HELLO NEPAL

NO MORE FUN It was extremely painful to read the news report (“PM Oli spends 1.2m in food, entertainment” 25 Nov. Page 2, The Kathmandu Post) at a time when the nation is facing acute shortages of fuel and essential commodities caused by India’s unofficial trade embargo and Madhes unrest. What a shame is this on him who, before occupying Baluwatar, had promised to the people that he would leave no stone unturned to emancipate the nation and its people from the ongoing hardships. He already completed five weeks plus of his highest political helm doing nothing except trying to buy time for suppressing the constitutional and political inequalities being faced by Madhes and Tarai based people, which could be detrimental both for him and the nation. His recent address to the nation was nothing but a bundle of false promises. There were no concrete plans and programmes to tackle the ongoing issues. Black marketing in fuel and other essential items is rampant (“19 pumps char...

The Himalayan Times 26 November 2015 Promises It is definitely a delightful news for the general people of Nepal to know that the country will be completely free from the ongoing load-shedding within a year as reported in “Load-shedding will become history within a year” (THT, 24 Nov, Page 9). It is really encouraging to know about this earlier from PM Oli during his recent address to the nation and now from Top B. Rayamajhi, Deputy Prime Minister and Energy Minister. Such similar assurances were also given by past governments. However, they never materialized, rather the load-shedding hours continued to increase.   According to NEA, the current installed capacity of the nation is around 800 MW which drops down to around 300 MW during dry season. However, the total demands during the peak seasons stands at around 1400 MW which is far beyond the current power outputs being generated in the country. Is it possible to generate additional 1100 MW within one yea...

MENSTRUAL EXILES - Post Report , Kathmandu Nov 22, 2015- The people in the rural areas continue to strictly follow their traditional cultures and practices in-spite of facing many difficulties. As a result, these deep-rooted practices cannot be easily uprooted. Among them, chhaupadi still persists in the rural areas of mid-western and far western districts (‘Chhaupadi practice still continues in Dailekh villages,’ November 18, Page 2). This age-old practice is deeply ingrained in the minds of the rural folks. They hesitate to discontinue this belief as they strongly believe that their family members or animals will either get sick or die if they do not keep menstruating women separately. Some women have even lost their lives while observing this illogical tradition. Many women feel very vulnerable during the first three days of their menstruation. So, they need nutritious food, warm clothes and a clean surrounding. It is very unfortunate and sad to see ...

Humanitarian support It was overwhelming to read the news “Humanitarian airlifts to continue” (THT, 17 Nov. Page 2) pertaining to continuation of airlifting of food and other humanitarian items to the earthquake effected people in the hilly regions of Nepal with the gracious financial support received from Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Many thanks to WHO for its initiations with these countries for acquiring necessary funds required for the noble cause. Winter is almost close to the doorsteps. If the humanitarian supports are not provided to the affected people in these hilly areas on time, the chances of human casualties are very high. The attention of new government led by PM Oli has been drawn elsewhere. It’s been almost six months after the devastating earthquake measuring 7.8 rector scale that shook the nation. Thousands of effected people are spending nights in temporary shelters without even warm clothes and proper foods. The government had already an...

Dear FB/Twitter lovers, I am not so sure whether you went though Ramesh Adhikari’s interesting article “Lessons of history” on Kathmandu Post dated 20 November 2015 (Friday). If you have not, I strongly recommend you to go through it. He writes “If Nepal were to become another Sikkim , our past kings and leaders should be blamed”. I was shocked to read this article and am wondering whether the author has got any such “indication” out of the ongoing Madhes banda and current Indian unofficial trade embargo that India has the clandestine agenda of annexing Nepal as one of its state in the days to come. If the ruling parties and NC failed to resolve the Madhes political problem at the soonest possible, the ongoing agitation may go out of their hands putting sovereignty of Republic Nepal at stake looking closely at the rampant destructive activities. A fully medicine loaded truck was completely burnt on Friday afternoon in Birgunj. Madhav Nepal ’s house has been van...

The Kathmandu Post 10 November 2015 ADDRESS AGITATION It was encouraging to see that the Madhes based political parties have started attending the Parliamentary session. They have now decided to protest against the demarcation of federal states on the streets and in the Parliament (“Morcha obstruct House after its address” 9 Nov. Page 1). Most of the Madhes and tarai districts have remained closed due to the agitation for almost three months now due to the protest and their grievances needs to be addressed by the government. Why did the big three political parties –Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and UCPN (Maoist) - not address the demands put forward by the agitating parties immediately? They did not have any problem in altering their decision of federating the country from six to seven states soon after the people from the hilly districts protested on the streets. Now, that a new government has been formed, the ruling parties should be serious about resolving the c...