HELLO NEPAL

The Himalayan Times 7 March 2014 Urgency of local polls It has been almost 12 years for the local level bodies being without the elected representatives due to gross negligence of the so called big parties who never got tired of talking about democracy and claiming themselves as its champions. Different mechanisms were tried to implement the development activities at the local level. They were not successful; instead most of the development funds were misappropriated. Representatives of the all party mechanism to implement the development activities were also involved in corruption. Recently, the CIAA announced that most of the local level development funds were misappropriated in the absence of elected local bodies. Assigning a VDC Secretary to look after the daily affairs of two to three VDC was one of the blunders made by the Ministry of Local Development (MoLD). Millions of development budget were haphazardly spent due to the absence of proper supervision and mon...

The Himalayan Times 3 March 2014 Now is time to perform Finally, the new coalition government is now in place after the NC decided to allocate the Home Ministry to the UML. The intra and inter party factional political game in NC and UML had delayed the government formation process. The government is still yet to take its full shape with the participation of RPP and CPN-ML. Power sharing among the coalition partners is a delicate balance that needs to be carefully maintained in order to effectively run the government. Otherwise, the performance of the government may remain questionable. Albeit, running the government and the process of drafting the new constitution are completely different, it is still the government that has to facilitate CA 2 to smoothly move ahead to fulfil its mandated job within the expected time as promised by the political parties. The process of nominating 26 lawmakers by the government in accordance with the Interim Constitution should not...

Card against humanity is a game that is designed by 8 genius people and is widely played in other parts of globe. It is multi-player party game and specially played during New Years Eve. I am not sure so whether this game is available in Nepal or not. However, while I was looking for more information about this, I found this site http://www.cardsagainsthumanity.us/ . If you have similar information, Please share here. Many thanks .

The Himalayan Times 21 February 2014 Now, get down to business The political parties showed their solidarity in nominating UML candidate Subash Nembang as the CA Chairperson once again as reported in “Nembang elected CA chair unopposed” (THT, 19 Feb, Page 1). However, the leaders on the opposition benches had criticized his role in the previous CA and suggested that he should not repeat the same mistakes in CA 2. His decisive role in the coming days will definitely help the CA 2 to effectively and smoothly move ahead in carrying out the prime task of drafting the new constitution within a year. Nembang’s experiences and academic background would definitely benefit the CA 2 in terms of running its business effectively. However, the sincerity and political commitment of all the CA lawmakers are equally important for helping him to play his role efficiently. He should not let the members run the CA business outside the House undermining its authenticity. All the proce...

The Himalayan Times 18 February 2014 Kudos to Dr. KC This is in reference to the news report “Dr. KC ends fast-unto death” (THT, 16 Feb. Page 1) that must have drawn wide attention of all the concerned. Dr. KC was also on hunger strike before and had ended the strike after the Regmi led government promised to fulfil his demands. However, nothing concrete measures were taken. What a shame it was on the government’s part not to be serious in properly honouring the agreement. The irresponsible act of the TU reappointing the Dean at the IoM without considering the seniority of the incumbent doctors had forced Dr. KC to resume hunger strike. His effort to disregard these corrupt and irresponsible decisions of TU should be applauded in terms of chasing way these malpractices of higher authorities in the days to come.   Otherwise, the monopoly and politicization of educational institutions continue to flourish in the coming days also downgrading the quality of education...

The Himalayan Times 11 February 2014 Help Chepangs It is disheartening to read the news report “Famine hits Chepangs of Dhading” (THT, 8 Feb. Page 5) that must have drawn the attention of all the concerned authorities of the Government of Republic Nepal. I am not so sure whether the government has launched programmes to assist this endangered community. So far there is no Chepang who represents his/her community in any social, economic and political arena. For how long will they have to continue suffering? For decades, they used to wander around the jungles in search of wild roots to survive. Usually, they consume wild yam and plants from mid-January to mid-April. In the other months, they face acute shortage of foods. Around 18,000 Chepangs, most of them are landless, live in different villages of Dhading district. Their rights to basic needs seem to have been completely ignored by the state. There must be a number of NGOs working in Dhading district, but they a...

I am not so sure whether there is any well known plastic surgeon in Nepal. There are some hospitals where ordinary plastic surgeries are performed for treating minor burn cases. While I was looking around for more information about this, I found this site  http://www.plasticsurgeonsakronohio.com/ It seems to me that this place is the right place to visit in case of delicate plastic surgery. If you have similar information, please share here. Many thanks.

The Himalayan Times 7 February 2014 Intra-party democracy Kudos to Comrade K.P.Oli for getting elected as the Parliamentary Party (PP) leader by defeating his Chairman Jhalanath Khanal as reported in “Oli turns the table on party chair, big-time” (THT, 5 Feb 2014 ). He has been able to make a record of breaking longstanding tradition in the largest communist party of Nepal of selecting the party chairman as the PP leader. This practice of intra-party democratic process should be highly applauded and continue in the days to come with the intention of giving the opportunity to other leaders to exercise their potential and making the party more vibrant. Likewise, NC had recently applied the similar democratic process to elect their PP leader. It could have been much better for NC to elect PP leader other than the President letting him to manage and lead the party. Such practices would definitely help the political parties to be more democratic and pragmatic by providin...