India on April 28, according to reports citing sources.
Quoting the sources in Nepal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the reports said that the date of visit was proposed to Kathmandu by New Delhi.
Prachanda is likely to be in India on a three-day visit, the sources added.
An announcement regarding the visit will be made officially by the two nations in a week’s time, the reports said .
Dahal had earlier visited India after attending the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics in 2008, during his first tenure as Prime Minister.
In 2016 again, he had visited New Delhi while his second tenure as the premier.
Kathmandu: Nepali Congress leader N.P. Saud was on Sunday appointed the country’s new Foreign Minister – filling the key post that was lying vacant for over one and half months.
Saud, who is considered close with former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, was administered the oath of office and secrecy by President Ram Chandra Poudel.
After assuming the office, he said that homework for the India visit of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ will now begin.
According to some media reports, Prachanda is now planning to visit India by mid May, instead of April as planned earlier.
“I have just assumed office today… I will take a briefing from the officials regarding the India visit of the Prime Minister,” Saud said after assuming the office.
“We will strengthen our ties with the neighbouring countries,” he added.
A slew of agreements across various sectors are expected to be signed during Prachanda’s visit, including signing of an agreement for the construction of the Raxaul-Kathmandu railway with India’s financial assistance as its detailed project report (DPR) has been prepared by the Indian consultant Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd (KRCL).
The KRCL has already handed over the DPR to India’s Ministry of External Affairs.
During a press conference on March 27, Deputy Prime Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha, who then held the Physical Infrastructure and Transport portfolio, had said that the DPR of the proposed Kathmandu-Raxaul railway would be prepared within a month and the Nepali side could receive the report a month later.
To discuss the DPR of the 136-km-long railway that will link Kathmandu with the Indian town Raxaul, Nepal and India are holding a meeting of their joint working group on railway by the end of this week, said an senior official at the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport.
Some other agreements and issues related to development of two hydropower projects in Nepal, energy cooperation, trade, commerce, digital payments, import of wheat, air routes, water resources, transit, cross-border transmission line among others will be signed or discussed in the visit.
Kathmandu: Nepal is keen to sign a 25-year agreement with India on selling its surplus power to the neighbouring country during Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda’s expected visit to New Delhi.
Though the official date of Prachanda’s visit to India is yet to be announced, the Kathmandu Post newspaper, quoting Nepali officials, reported on Sunday that the prime minister is likely to travel to New Delhi after the second week of April.
However, the two sides have yet to announce the dates, it said.
“We are preparing a proposal for the Indian side on the 25-year agreement. But a lot also depends on whether the Indian side agrees to include our proposal in the agenda,” the report quoted a senior official at the energy ministry as saying.
Dinesh Ghimire, secretary at the ministry, said the issue of the long-term inter-governmental agreement was under discussion at the ministry but was yet to be forwarded to Nepal’s foreign ministry to make it an agenda item ahead of the prime minister’s trip.
He said such an agreement can be signed only if the Indian side gives its nod at the bureaucratic level before Prachanda reaches New Delhi, the report said.
Nepal proposed such a deal during the 10th secretary-level meeting of the Joint Steering Committee (JSC) on Energy Cooperation in India in late February.
“During the meeting, it was decided that Nepal would make a proposal which India would examine,” said Prabal Adhikari, power trade director at the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), who was also in the Nepali delegation.
At the JSC meeting in Mount Abu, Rajasthan in February, Nepal and India inked an agreement to increase the power import and export capacity through the Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur transmission line from 600 megawatts to 800 megawatts.
An agreement to import and export 70 to 80 MW of electricity from Tanakpur-Mahendranagar 132 KV (kilovolt) power transmission was also signed between the two sides.
They agreed to set up the necessary mechanisms to export power from Nepal to Bihar during the rainy season through the existing 132 KV transmission line.
Currently, Nepal is allowed to sell 452.6 MW of electricity generated by 10 hydropower projects in the Indian power markets. The Himalayan nation awaits approval for more projects from Indian authorities to export electricity.
Adhikari said an inter-government agreement could also pave the way for selling power to India irrespective of whether a third country has invested or is involved in a particular project.
Currently, India has been refusing to buy electricity from projects that involve Chinese investors or contractors, the report said.
Nepal produces surplus energy during the wet (summer) season while it has to buy electricity from India during the dry (winter) season.
NEA Managing Director Kul Man Ghising believes the country will be self-sufficient in hydropower even during the dry season by 2026.
Kathmandu: The Indian Embassy in Kathmandu has claimed that absconding pro-Khalistan radical Sikh preacher Amritpal Singh is currently hiding in Nepal and requested the Himalayan nation’s government agencies to arrest him if he tries to flee.
The Mission made the claim in a letter to the Department of Consular Services under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on March 25.
“The esteemed Ministry is requested to inform the Department of Immigration not to permit Amritpal Singh to travel through Nepal for any third country and arrest him if he attempts to escape from Nepal using an Indian passport or any other fake passport under intimation to this mission,” reads a copy of the letter obtained by The Kathmandu Post.
The letter and Singh’s personal details have been circulated to all the concerned agencies from hotels to airlines, multiple sources told The Kathmandu Post.
Singh is said to be possessing multiple passports with different identities.
The development comes amid a massive crackdown on Amritpal Singh and his associates in Punjab.
Amritpal Singh, against whom the National Security Act has been invoked and a non-bailable warrant issued, has been on the run despite the massive manhunt launched to nab him since March 18.
The self-styled preacher had returned from Dubai last year.
Earthquakes cannot be predicted because geologists are still limited to studying the Earth’s surface and haven’t been able to study the planet’s crust, a hundred km below where the earthquakes originate.
An aerial view of the devastation by the February 2023 earthquake in Hatay, Turkey.
It is said that when a major earthquake happens anywhere, fear strikes everywhere. There is no place on earth that is not quake-prone. In some places, it might be more, and in some, less.
India is the third-largest earthquake-prone country globally, after Japan and Nepal. Within India, the Himalayas are the most quake-prone zone. According to the National Centre for Seismology, nearly 59% of India’s landmass is prone to earthquakes at varying intensities. As many as 11 cities and towns in about eight states and Union Territories fall within Zone-5, the highest one, and the capital city Delhi in itself is categorized in Zone-4.
The vulnerable states/UTs include Jammu and Kashmir, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Manipur, Assam, Nagaland, and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
The capital Delhi is located near three active seismic fault lines – Sohna, Mathura, and Delhi-Moradabad. Gurugram is the riskiest area in Delhi-NCR, being situated around seven fault lines. If these get activated, a high-intensity quake that could wreak havoc is unavoidable. The capital, in particular, would experience changes in the tectonic plates as it is close to the Himalayas. The central Himalayan region is among the most seismically active zones globally.
For over 700 years, the region has been under tectonic stress, which could potentially be released in the coming years, as indicated by a study.
Seismologists believe that the tremors are a manifestation of the convergence between the Indo-Australian and Asian tectonic plates that built the Himalayan mountains in the last 50 million years. Any mega earthquake will have a magnitude upwards of 8 on the Richter scale and can occur anywhere between Dehradun to Kathmandu, and its impact can be felt in the entire Gangetic plains and massive Indian cities like Delhi NCR, Shimla, Patna.
Since tectonic tension builds up over a long time before it can be released, it is believed that strong earthquakes follow a ‘seismic cycle.’ For instance, after a region has faced an earthquake of magnitude 7 or higher, it takes decades for another earthquake of a similar size to strike the same location. On the other hand, if a region hasn’t seen a sizable earthquake in a while, the likelihood of one occurring is very high.
Earthquakes cannot be predicted because geologists are still limited to studying the Earth’s surface and haven’t been able to study the planet’s crust, a hundred km below where the earthquakes originate. However, seismologists can make calculated guesses based on probability and larger geological patterns. It is by studying such patterns in the Himalayan Mountain ranges that seismologists Roger Bilham and K Khatri predicted the Great Himalayan Earthquake.
The two scientists were able to identify a seismic gap – the region where tectonic tension builds up because no earthquakes have occurred – in the central Himalayan region. According to the researchers, the Indian tectonic plate is moving along a significant fault beneath the Himalayas at a rate of around 1.8 centimetres per year. The absence of a massive earthquake in the central Himalayas in recorded history provides strong evidence that a significant amount of tectonic tension has built up in this region and is ready to be released.
According to seismologists, the Himalayas have not seen an earthquake over the magnitude of eight in over five hundred years. This has led to the accumulation of great amounts of strain between the Eurasian plate and the Indian plate. The last major earthquake in the Himalayan belt was the 2015 Nepal earthquake (7.3 M) which killed over 8,900 people preceded by the 2005 earthquake in Jammu and Kashmir (7.6 M) which took 87,000 lives. However, these weren’t enough to release the seismic stress.
According to Bilham and many other seismologists, the Great Himalayan Earthquake is inevitable. However, the exact date, as well as the epicentre of this earthquake, is still unknown. So, this earthquake can strike us tomorrow, the next year, or after a hundred years, no one can predict for sure. Moreover, while the central Himalayan region will be the most probable centre of the earthquake, the specific location is still unknown, and seismologists can only take an educated guess.
Dr N Purnachandra Rao, the chief scientist of seismology at the National Geophysical Research Institute, has warned that an earthquake similar in magnitude to Turkey quakes or even more is “imminent” in Uttarakhand and can happen “any time.” Tremendous stress continues to build under the Uttarakhand region, and it will inevitably be released as a massive earthquake in the area anytime.
“We are monitoring the situation in real-time. We have GPS networks in the area. GPS points are moving, indicating changes happening beneath the surface,” he said. There are around 80 seismic stations in the Himalayan region focused on Uttarakhand already smarting under sinking earth at several places. There is a good chance it will exceed a magnitude of 8 when it happens. These earthquakes are fairly periodic, and that’s how scientists currently predict when the next one could strike. Uttarakhand faces the brunt of this quite often. However, the state has not endured a “great earthquake” (magnitude 8 and higher) for over 100 years.
Incidentally, birds of all hues made loud noises and flew abnormally in flocks on the night before the big quake, indicating something unusual was going to happen. Unlike birds, humans have not developed such premonition.
(This write-up first appeared in Himalayan News Chronicle Vol-3, Issue-2 – February 1, 2023 – February 28, 2023. Views are personal.)
Prime suspect in the Bhiwani killings case Monu Manesar, who belongs to the Bajrang Dal, has allegedly fled the country to neighboring Nepal.
According to Tribune India, a senior Rajasthan police official, who wished to remain anonymous, said the whereabouts of Monu and four other suspects were received while intercepting the calls he made to his accomplices under surveillance and recording their financial transactions.
“We have got intel inputs in the matter but can’t reveal much at this stage,” the senior official was quoted by Tribune India.
Monu and his associates have been charged with kidnapping and murdering two Muslim men – Junaid and Nasir. On February 16, the charred bodies of Nasir and Junaid were found inside a burnt car in Loharu in Bhiwani in Haryana.
They have been booked under sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) 143 (unlawful assembly), 365 (kidnapping), 367 (grievously hurt after kidnapping), and 368 (wrongfully keeping in confinement) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Nasir (25) and Junaid alias Juna (35), both residents of Ghatmeeka village in Bharatpur district of Rajasthan, were allegedly abducted by cow vigilantes on February 15 and their bodies were found inside a burnt car in Loharu in Bhiwani in Haryana on the morning of February 16.
Nasir is survived by his wife, while Junaid is survived by his wife, six children and a mentally challenged brother.
A total of nine accused, including Bajrang Dal member Monu Manesar who runs a cow protection group, and Srikant Pandit, whose mother lodged a complaint against the Rajasthan Police, have been named in the case so far.
Earlier in the day, chief minister Ashok Gehlot met the bereaved families of Junaid and Nasir and announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh each.
“The state government will provide Rs 5 lakh compensation each to the wives and children of both the deceased. An amount of Rs 1 lakh each will be provided as cash whereas a fixed deposit of Rs 4 lakh each will be done so that the dependent families do not face any problem in the education and marriage of the kids,” he told reporters.
Kathmandu: Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda” has cancelled his first foreign visit to Qatar due to some “important political engagements” at home, officials said on Monday, amidst a threat to the stability of his coalition government ahead of the presidential election.
“Prachanda” was scheduled to leave for Doha on March 3 to participate in the Fifth Conference of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) taking place there, his first official foreign trip since assuming office two months ago.
“The Prime Minister’s visit to Qatar to attend the Fifth Conference of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) has been cancelled due to his important political engagements at home,” Prachanda’s Media Coordinator Surya Kiran Sharma told PTI on Monday.
Earlier, on Sunday the Foreign Ministry announced that Prime Minister Prachanda would visit Qatar, in connection with participating in LDCs meeting, as his first foreign trip after assuming the top executive position.
However, the Prime Minister decided not to leave the country in view of the presidential election scheduled to take place on March 9, the Prime Minister’s aide confirmed.
Meanwhile, just hours before Foreign Minister Bimala Rai Paudyal was scheduled to fly to Geneva to attend a high-level session of the UN Human Rights Council, Prime Minister Prachanda asked her to cancel the visit.
The development comes as a new ruling coalition minus the CPN-UML is in the making in Kathmandu just ahead of the presidential election on March 9, Nepalease media reported on Monday.
Eight political parties, including CPN-Maoist Centre led by Prachanda, have decided to support senior Nepali Congress leader Ramchandra Poudyal for the post of head of the state during the election.
Prachanda, the 68-year-old Maoist leader was sworn in as the Prime Minister for the third time on December 26 last year after he dramatically walked out of the pre-poll alliance led by the Nepali Congress and joined hands with opposition leader Oli.
The Rashtriya Prajatantra Party (PPP), a key partner in the seven parties ruling alliance in Nepal, has decided to withdraw its support to ‘Prachanda’-led government, citing changes in the political equation.
Maoist Center Chairman and Prime Minister ‘Prachanda’ has dealt a blow to the ruling alliance by selecting a presidential candidate from outside the ruling alliance.
The presidential election scheduled for early next month has put a serious question mark on the future of the seven-party ruling alliance.
Kathmandu: Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra and his Nepali counterpart Bharat Raj Paudyal during a bilateral meeting here on Monday reviewed various aspects of Nepal-India relations and expressed commitment to allow the export of power from Nepal to India on a long-term basis.
Kwatra arrived here on a two-day official visit to hold talks with the country’s top leaders on the entire range of multifaceted cooperation between the two neighbouring countries, including connectivity, trade and transit, power sector cooperation, agriculture, education, culture, health sector, and people to people relations, among others.
Soon after his arrival here, Kwatra met his Nepalese counterpart Paudyal and “the two sides reviewed with satisfaction the progress made in the connectivity projects such as railways, transmissions lines, bridges, and the ICPs”, said a statement issued by the Nepalese Foreign Ministry.
“The two sides also expressed commitment to allow the export of power from Nepal to India on a long-term basis utilising all products of the exchange market. They also discussed technical upgrading of cross-border transmission lines and early approval of the four proposed transmission line projects under the LOC-IV,” the statement said.
“The two sides discussed the early conclusion of the renewed transit treaty, review of the trade treaty, and convening of the inter-governmental committee on trade (IGC) at an early date.”
Foreign Secretary Paudyal reiterated the request to the Indian government for additional air-entry routes as well as early concurrence of the near border flight operation of the Gautam Buddha International Airport in Bhairahawa, according to the statement.
“The two foreign secretaries also discussed the boundary matters. In this regard, they exchanged views on completing the boundary works in the remaining segments through the established bilateral mechanisms.”
They also agreed to finalise the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the foreign service academies of the two countries.
The meeting was held in a friendly and cordial atmosphere reflecting the close and multifaceted relations between the two neighbours, said the statement. Paudyal later hosted a lunch in the honour of the visiting Indian foreign secretary and the members of his delegation.
In the afternoon, Kwatra also called on President Bidya Devi Bhandari, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda’, and Minister for Foreign Affairs Bimala Rai Paudyal.
Kwatra paid a courtesy call to Bhandari at the Sheetal Niwas here and conveyed the greetings on behalf of the President of India Droupadi Murmu.
Kathmandu: Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra with President of Nepal Bidya Devi Bhandari during a meeting, at Sheetal Niwas in Kathmandu, Monday, Feb. 13, 2023. (PTI Photo)
“Matters of mutual interests were discussed during the calls on,” the statement said.
The Foreign Secretary of India arrived in Kathmandu on Monday morning on a two-day visit to the Himalayan nation.
During his visit, Kwatra, who was earlier India’s ambassador here, is expected to discuss with his Nepalese interlocutors the possibility of a visit to India by Prime Minister Prachanda.
Prachanda has said that he will travel to India on his first foreign visit. Seven members each from Nepal and India took part in the Foreign Secretary-level bilateral meeting.
Indian Ambassador to Nepal Naveen Srivastava was among the members of the Indian delegation while Joint Secretary and spokesperson at the Foreign Ministry Sewa Lamsal was among the members of the Nepalese delegation.
This is the first high-level visit from India after Prime Minister Prachanda assumed office for the third time in December.
Kwatra is also expected to meet Nepal’s top political leaders, including Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba and CPN-UML chairman KP Sharma Oli on Tuesday.
“The visit is in keeping with the tradition of regular high-level exchanges between the two countries and the priority India attaches to its relations with Nepal under its ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy,” the Ministry of External Affairs has said.
India’s Neighbourhood First’ policy is an integral component of Indian foreign policy.
The policy seeks to build cordial and synergetic relations with India’s South Asian neighbours in various areas such as economy, science and technology, research, and education, among others.
Nepal is important for India in the context of its overall strategic interests in the region, and the leaders of the two countries have often noted the age-old “Roti Beti” relationship.
Nepal shares a border of more than 1,850 km with five Indian states – Sikkim, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand.
Land-locked Nepal relies heavily on India for the transportation of goods and services.
