HELLO NEPAL

The Himalayan Times 19 April 2013 It was not surprising to read the news report “Books shortage hits students in mid-west” (THT, 17 April, Page 6) that becomes one of the prime news on national dailies every year towards the beginning of new session of schools situated in the remote hill districts of Nepal. However, none of the concerned authorities seem(ed) serious. Their gross negligence have been hitting hard to the students who suffer much from not getting the textbooks on time. All the schools and stationery sellers in these districts which are unable to bring and provide textbooks to their students on time do seem equally responsible for not being responsible. The actual demand of the textbooks in the districts is 3.7 million, whereas, so far, only 1.1 million books have reached 10 districts of Rapti and Bheri Zones. The other districts of Banke and Dang are yet to purchase the textbooks from the regional office of Janak Education Materials Centre (JEMC) Ltd. W...

Recently, I was invited to a political event where the birth of a new political party, “United Peoples Party, Nepal ”, was announced. It was very encouraging to see the young members of the party who seemed optimistic and promising to play crucial and productive political roles in the ongoing political uncertainty. Looking closely at the irresponsible and insensible political activities of the four major parties, there seems an urgent need of a new political force that speaks the voice of the people and acts as per the needs and wish of the people. I wish this new party all the best in its new venture.

The Himalayan Times 5 April 2013 Listening to the Election Commission (EC) officials over the radio talk program, I found them to be indirectly conceding that the next CA would not be possible in June if the outstanding issues (such as the issuance of citizenship certificates to the eligible voters, the compilation and completion of voters registration, and amendment to some laws related to the election) were not be addressed immediately. Now, the EC has started officially considering deferring the poll date from June to November as reported in “EC mulling over Nov poll date” (THT, 3 April, Page 1) All the senior leaders had, until a few days ago, been saying that the next CA election would be held in first week of Asad (i.e late June). Now, they have started changing their tune, publicly saying that the November is the right time to hold the polls as reported in “CA polls in November, says UML Chairman” (THT, 3 April, Page 5). However, the people had already envisag...

I was amazed to read the news report “Basnet moots idea of change of guard in CPN-UML” (THT, 26 March, Page 6) with regard to the performance of his party leadership. Mahesh Basnet has shown his guts to publicly suggest, at a time when the UML is all geared up to participate in the upcoming CA election, changing the guard of his mother party UML. He has mentioned that his party has already seen the leadership of Nepal and Khanal. Now, the time has come for UML, as he claimed, to go for CA polls under the leadership of K.P.Oli who, he thinks, is the most popular and liked UML leader. I think the time has come for other major political parties’ youth leaders also to show such guts and start raising similar voices in order to give New Nepal a chance to see competent and dynamic leaders rather than putting forward the same old faces in the upcoming election. We have seen the irresponsible political acts of all the old leaders who deceived the people and completely failed to ...

Finally, four major parties agreed on an unconstitutional deal to put Chief Justice at the political helm. CJ’s unprecedented move to become the Chairman of Council of Ministers has been widely criticized from every nook and corner. If people are hungry of fame and power, nothing can stop them from doing so. However, let us hope, CJ’s team will be able to tactfully handle the difficult situation and hold free, fair and impartial election by the deadline. Don’t let the unsuccessful senior leaders undermine your positive moves. Use your gut feeling and move forward the country towards peace by bringing the opposition parties, who are out in the street, to the board.

The Himalayan Times 11 March 2013   The team of Metropolitan Traffic Police Division (MTPD) and Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology (NBSM) deserve appreciation for launching crackdown on cabbies who were fleecing passengers. Many passengers were forced to pay almost double amount using the taxis with malfunctioning meter. Most of the taxis in the town are found plying either using malfunctioning meters or without meters. These malpractices were in place for a long time. Using taxis these days are not affordable to common people. However, people will be compelled to use them (taxis) during emergency services and are forced to pay exorbitant charges. There will be no place to lodge complain about such malpractices. Even, I have never bothered to complain to nearby traffic police about such incidents knowing that I was cheated by the taxi drivers. Unless the people like me who is considered to be literate and conscious citizen make an effort of chasing away of...

The Himalayan Times 1 March 2013 The proposal of four major political parties to the Chief Justice (CJ) to be the Executive Chief of the next government and CJ’s acceptance to the offer has been the talk of town. This hot situation has completely engrossed the nation and diverted everybody’s attention towards CJ’s next move. CJ’s willingness to take up the position has been widely criticized and opposed in terms of its relevancy with the Interim Constitution (IC). As reported in “NBA censures CJ, says he’s facing moral crisis” (THT, 27 Feb. Page 1), Nepal Bar Association (NBA) has strongly opposed CJ’s intention and accused him of undermining judges’ code of conduct.   NBA’s press statement says that holding the post of CJ is not like holding a position in the civil services, the administration, the army or any other investigative body so the CJ cannot be deputed to hold any position in any other entity. Having said that who instigated and what motivated CJ, being at he...

It could have been much better for the senior political leaders to surrender to the sovereign people of Nepal saying that they completely failed to live up to their promises made to the people and save the nation from plunging into political and constitutional darkness and ask the people whether they would be willing to hand over their Naso to the former King rather than letting the Chief Justice & Co to run the country based on the pressure of foreign power.