HELLO NEPAL

The Himalayan Times 30 June 2016 Irresponsible statement Recently, the government has brought out statute implementation plan with the details of the exact date and months. If everything goes well, this work plan looks splendid in terms of its successful implementation. However, it did appear that the government had done enough home work before bringing out the plan. Local level election, which is the backbone of ground level democratic process, has not been done for the last 14 years. What a pity it is to see that the so called major parties, who claim to be the champion of democracy, had completely failed to hold it? All the development budgets allocated for the local level development have been grossly misused due to the lack of proper governing bodies. On the other hand, it did not suit Prachanda, Chairman of CPN Maoist Centre, publicly saying that the statute implementation plan formulated by the government cannot be implemented as reported in “Statute imple

                                                                                       The Kathmandu Post 26 June 2016 SHOCKING NEWS Every Nepali, who heard about the killings of 12 Nepali by the suicide blast in Kabul, the capital city of Afghanistan on June 20 must have been shocked and wondering as to why the Taliban extremists attacked Nepali migrant workers (“Kabul incident a grim reminder”, 24 June, Page 1). There is no appropriate word for condemning such cruel, gruesome and inhuman act. It is the second deadliest attack on unarmed Nepali migrant workers in the foreign soil since the brutal murder of a dozen Nepali hostages by an Islamic extremist outfit in Iraq in August 2004. Millions of Nepali migrant workers are found legally and illegally working in many parts of the world due mainly to the lack of employment opportunities at home. So far, the government does not seem to be bothered about retaining them in the country by creating jobs (“Lessons from

The Himalayan Times 22 June 2016 It’s a cruel act Millions of Nepali migrant workers are found legally and illegally working in many parts of the world due to lack of employment opportunities in the country. So far, the government does not seem bothered about retaining them in the country by creating jobs. Instead, we are happy to collect billions of rupees as remittance from Nepali workers abroad every month. A number of these migrant workers are in the jails for overstaying and possessing illegal documents. And, some of them are lying on the hospital beds in an unconscious state for many months and some of them have become disabled and even lost their lives. Every Nepali, whoever heard the killings of 12 Nepali by suicide blast in Kabul, the capital city of Afghanistan on Monday morning, must have been shocked “12 Nepalis killed in Kabul suicide blast” (THT, 21 June, Page 1). There is no appropriate word for condemning such a gruesome and inhuman act while se

The Kathmandu Post 17 June 2016 SWIFTLY & RESPONSIBLY As long as the government’s handling of the reconstruction programme in the quake-affected areas remains slow, vulnerable children and women will continue to fall prey to trafficking. Many children and women have disappeared from their homes during the last one year. Some of them were rescued from the Nepal-India border points by the security forces (“73 children, women rescued from Birgunj in 3 months” 15 June, Page 1). However, if the rescued children and women are not properly looked after by their families, who are themselves homeless and vulnerable due to the killer earthquake, the chances of them falling prey to trafficking again will remain high. According to a UN estimate, about 15000 girls from Nepal are trafficked into Asian countries for sex trade each year, which is an extremely unfortunate matter. If these data are reliable, several questions and concerns can be raised. What are the governme

The Himalayan Times 15 June 2016 Alarming situation The number of cancer patients is alarmingly increasing in the country in the last five/six years. The main reasons behind this are the unhealthy living style, the higher level of pollution and consumption of adulterated foods among others. There is no proper quality control mechanism with the government which has made the consumers compelled to consume the contaminated bottled and piped water and adulterated foods putting their lives at high risk of getting infected with deadly diseases such as cancer, high blood pressure, hepatitis, cardiac arrest, liver dysfunction, etc. It has been reported that more than 300 cancer patients from all over the country normally visit Bhaktapur Cancer Hospital every year, of which, ten percent come from the valley “Most cancer patients from the Kathmandu Valley” (THT, 14 June, Page 2) which may not be even the exact number of patients because there are also other cancer hospital

The Kathmandu Post 10 June 2016 SHOW POLITICAL SINCERITY The Federal Alliance (FA), comprising the Madhes and Janajati parties, has decided to intensify its political struggle by launching a month-long relay hunger strike in Kathmandu and other districts to exert pressure on the Oli-led government to fulfil its political and constitutional demands (“Agitating leaders go on relay fast” 8 June, Page 3). However, looking closely at the PM Oli’s working style; it does not look like that the ongoing political struggle in between the FA and the government will end soon. Fortunately, no serous incident has occurred so far in the Kathmandu-centric agitation, indicating that the FA’s cadres and security forces are showing maximum restraint in order to avoid human casualties. Otherwise, the Madhes based political agitation in the last seven months has been violent and caused a huge number of human casualties. About 50 innocent people lost their lives due to excessive us

The Himalayan Times 8 June 2016 Is it really needed? The idea of forming a national consensus government at this juncture sounds interesting and seems to be going on for some time. However, it does not also seem easy considering the principle and philosophy of each major party which has its own political interest and priorities. Now, the parliament, which is the transformation of the second Constituent Assembly, is in place and perfectly functioning in line with the multiparty parliamentary democracy. In this system, the presence of strong opposition party and its effective role is vital. Once the nine point agreement was signed between UML and CPN Centre, the Oli led coalition government had survived. But, the tacit agreement that is claimed to have been reached between PM Oli and Prachanda has now remained to be the cause of political confrontation triggering another political polarization rather than forging consensus on forming a national unity government.

Be serious and sensible The Federal Alliance (FA) has decided to intensify its political struggle by launching relay hunger strike from June 7 to July 15 in Kathmandu and other districts to exert pressure on the Oli led government to fulfil its political and constitutional demands “FA cadres, leaders to launch relay hunger strike” (THT, 31 May, Page 2. It is their democratic rights to stage peaceful protest against the state which does not seem disturbed by the FA’s ongoing agitation. It is said that the relay hunger strike is the highest form of peaceful movement in a democracy which should be seriously taken by the ruling parties. However, looking closely at the PM Oli’s working style; it does not seem that the ongoing political tussle in between the FA and the government will end soon. The FA’s Kathmandu-centric agitation has been going on peacefully. No serous incidents have occurred so far which indicates that the cadres of FA and security forces are showing maxi