HELLO NEPAL

The Kathmandu Post 30 March 2014 TAKE HEED Nepal ’s democratic process and changes in Nepal seems to be guided by the external forces playing their own political games to fulfill their vested political interests (“Lesson from Ukraine” March 26. Page 6) . This has been an open secret of Nepali politics. Now the time has come for the internal actors to study what happened recently in Ukraine and take lessons . I strongly suggest that our political leaders go through this Trailokya Raj Aryal’s article and contemplate their political actions. Soon, it may be too late. Along these lines, I still do not understand why and for whose interest Nepal should be federated. What was wrong with our scientifically delineated 14 zones, five regional development regions and 75 districts? What was wrong with the Local Self Governance Act-1999? What was wrong with our Decentralization process that was effectively in place at the VDC level?   Instead of further strengthening these proces

The Himalayan Times 25 March 2014  Suffering Nepalis Promises made by the lawmakers have been only partially or never been fulfilled in the past. I noticed another such promises made by Deputy Speaker of Constitution Assembly and five other lawmakers in a program organized by WaterAid Nepal to mark the “World Water Day” in Kathmandu “Constitution to ensure right to clean water, sanitation” (THT, 23 Mar. Page2). It is hoped that their promises will be fulfilled. But it is sad to know that until now the majority of Nepalis do not have access to clean drinking water and sanitation as their human rights. Organizing and celebrating World Water Day just a day a year on March 22 does not make any difference in saving the lives of many innocent children and old people in the rural areas of Nepal. Raising awareness about the importance of clean drinking water and sanitation program should be routine job of the concerned authorities. The government should be aggressively en

The Kathmandu Post 21 March 2014 AMBIT IOUS P LANS The coalition government of Nepali Congress and CMP-UML has finally made public its 13 page Common Minimum Programme (CMP) after 38 days of its formation (“Govt unveils CMP, code conduct for Cabinet” 19 Mar Page 1) . The focus seems to be on facilitating the Constituent Assembly to draft the new constitution within a year and hold the local polls within six months. However, the date for the local polls has yet to be fixed. Previous governments too brought out their CMPs but none were able to completely fulfill promises within the time frame. So, the concern is that whether this government will also be able to implement all its programs within the stipulated time. Zero tolerance against corruption, ending load-shedding within three years, completing peace process, formation of Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), penalizing human rights violators, filling the vacancies in the constitutional bodies, and establishi

The Himalayan Times 21 March 2014 Promises to keep Finally, the coalition government of Nepali Congress and CMP-UML made public its 13 page Common Minimum Programme (CMP) incorporating lots of promises after 38 days of its formation. The main focus seems to be given on facilitating the CA to draft the new constitution within a year and hold the local polls within six months. The date for the local polls is yet to be fixed. It is hoped that it will not remain merely a promise. In the past also, coalition government used to bring out their ambitious CMPs. However, none of the governments were able to completely fulfil their promises within the time frame. So, the concern of the common people is that whether this government will be able to implement all the programs included in the CMP within the stipulated time. Zero tolerance against corruption, ending load shedding within three years, completion of peace process, bringing the law related to the formation of Truth

The Himalayan Times 14 March 2014 Focus on local polls T he representations of the local people at the local bodies used to ensure proper functioning of decentralization and democratic process. But for the last twelve years the local bodies have been run without elected representatives. None of the governments and big political parties showed interest in holding the local polls citing different reasons but derailing the decentralized local democratic governance process in Nepal based on the Local Self-Governance Act-1999. It was pity to see the well functioning local bodies gradually become defunct in the absence of local level election. Pranav Bhattarai’s article “Local self-governance” (THT, 12 Mar, Page 6) rightly addresses the urgent need for holding the local polls in order to encourage local partnerships, people’s ownership and inclusive participation in planning, implementing and monitoring of local development programs. If the democratic process had contin