Country to face 29 hrs of power cuts every week from today

Citing decreased water level in the rivers and with Middle Marshyangdi closed for maintenance from the last two days, Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has imposed 29 hours of weekly power cuts (also called load shedding) in the country from Wednesday.

NEA, the state monopoly for supply of electricity, published a new schedule for increased load shedding hours Monday. According to the new schedule, power will be cut twice a day in two to three-and-half hour slots for five days a week and once for one day. One day a week will load shedding free.

Earlier, NEA had been imposing load shedding for two hours a day for six days a week.

NEA said, it was forced to increase the load shedding hours due to decreased water level in the rivers and increased demand with the advent of winter season.

Load shedding hours is likely to increase for more than 16 hours a day this year as there has not been substantial addition in the power supply this year.

Student union padlocks PU offices on charges of corruption

Nepal Students' Union (NSU), the student wing of Nepali Congress (NC), has padlocked all administrative offices except the office of the controller of examinations of Purbanchal University (PU) charging varsity officials of embezzling fund meant for scholarships.

The student union spared the office of the examinations controller not to disturb the upcoming entrance exams for various courses under the Institute of Medicine (IoM) of the university. The entrance exams are slated for November 20 and 21.

Students have charged university officials of irregularities in scholarship distribution and other financial transactions.

Last year, All Nepal National Independent Students Union -Revolutionary (ANNISU-R) had padlocked the varsity officials over the same issue.

There had been an agreement to provide scholarship to ten percent of the students then. But, the student unions have alleged the agreement has not been implemented.

Although the university officials have said, the scholarships were distributed by the Ministry of Education (MoE), the student union has claimed the scholarship fund was embezzled as the distribution process was not made transparent

Nepali women’s cricket team crash out from Asian Games

Nepal’s women’s cricket team crashed out from the Asian Games after losing to Japan by 45 runs at Guangzhou in China on Wednesday.
Japan, choosing to bat first, made 136 runs in 20 overs. In reply, the Nepali eves could only make 90 runs losing nine wickets. Nira Rajodhopaya scored the highest with 37 runs while Nary Thapa contributed 26 runs.
The rest of the batswomen couldn't touch double figures.
Yesterday, Nepal had defeated Hong Kong by seven wickets to book a spot against Japan in the semis.
Earlier, Japan had defeated Nepal by 10 wickets in the first match.