Government’s priorities

The Himalayan Times

24 May 2018

Government’s priorities

Finally, the Nepal Communist Party has come into existence following the unification of the UML and the CNP-Maoist few days ago. It took almost eight months to merge their parties giving a huge relief to their voters. There were many speculations whether these parties having two different political principles would indeed merge to become a single party. Now, some political analysts simply claim that the purpose of their merger was nothing but to be in power for long after learning the lessons from the past. However, whatever the merger means, it seems to be politically positive development when it comes to political stability needed for giving continuity to ongoing development programmes and bringing economical and social changes in the country.

Following the tradition of presenting the policies and programmes prepared by the government in the past, President Bidya D. Bhandari on Monday unveiled the left government’s first policies and programmes yesterday in Parliament “Policies, programmes aim to enhance infra” (THT, May 22, Page 1). Based on this framework, the government will table a budget for the fiscal year 2018/19. Restrictive import policy on products such as alcohol and tobacco, self-reliant in sugar, pharmaceutical products, cement and leather footwear, formulation and implement full-fledged periodic plan and enhancing the capacity of provincial governments are some of the major highlights of the policies and programmes.

The main opposition Nepali Congress has termed the government’s policies and programme a document without priorities. However, the private sector has applauded it saying it is a “business-friendly” as it has vowed to ensure the rule of law by adopting zero tolerance policy against corruption, boost job creation and double per capita income “ Pvt sector applauds govt’s policies and programmes” (THT, May 22, Page 9). However, it has been seen in the past that none of the governments were able to achieve their targets as outlined in their annual policies and programme due to poor implementing and monitoring system. Time will tell how successfully this most powerful government performs.

Rai Biren Bangdel

Maharajgunj