HELLO NEPAL

The Himalayan Times 28 November 2019 Cabinet reshuffle Nepal and its people are now used to seeing the political drama of the parties and their political leaders. Splits and mergers of the political parties before and after the promulgation of the new constitution were quite normal. Following the three levels of elections in line with the constitution, most of the fringe parties were either side-lined or completely wiped out. That situation compelled some of the highly ambitious political leaders either to form a new political party with rosy political manifestos or take refuge in the bigger parties. Naya Sakti Party and Bibeksheel Sajha Party are a few of them. Naya Sakti Party, led by Dr. Bhattarai merged with Upendra Yadav led Medhesi Janadhikar Forum. Bibeksheel Sajha Party could not remain for long under the same umbrella. The recent decision of Nepal Communist Party (NCP) to segregate the functions of two co-chairs after almost two years of its unification mi

The Himalayan Times 21 November 2019 Show humanity In Nepal’s seven-decade-long political history, its people have experienced many political, economic and social changes, from the Panchayat era to multiparty democratic system to Republic Nepal. Political instability continued to plague the nation until 2015 when the new constitution was promulgated and three tiers of elections were held as per the constitution and the three level of governments were put in place. Most of these governments are run by the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) since the last two years but not to the satisfactions of the common people even when Nepal is said to have finally entered the political stability phase. We have seen in the past that some of the decisions of the subsequent governments were not respected by the incoming governments for some reasons or without citing any reasons. Many infrastructure and social development projects were badly hampered due to such tendencies. It seemed tha

The Himalayan Times 14 November 2019 Occupy Tundikhel Located in the central of the Himalaya range, Nepal is one of the most disaster prone countries in the world due to its topography and climatic conditions. Earthquakes, landslides, floods, fire, thunderbolts are the major causes of disaster events which have caused major damages in the past, weakening the fragile ecosystem of the country. Nepal, at regular intervals, has witnessed earthquakes. Seismological studies have clearly indicated that the entire region of Nepal is prone to earthquakes because of its location in the active seismic zone. According to Global Report on Disaster Risk, Nepal ranks the 11th position in terms of earthquake risk.   When the devastating earthquake measuring 7.8 in magnitude struck the nation in 2015, around 9000 people lost their lives and about 23000 people were injured. Thousands of people were made homeless and had to take shelters in the available open spaces. People from a

The Himalayan Times 7 November 2019 Security system Nepal was and is still fortunate not to have witnessed any unwanted and heinous crimes carried out by any individual and or groups claiming to be separatists and terrorists. It shares approximately 1900-Km open border with its southern neighbour, India. Some of these border areas get closed for certain days during elections. Otherwise, people of these two countries cross these border areas without any hindrances. Both countries have been benefitting from this open boarder.   Now, a serious concern has been raised by the US Department of State in its recently published Country Report on Terrorism-2018 “US cautions against IM activities in Nepal” (THT, November 6, Page 1). It has outlined a number of security issues and concerns regarding this open border situation with India and weak security mechanism in Nepal. The report reads that due to the open border with India and insufficient security protocols at the co