HELLO NEPAL

THE HIMALAYAN TIMES 21 April 2015 It was so sad to read the news story “Yawning gap between promises and delivery” (THT, April 18, Page 1) with regard to the fulfillment of promises made by the government while signing an agreement with the Mountaineering Association of Nepal last year after the death of 16 mountaineering support staff and guides in the deadliest avalanche on Mt. Everest. It is really disturbing to know that the government has little done so far to address their major concerns.   In fact, this is not the new case of such irresponsible acts of the government and the concerned authorities, who sign such agreements in order to calm the agitating groups, but, such promises have been only partially or never materialized. Providing regular weather updates to the mountaineers, building the necessary infrastructures in Khumbu region and formulating a long term mountaineering development policy were the major promises made by the government. Among them,...

The Kathmandu Post 17 th April 2015 ABSENT STATE The death toll in Jajarkot district has reached 16 due to unknown disease that broke out in VDCs in the last two weeks (“Deaths linked to swine flu” 15 April, Page 1). After tests, this disease has now been linked to be swine flu.   It took two weeks for the concerned health officials to find out the causes of the illness. It is really sad to see people dying of diseases out in remote VDCs where health facilities are reportedly nil. The government owned health service outlets in the VDCs are poorly equipped and lack trained health staff and medical facilities. The government supplied medicines hardly last for six months and most are substandard. Most of these service outlets lack adequate number of health workers and proper infrastructures. Organizationally, the health delivery system at the local level is one of the best systems in the South Asian countries. Nonetheless, every year, many rural peop...

The Kathmandu Post 10th April 2015 TAKE HEED The three-day banda starting April 7, called by the 30-party opposition alliance, demanding that the new constitution be written on the basis of consensus among key stakeholders of the peace process had to be withdrawn after a day’s enforcement due to widespread pressure from all walks of life (‘Oppn bows to public pressure,’ April 8, Page 1). In some places in and outside the Kathmandu Valley, banda enforcers torched vehicles and motorcycles and clashed with security personnel, despite the organisers’ claim that the banda would be peaceful.  The general public in some districts even openly defied the banda, expressing their dissatisfaction over the unwanted crippling of their normal lives. This indicates that calling a banda in the name of protest by any group in the coming days could see opposition from the public. In my opinion, the time has come for organisers to seek alternative means to express their dissatisfac...

The Himalayan Times 6 th April 2015 Good job done The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) deserves appreciation for starting catching “big fishes” in its net as reported in “NTB official, board members charged with corruption” (THT, 4 April, Page 1). It should be highly applauded for its boldness to chase after such a large number of culprits involved in finishing off state coffers. This is the first high-profile corruption case after Lokman Singh Karki took over as CIAA chief two years ago. Please keep up your good work. CIAA’s recent investigation has revealed that there was rampant and institutionalized corruption with multiple wrongdoings at Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) with the involvement of incumbent high level government officials. It is shame on them. It is highly suggested to CIAA also start investigating in other government and semi government organizations those are practicing rampant corruptions draining out millions of rupees of peop...

The Kathmandu Post 3 April 2015 THINK TWICE It was interesting to read the article (“Capital punishment” 29 March Page 07) by Khagendra N. Sharma, considering the number of heinous crimes committed recently by inhuman culprits in different parts of the country. After the dreadful rape and murder of a seven year old girl, people have started seriously talking about reviving the provision of death penalty that was in place in Nepal before 1990 for some specific crimes. Notwithstanding the above, there should be serious deliberations on this issue before coming to a final decision. Abduction and murder of children and adults for ransoms, murder of journalists for revealing the truth of the crimes, killings of political opponents and rape and murder of innocent girls and women, are glaring examples of serious crimes. Considering the increase in these kinds of crimes, the time has come for the government to act soon, may be by reviving the death penalty, to discou...

The Himalayan Times 30 March 2015 Brilliant idea It was very interesting to read the news report “Modi urges well-off Indians to give up gas subsidies” (THT, 28 Mar. Page 12). Prime Minister Narendra Modi was recently urging his affluent countrymen to give up their cooking gas subsidies for helping the other energy starved poor people and make easy access to clean fuel. After this announcement, 280,000 consumers have voluntarily unsubscribed from program that offers subsidized cooking gas thus helping his government save IRs one billion. Does our Prime Minister or his government have ever thought about this brilliant idea? If not, this exemplary step taken by Modi should be an eye opener for our PM. The government can save huge amount of money out of this program and will be able to provide cooking gas at a more subsidized rate to the poor people.   In the rural areas of Nepal , local people use firewood, hey and cow dung for cooking foods severely ...

Frustration The level of frustration of the general people towards the major political parties has grown so high that could be detrimental for them (political parties) in the long run in terms of their political existence. The sad demise of CA I without giving new constitution due to irresponsible and immoral acts of the political parties has been bitter experience for the people. The self-declared deadline also passed by without giving much awaited new constitution. How long they will take this time to forge consensus on major issues is uncertain. If both the ruling and opposition parties continue to argue in their own ways concerning the contentious issues, there seem dismal chances of coming to consensus in near future. They should agree to immediately announce another deadline for giving the new constitution and start the political process to forge consensus rather than wasting time on blame game. The never ending game of coming to consensus should be ended soon. ...

The Himalayan Times 9 March 2015                    Not surprising It was not surprising to read the news “Former King’s men raising their heads, says Madhav Nepal ” (THT, 7 Mar. Page 3). At a time when major political parties have found it difficult to forge consensus on some major issues of the new constitution for the last seven years, it is natural that people start looking for an alternative force which can bail the country out of such crisis. The level of frustration of the common people seems so high that it may cross its limit at any time pushing the country towards yet another confrontation. The so-called big parties have failed this time also to fulfil their pledges of drafting the new constitution within the self-declared dead-line. As long as they continue to stick to their guns, the chances of resolving the ongoing political deadlock seem dismal. And, if this situat...