Government’s priorities
The Himalayan Times
24 May 2018
Government’s
priorities
Finally, the Nepal Communist
Party has come into existence following the unification of the UML and the CNP-Maoist
few days ago. It took almost eight months to merge their parties giving a huge relief
to their voters. There were many speculations whether these parties having two
different political principles would indeed merge to become a single party.
Now, some political analysts simply claim that the purpose of their merger was
nothing but to be in power for long after learning the lessons from the past.
However, whatever the merger means, it seems to be politically positive
development when it comes to political stability needed for giving continuity
to ongoing development programmes and bringing economical and social changes in the
country.
Following the tradition of
presenting the policies and programmes prepared by the government in the past,
President Bidya D. Bhandari on Monday unveiled the left government’s first
policies and programmes yesterday in Parliament “Policies, programmes aim to
enhance infra” (THT, May 22, Page 1). Based on this framework, the government
will table a budget for the fiscal year 2018/19. Restrictive import policy on products
such as alcohol and tobacco, self-reliant in sugar, pharmaceutical products,
cement and leather footwear, formulation and implement full-fledged periodic
plan and enhancing the capacity of provincial governments are some of the major
highlights of the policies and programmes.
The main opposition Nepali
Congress has termed the government’s policies and programme a document without
priorities. However, the private sector has applauded it saying it is a “business-friendly”
as it has vowed to ensure the rule of law by adopting zero tolerance policy
against corruption, boost job creation and double per capita income “ Pvt
sector applauds govt’s policies and programmes” (THT, May 22, Page 9). However,
it has been seen in the past that none of the governments were able to achieve
their targets as outlined in their annual policies and programme due to poor
implementing and monitoring system. Time will tell how successfully this most
powerful government performs.
Rai
Biren Bangdel
Maharajgunj
