HELLO NEPAL

Be responsible It was not surprising to know that the text books for the new academic session will not be adequately printed and delivered to the remote districts on time this year also. The government owned Janak Education Material Centre (JEMC) has always failed to print adequate number of text books before the beginning of new academic session. As a result, the students, especially from the rural and remote areas, had to suffer a lot. Same problem seems to be repeated this year “Manage adequate textbooks for new academic session, govt told” (THT, 18 January, Page 2). This problem has continued to persist for the last several years. The government has not put any effort to solve this problem. Millions of government and donor funds have been invested in the education sector in the name of “education for all”. According to JMEC, a total of 130,000 textbooks are required for grade VI to IX for the country. It has printed only 80,000 textbooks so far. However, it is interesting...

The Himalayan Times 12 January 2017 Political gap not healthy It is frustrating to see the ongoing political environment in the country at a time when the major political parties should have set aside their political differences and been ready for the local elections. This does not show a healthy political trend. The political gap between the ruling and the opposition parties is widening which is not a good indication. The ruling parties have started playing number games in Parliament for getting through the constitution amendment bill. The opposition parties led by the UML do not seem to budge a single inch from their political stand. However, NC general secretary Shashank Koirala seems to be in favour of political consensus among the parties for going to the polls (“Political consensus must for polls: Shashank” 10 January, Page 3). But, will he be able to convince other Congress leaders to be serious in having political dialogue with the opposition and the other agita...

The Kathmandu Post 8 January 2017 ALARMING SITUATION It seems that the ongoing political situation in the country may either end productively or create constitutional crisis. The transition period has not been conducive for constitution implementation. The government has hardly a year’s time to hold three tiers of elections, which does not seem likely given the ongoing stalemate. If the government fails to fulfil its duty on time, the chances of a crisis are very high. After going through the article (“Between a rock and a hard place” 4 January, Page 6), I am sure, many readers will have been nervous, considering the governing parties on one side and the UML led opposition and Madhes based parties on the other side at a time when they should have resolved all political differences and been ready to participate in local elections. The current political situation demands two things; first, the government has to sit with the Madhes based parties to come to a consensus. Unles...

The Himalayan Times 6 January 2017 No alternative to talks One should not get surprised if the three major will come to consensus in near future to save their face as they did in the past “Parties mull face-saving formula for consensus” (THT, 3 rd January, Page 1). Looking closely at the ongoing political dialogue among these major parties, there seems to be a chance  of the government withdrawing its bill related to constitution amendment and holding the three tiers of elections before January 21, 2018. Both the government and the opposition seem to be softening their stands. There is no alternative for them to forging consensus and going for the election. Otherwise, there will be political and constitutional crisis in the country if they fail to implement the new constitution. However, the UML led opposition parties have continued to obstruct the House proceedings for the last one month to exert pressure on the coalition government to withdraw the amendment bill. O...

The Kathmandu Post 25 December 2016 URBAN HEALTH HAZARDS This is a welcome decision of Ministry of Health (MOH) to set up 10 urban centres in different parts of Kathmandu under the direct supervision and monitoring of District Health Office (“MoH to set up 10 urban health promotion centres” 22 December, Page 02). The health situation of people in urban areas does not seem to be satisfactory. There could be many factors behind this, which need to be addressed simultaneously and quickly by the concerned authorities. The urban people are found to be suffering from various kinds of diseases due to unhealthy living conditions and unavailability of quality foods and safe drinking water.. The main function of these centres will be to promote healthy lifestyle and inspect quality of food and water. The MoH has to put its effort to monitor the quality control of the private clinics, pathology test centres, private hospitals and abortion centres. We have heard news that many of suc...

The Himalayan Times 23 December 2016 Punish them It was not surprising to read the news “Illegal health centres apply for registration” ( THT, 21 Dec. Page 2) at such a time when the doctors have been found saying that the reports of many such health centres are not reliable. Finally, the Ministry of Health and Population (MOHP) seems to have realized this situation where thousands of patients and people have been badly cheated by these illegally opened and operated health service centres in the three districts of the valley and in other parties of the country. I have had a bad experience while I was asked to check my blood sugar level. I found two different readings of blood sugar from two different lab tests within two days of interval. It was directly a human rights violence related to getting reliable health test results for the appropriate treatment. It was really encouraging to know that the MOHP has given a strict warning to all the illegally running health centres...

The Himalayan Times 8 December 2016 Waste of resources Among others, education has been one of the priority sectors of the government of Nepal. Every year, educationalists argue about the amount of budget allocated by the government in this sector. Several educational reform programs were tried investing billions of rupees received from bilateral or multilateral international funding agencies. One of the most ambitious programs is the School Sector Development Plan (SSDP) with an investment of one trillion of rupees “School sector development” (THT, 6 Dec. Page 8). Its main is to make the education from one to eight grades completely free and compulsory. Strengthening access to education of all the school going children thus bridging the dropout rate to zero is one of the ambitious plan of SSDP. However, there has not been any significant and satisfactory progress in this effort. The main reason behind that seemed to be lack of political commitment, appropriate and reli...

The Kathmandu Post 4 December 2016 LOOMING POLITICAL POLARIZATION The country’s impending political situation does not seem encouraging  (“Who is going to relent” 30 Nov, Page 06). The constitution amendment process is in full swing without taking the Federal Alliance (FA) into confidence. And the main opposition, the UML does not seem to be in favour of changing the federal demarcation which is one of the main demands of FA. It is indeed worrisome and scary. The country and its people will surely suffer if the political polarisation among the parties widens. This is definitely not the time for them to politically confront each other. The FA and UML, at two ends of the spectrum, and the Nepali Congress (NC), the CPN (Maoist Centre) and Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) in the middle make reaching consensus on key political and constitutional issues difficult. If we look back, the first constitution assembly (CA) that failed to promulgate a constitution was not the fai...