HELLO NEPAL

The Himalayan Times 28 April 2016 Hold local elections It has been almost eighteen years that the elections of local bodies at the Village Development Committees (VDCs) level have not been held due to lack of political commitment of the past governments and the major political parties. This is very unfortunate for Nepal where all the political leaders claim to the champions of people’s democracy. They continue to publicly saying that the local body election should be held without wasting any more time. The concerned ministers of the Oli led government do not also seem to hesitate to say that the local bodies’ election will be held within one year. It has already completed its six months in the office. However, looking at its ongoing political performance, holding election of the local bodies seems to be merely a false assurance “Civic polls not on govt priority list” (THT, 26 April, Page 1). Even for the interim period, had this election been held on time, most

The Kathmandu Post 22 April 2016 BE PRACTICAL It seems that the National Planning Commissions (NPC) has finally realized that the programme budget to be provided to various ministries for the coming fiscal year needs to be reduced in view of the massive amount of funds that may be required for the post-quake reconstruction programme (“NPC proposes budget reduction” 20 April, Page 1). Otherwise, there was a tradition of increasing yearly budget of every ministry by approximately ten percent without an appropriate mechanism. Top down programming and budgeting approach is still in practice in the government, forcing its local level organizations to either haphazardly spend the allocated programme budget or fail to spend allocated budget fully and let an enormous amount lie unspent towards the end of the fiscal year. This process has also led to spike in the amount of irregularities at government agencies, according to the recently published audit report of the Depa

The Himalayan Times 21 April 2016 Sit for fruitful talks It was tiring and frustrating to see time and again the country is facing continued political uncertainty caused by the political confrontations between the ruling parties and agitating forces even after abruptly abolishing 240 years old monarchy. It was also envisaged that the political situation of Nepal would improve and stabilize soon after the promulgation of the new constitution. It does not seem so. There seem to be more riots and disturbances coming up in the days to come looking closely at the ongoing political environment. Whatever happens in the streets, it will be the common people who will suffer the most. Madhesi and Janajati leaders have now joined their hands and announced another “do or die” movements against the ruling parties for making amendments in the new constitution especially related to the demarcation of federal units as reported in “Madhes, Janajati leaders vow intensified moveme

The Kathmandu Post 15 April 2016 ALTERNATIVE FORCE So far, the political parties of Nepal , who claim to be the champion of democracy, have miserably failed to abide by its universal norms and values which are transparency, accountability and meritocracy. They have not been able to lead Nepal towards prosperity due to lack of clear political, development and economic vision. Time and again, thousands of people came out on the streets upon the call of the political parties in the name of restoration of democracy. Many of them even lost their lives during such political agitations. The killer earthquake, seven months of the Madhes based political unrest and four months Indian unofficial trade blockade have hit the ordinary people hard. Almost all the government, semi government and private institutions have been badly politicized. Students are found engaged in non-educational activities under the political banner of different political parties. Even the civil ser

The Kathmandu Post Apr 10, 2016- STOP BOASTING The Oli-led government has been facing criticism from all corners for its poor performance; yet, Oli does not mind boasting about himself and his government’s work (‘Prime Minister Oli defends govt’s work’, April 6, Page 3). As the saying goes ‘morning shows the day’, it does not seem that his government will be able to fulfil people’s aspirations. Balancing Nepal’s relationship with India and China means very little if the common people do not have access to fuel and cooking gas. Oli is already being criticised by the leaders of his own party for poorly running the government and the party. His government has completely failed in curtailing the black marketeering of petroleum products even though the blockade ended two months ago. Even the post-quake reconstruction has still not gained momentum. Putting long-term financial burden on the national treasury by splitting the ministries to accommodate six deputy prime mi

Abhorrent crime It was extremely shocking to know that many earthquake survivor and other vulnerable children are trafficked out of Nepal via India and being sold to wealthy British families by child traffickers as reported in “Report on kid-selling racket shocks govt” (THT, 5 April, Page 1). The cases of human trafficking have been common in the South Asian and some other countries elsewhere in the world. However, trafficking of Nepali children as young as 10 years just for about NRs 800,000/- via India to UK should be embarrassing to the government in terms of its security system that is in place at the border points. It was encouraging to know that the British Home Secretary has already instructed to UK police to investigate into the findings of the tabloid and share it with the British government. She has also urged the paper to share its disturbing findings so that the appropriate action can be initiated against the criminals who are profiting from this hein

The Kathmandu Post 1April 2016 SHAME, SHAME It was encouraging to see PM Oli finally realising the slow pace of reconstruction work initiated by National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) and criticising it publicly for its failure to expedite post-quake reconstruction effectively (“PM censures NRA, and by extension, own govt” 30 March, Page 1). It has been almost one year since the devastating earthquake hit Nepal . People are still living in temporary shelter in the quake-affected areas. Some of them are still complaining that they have not yet received any relief materials and money from the government. Shame on the government and its concerned authorities for such gross negligence. Was it not PM Oli who had handpicked the incumbent Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the NRA after months of political bickering over who should lead the reconstruction body? In fact, the Shushil Koirala led government had already assigned Govind Pokhrel to work as the CEO who seemed