Nepal PM Oli recommends Parliament's dissolution amidst power tussle; Oppn cries foul
Kathmandu: Nepal's beleaguered Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli on Sunday sprang a surprise on his rivals and recommended the dissolution of Parliament, a controversial move amidst a prolonged tussle for power between him and former premier Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda .
An emergency Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Oli decided to recommend President Bidya Devi Bhandari for the dissolution of Parliament's House of Representatives, a senior Standing Committee member of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) told PTI.
The 275-member House of Representatives, which is the lower house of Parliament, was elected in 2017.
Today's Cabinet meeting decided to recommend the President to dissolve the Parliament, said Barshaman Pun, Energy Minister at Oli's Cabinet, The Kathmandu Post reported.
Prime Minister Oli reached Rashtrapati Bhawan with the decision of the council of ministers.
The move comes as the intra-party feud reached climax in the ruling NCP which has been witnessing months long tussle between two factions, one led by 68-year-old Oli and Party's chairman and another led by 66-year-old Prachanda , also the executive chair of the party and former premier.
Senior leader of the ruling NCP and former prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal has termed the move as unconstitutional. Constitutional experts have also termed the move to dissolve Parliament as unconstitutional.
As per the provision of Nepal's Constitution, there is no provision of dissolving Parliament by the Prime Minister of a majority government, they said, adding that Oli's move is likely to be challenged in the court.
As long as there is a possibility of forming the government, there is no provision to dissolve the House, said constitutional expert Dinesh Tripathi.
Meanwhile, the main Opposition Nepali Congress (NC) has called an emergency meeting of the party on Sunday.
The move comes a day after the NC and the Rastriya Janata Party decided to ask the President for summoning a Special Session of Parliament.
NC president and former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba recently came down heavily upon the Oli government for its attempts to impose one-party totalitarian rule in the country. He blamed the government for not working toward controlling growing cases of rape and corruption.
"The government is indulged in corruption even in course of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic," Deuba alleged last week.
Separately, Prachanda and Madhav Nepal faction has been urging Oli to quit the post of Prime Minister amidst growing accusation and counter-accusation between the two factions in the ruling NCP.
On November 13, in his 19-page political document presented at the NCP's Secretariat meeting, Prachanda criticised Oli for failing to properly run both the government and the party, and even accused Oli of corruption.
Oli, known for his pro-China leanings, however, denied the allegations and challenged Prachanda to legally prove the graft charges or apologise.
Oli rejected his accusations that he was running the government without consulting the party, and instead blamed his rival for non-cooperation in handling the party's affairs.
The prime minister had submitted a separate 38-page political document in response to the allegations made by Prachanda.
In June, Oli claimed that efforts were being made to oust him after his government redrew the country's political map by incorporating three strategically key Indian territories.
India had termed as "untenable" the "artificial enlargement" of the territorial claims by Nepal after its Parliament unanimously approved the new political map of the country featuring Lipulekh, Kalapani, and Limpiyadhura areas which India maintains belong to it.
The NCP, formed after the merger between Oli led CPN-UML and Prachanda led CPN (Maoist Centre) in May 2018, is divided along the two factions led by Oli and Prachanda.
The Prachanda faction enjoys a majority in the nine-member Secretariat, the highest decision-making body of the party.
After several rounds of negotiations, the Standing Committee of the party on September 11 endorsed a 15-point decision drafted by a six-member task force which was formed in a bid to resolve the long-standing dispute between the two factions, but to no avail.
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DoT directs telcos to block 28,200 mobile handsets, re-verify 20 lakh mobile numbers
New Delhi, May 10: The Department of Telecom (DoT) has directed telecom operators to block 28,200 mobile handsets and carry out immediate reverification of 20 lakh mobile connections for their alleged link with cyber crimes, according to an official statement on Friday.
DoT, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), and state police have joined hands for curbing the misuse of telecom resources in cyber-crime and financial frauds and aim to dismantle networks of fraudsters and protect citizens from digital threats, it said.
"Analysis carried out by MHA and state police has revealed that 28,200 mobile handsets were misused in cybercrimes. The DoT further analysed and found that a staggering 20 lakh numbers were used with these mobile handsets.
"Subsequently, DoT issued directions to telecom service providers for pan India blocking of 28,200 mobile handsets and to carry out immediate reverification of 20 lakh mobile connections linked to these mobile handsets and disconnect failing re-verification," the statement said.
The DoT launched Chakshu portal two months ago to handle telecom fraud-related grievances.
Since the launch of the portal, the department has blacklisted 52 entities involved in sending malicious and phishing SMSes, blocked 348 mobile handsets across the country, and flagged 10,834 suspected mobile numbers for re-verification.
Besides, DoT has blocked 1.58 lakh unique mobile device identification number IMEI due to involvement in cyber crimes and financial frauds or mobile connections taken on fake or forged documents.
Till April 30 this year, DoT disconnected 1.66 crore mobile connections, of which 30.14 lakh were disconnected based on users' feedback and 53.78 lakh for exceeding individual limit to buy new SIM cards, as per official data.
