HELLO NEPAL

The Kathmandu Post 30 April 2017 FUTILE POLITICS Nepal is still in political transition; this transition should have been completed a long ago without wasting any more time on political and constitutional issues. We should thank the senior leaders of major political parties for their effort in promulgating the new constitution, but, the egoistic politics of some of the senior leaders may render these efforts useless, especially the actions of UML chairperson K.P.Oli (“One last leap of faith” April 27, Page 6). Recently, the Madhes-based parties agreed to come on board and participate in the local polls following an agreement with the ruling parties. RJP-N says that it will participate in the local polls only after the government amends the constitution. In line with this agreement, the government had promptly tabled the amendment bill, but it was denied by the UML (Government’s election moves irk UML” April 27, Page 1). The ruling, the opposition and the agitating parti

The Himalayan Times 28 April 2017 Political confusion Looking at the ongoing political environment and blame game going on among the major political parties, it does not seem that the local level election will be held peacefully. The UML, the main opposition obstructed the House proceedings on the pretext of different reasons “UML obstructs House proceedings over DPM’s reply” (THT, April 27. Page 1). The ruling parties seemed able to finally convince Federal Alliance (FA) and Rastriya Janta Party-Nepal (RJPN) to participate in the local elections to be held in two phases. However, the RJPN says that it will not participate in the elections until the government amends the new constitution in accordance with the agreement. Both the ruling parties and opposition are still blaming each other for not being serious in holding local level elections. Senior leaders have been found exchanging hot words over their intentions about the polls “Deuba, Oli exchange angry words” (THT, 2

The Kathmandu Post 23 April 2017 COMMERCIALISING EDUCATION   Private schools are doing business in the name of imparting quality education. All of them charge varying fees without any basis. This year, they have increased their school fees by more than 150 percent. In May 23, 2015, the Supreme Court (SC) prohibited the government and all stakeholders from hiking up their school fees for another three years. None of the schools seemed to have followed this instruction, and the Ministry of Education (MoE) does not seem serious about implementing the SC’s directives. As a result, private schools have been charging extravagant fees, making the education in the private schools increasingly unaffordable for the middle-class. It was encouraging to read a news story at a time when most private schools have increased their school fees in this new session (“Student unions want pvt school fees regulated” April 19, Page 02). My granddaughter is studying in a private school and rece

The Himalayan Times 20 April 2017 President’s visit President Bidhya Devi Bhandari began her five-day state visit to India on the invitation of Indian President Pranab Mukherjee (“President begins India visit” April 18, Page 1). Her earlier visit was postponed at the eleventh hour due to unfavourable political environment in Nepal. This state visit is seen by the political experts as an important event in the continuation of high level engagement between the political leaderships of the two countries and will contribute to further consolidate close and friendly relations that exist between Nepal and India. Anyway, it is hoped that her state visit will help in removing any political misunderstanding between the political leaders of the two countries. This visit has taken place at a time when the ruling parties and UML-led opposition parties are trying to hold the local level election on 14 May. On the other hand, the UDMF is set to thwart the elections, if the constitu

The Himalayan Times 12 April 2017 Mental health policy It was not possible for me to remain silent when I learnt that the Ministry of Health (MoH) has drafted new mental health policy “Govt drafts new mental health policy” (THT, April 10, Page 2). It was encouraging to know that MoH has finally realized its role to play in addressing mental health issues in line with the new constitution. Also the people, who were involved in pursuing and convincing MoH for new health policy and incorporating mental health in its annual programme and budget, deserve sincere appreciation for their enormous effort. I had the opportunity to serve the mentally ill for some time through an NGO, involved in mental health programme for the last 25 years. The policy aims to create an environment in which mental health is valued and promoted, mental disorders are prevented, and persons affected by these disorders are able to exercise full range of human rights and access high- quality, culturally

The Kathmandu Post 9 April 2017 PROVIDE SUCCOUR It was disheartening to learn that the government has not made much progress in rebuilding the health facilities damaged by the devastating earthquakes two years ago (“Only  a quarter of damaged health facilities rebuilt” April 5, Page 3). About 628 health facilities were completely destroyed in the affected areas. According to the Project Implementation Unit of the Health Ministry, only 27 percent of them have been rebuilt. And, not all of them have even been utilized due to delay in the handover process. Most of the health facilities are being run either under the tents or in rented rooms. This shows how ineffectively the government has been functioning. Why has it been so slow in rebuilding these damaged health facilities? The slow-paced reconstruction of health facilities has hampered the delivery of services to the needy. Though some INGOs promised the government that they would help rebuild the damaged infrastructure

The Kathmandu Post 2 April 2017 AFFORDABLE MEDICAL EDUCATION It has been a huge challenge for the government to send doctors to hospitals located in rural areas. There are several reasons for this longstanding problem. The main reasons are the costs involved in the completing the post graduate studies and the salary public hospitals provide. Over Rs. 5 million is required to complete a post-graduate study in medicine, whereas the government hospitals pay about Rs. 40,000/- as monthly salary (“A healthy health policy” March 29, Editorial). Last month, the Health Ministry announced 117 vacancies for specialist positions. It was reported that only 38 doctors expressed interest. Not a single application for ENT and general medicine positions was received. Doctors and health personnel are not interested to work in the public hospitals. Private hospitals offer remuneration that is several times higher than what is offered by government hospitals. Most private hospitals have b