Namaste, diaspora family. On Monday the government stopped searching for the 5,285 people still missing from the Bhotekoshi flood. Today the President signed an ordinance that lets their families have them declared dead after 45 days rather than 12 years. Malaysia rejected Kathmandu’s objection, the Congress voted without Deuba, and the World Bank priced the damage. Dashain begins on Sunday, and in London, New York and Toronto tika falls a day before it does at home.
Where Things Stand
Search suspended. On 5 October the national disaster council, chaired by PM Balendra Shah, suspended search and rescue “except in emergencies” (The Kathmandu Post).
The count: 1,455 dead and 5,285 missing, unchanged in a week. “They have abandoned us,” one brother told AP (AP).
Forty-five days, not twelve years. President Ram Chandra Paudel issued the ordinance on 9 October. A death certificate opens the way to compensation, insurance and inheritance (OnlineKhabar).
Relief fund: Rs 17.07 billion donated, still only Rs 1 billion released. 1,085 people remain in 17 holding centres (Ratopati).
102 children lost both parents, Bagmati Province says (The Kathmandu Post).
🌍 Diaspora & Globalisation
Malaysia Says No, and Sets a Date
Malaysia has answered Nepal’s objection to its 25 “principal” agencies: it will hire Nepalis only through the 275 agencies listed on its online system, those 25 plus 250 associates (OnlineKhabar). A memo from Bestinet, the company that runs the system, sets the timetable. 15 October is the last day for biometric registration under the old arrangement and 31 October the last for visa applications. From 5 November only listed agencies can send workers, though applications already in the pipeline won’t be cancelled automatically (Setopati). Kathmandu has ordered the 25 principal firms to hand over five years of accounts. For the 400,000 Nepalis already there, Malaysia’s budget confirms a RM2,000 monthly minimum wage, though not until June 2027 (The Kathmandu Post).
Dashain, From a Distance
About 2.8 million Nepalis work abroad, and only a few thousand make it home for Dashain. Deepak Bhandari, 38, is back from a Qatar supermarket for the first time in four years: “You don’t realise how much you miss home until you’ve been away for a while.” Ganesh Rai of Khotang asked for leave four months ahead to spend Dashain with his children for the first time in a decade. Rajan Khadka has spent eight Dashains on video calls from Johor Bahru. “When you’re away from home,” he says, “Dashain doesn’t feel like Dashain” (The Kathmandu Post). For the rest of us, the calendar committee’s tika times put London (10:55am), New York (10:11am) and Toronto (10:41am) on Tuesday 20 October, a day before Nepal’s 10:26am on the 21st. (OnlineKhabar).
In Brief:
US visas. Of 3,933 Nepalis picked in this year’s Diversity Visa lottery, only 580 got visas. A court hearing follows on 15 October (NepYork). There’s still no TPS decision. A proposed $70,000 fee on student work permits (OPT) is open for comment until 9 November (NepYork).
Watch List, again. The US kept Nepal on its trafficking Watch List for a third year and flagged the fraudulent recruitment of Nepalis to fight for Russia (NepYork). Talks with Russia on 7 October covered Nepalis missing or held as prisoners of war, but no outcome was announced (KathmanduPati).
🏛️ Politics & Governance
Congress Votes, Deuba’s Chair Stays Empty
The Nepali Congress opened its 15th General Convention at Khula Manch on Sunday, with a seat kept for Sher Bahadur Deuba, who stayed away. Gagan Thapa used his speech to attack the government: “Parliament is not open. It is closed” (The Kathmandu Post). The vote then slipped three times. Organisers were tangled up in 23 types of ballot and nearly 200,000 papers, and delegates finally voted today. There are 811 candidates for 808 posts, with Thapa facing Shyam Krishna Khadgi for president, and the results are due on Saturday, after we go to press (The Kathmandu Post). Whoever wins, the party stays split. Deuba’s camp is holding its own ward conventions, which lead to a rival convention in December, and the Supreme Court has yet to hear its review.
The Rana Affair Widens
Last week’s story was the pre-dawn detention of former Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana. This week it reached the Armed Police Force. AIG Banshi Raj Dahal, its head of operations, visited Rana at about 3am without telling his superiors (The Kathmandu Post). He was suspended on Monday over alleged leaks of security information and dismissed today (OnlineKhabar). On Wednesday money-laundering investigators raided the homes of Rana, his brother and their associates. On Friday the Supreme Court ruled lawful the arrest of Inam Sapkota, a US green-card holder described as close to Rana, who was stopped at the airport on his way to Delhi. “Sensitive state information is not anyone’s private property,” wrote Home Minister Sudan Gurung. Rana has not been charged, and much of the story so far comes from unnamed officials.
In Brief:
Envoys in the dock. Parliament’s hearing committee questions the 13 ambassador nominees from 12 to 14 October. Of seven complaints, two target the whole slate and the rest target the nominees for Japan and Saudi Arabia. There are none against the picks for the UK, US, India or China (OnlineKhabar).
Delhi raises its game. India has proposed Sudhakar Dalela, a more senior diplomat than it usually sends, as its next ambassador. Home Minister Gurung flies to Delhi on 12 October for a BIMSTEC meeting, his first trip abroad in the job (The Kathmandu Post).
💸 Economy & Development
Who Pays, Week Three: Rs 559 Billion on Paper
On Monday the disaster council recommended Rs 559.17 billion (about $3.6 billion) for 504 projects, though no breakdown has been published (The Kathmandu Post). The same day in Washington, Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle met World Bank President Ajay Banga, the first such meeting in three decades. Nepal asked for about $1 billion for insurance and social protection. Banga promised “significant” support but named no figure (The Annapurna Express). On Tuesday the Bank cut its growth forecast for this year to 3.7 percent, well short of the government’s 6 percent target. It puts direct damage at $1.66 billion and rebuilding at about $4.8 billion. “This is a moment of opportunity,” said country director David Sislen. (The Kathmandu Post). Next come the IMF and World Bank meetings in Bangkok, 12 to 18 October.
Dashain Without the Northern Road
All three overland routes to China are effectively shut going into the festival. Rasuwagadhi went with the flood, China is keeping Tatopani closed, and late-September rain and snow cut the road to Korala. About 500 containers are queued between Lete and the border there (myRepublica). “We are ready to operate from our side immediately,” Infrastructure Minister Sunil Lamsal told MPs, but China has not reopened Tatopani (The Himalayan Times). Shoppers are feeling it. A child’s trouser-and-T-shirt set that cost Rs 1,500 last Dashain now costs up to Rs 2,500, and traders say container charges have doubled. “People come, ask the price and leave saying it is too expensive,” said one New Baneshwar seller (OnlineKhabar). Mutton has hit a record Rs 1,700 a kilo, and traders expect a quarter fewer goats in the Valley (The Kathmandu Post).
In Brief:
Treatment abroad. Nepal Rastra Bank has doubled the foreign currency a Nepali can buy for medical treatment abroad to $30,000 a year. It has also eased the limits on paying for services from overseas (OnlineKhabar).
Dashain money check. On Friday gold rose to Rs 295,700 a tola, banks bought dollars at Rs 154.56, and NEPSE closed at 2,591.80 (Nepal News).
⭐ Social & Cultural
Going Home, at a Price
Advance bus bookings opened today, with long queues at New Buspark (The Kathmandu Post). From Ghatasthapana on Sunday until 25 October, buses can run on any route in the country (OnlineKhabar). About a million people are expected to leave the Valley by road, roughly half the number in a good year, and long-distance buses must carry two drivers (The Kathmandu Post). Flying is no escape. Kathmandu–Dhangadhi tickets sold for up to Rs 22,180, above the regulator’s Rs 21,600 ceiling and about twice the usual fare (The Himalayan Times). Humla has the hardest journey home. Snow has blocked the Hilsa border since 25 September. On Thursday China opened its side and 144 Nepalis crossed back, and more than a hundred people have since left Hilsa on foot (OnlineKhabar).
Two Bronzes and a Boy from Boudha
The Asian Games closed in Nagoya on Sunday with Nepal 36th: two bronzes, no gold, and well short of the “Mission 2026” target (The Rising Nepal). One of those medals belongs to Tenzing Sherpa, 23, from Boudha, whom few had heard of a month ago. He started karate at 14 and had to stop for two years when money ran short, until his mother and two sisters paid for him to go back. He took bronze in the over-84kg kumite by beating Laos’s Xayasan Vatthana 9-1. “This medal is not mine alone,” he said (The Kathmandu Post). On Friday the cabinet approved his Rs 1.3 million prize, and Rs 390,000 for each member of the women’s kabaddi team that won the other bronze (Nepal News). The cricketers play Canada in Oman on Sunday, and the para athletes compete in Nagoya from 18 October.
In Brief:
Nine hundred out. When the warnings came on 26 August, principal Rajendra Dawadi got more than 900 students out of Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School in Nuwakot before mud buried it. About 1,400 are now back in tent classes. “We need more books,” he says (Orato).
Mountains reopen. Twenty volunteers dug out the Thorong La on 5 October, reopening the Annapurna Circuit (Ratopati). We found no news this week on the Himlung worker still missing, or on compensation for the families of the fifteen who died.
How to Help
Give through the PM’s Disaster Relief Fund, Nepal Red Cross or your NRNA committee.
Families abroad with a missing relative can now start the death registration that insurance claims and inheritance depend on.
Our sponsor, belayat.uk, the UK Nepali noticeboard, carries jobs, housing and events. Hosting a tika gathering on the 20th? Post it there.
Next week: the Congress results on Saturday, Ghatasthapana on Sunday, Malaysia’s 15 October cut-off and Wagle in Bangkok.
Until next week, stay connected.
— The Nepali Diaspora Digest Team
nepalidiaspora.net
