HELLO NEPAL

The Himalayan Times 28 April 2016 Hold local elections It has been almost eighteen years that the elections of local bodies at the Village Development Committees (VDCs) level have not been held due to lack of political commitment of the past governments and the major political parties. This is very unfortunate for Nepal where all the political leaders claim to the champions of people’s democracy. They continue to publicly saying that the local body election should be held without wasting any more time. The concerned ministers of the Oli led government do not also seem to hesitate to say that the local bodies’ election will be held within one year. It has already completed its six months in the office. However, looking at its ongoing political performance, holding election of the local bodies seems to be merely a false assurance “Civic polls not on govt priority list” (THT, 26 April, Page 1). Even for the interim period, had this election been held on time, most ...

The Kathmandu Post 22 April 2016 BE PRACTICAL It seems that the National Planning Commissions (NPC) has finally realized that the programme budget to be provided to various ministries for the coming fiscal year needs to be reduced in view of the massive amount of funds that may be required for the post-quake reconstruction programme (“NPC proposes budget reduction” 20 April, Page 1). Otherwise, there was a tradition of increasing yearly budget of every ministry by approximately ten percent without an appropriate mechanism. Top down programming and budgeting approach is still in practice in the government, forcing its local level organizations to either haphazardly spend the allocated programme budget or fail to spend allocated budget fully and let an enormous amount lie unspent towards the end of the fiscal year. This process has also led to spike in the amount of irregularities at government agencies, according to the recently published audit report of the Depa...

The Himalayan Times 21 April 2016 Sit for fruitful talks It was tiring and frustrating to see time and again the country is facing continued political uncertainty caused by the political confrontations between the ruling parties and agitating forces even after abruptly abolishing 240 years old monarchy. It was also envisaged that the political situation of Nepal would improve and stabilize soon after the promulgation of the new constitution. It does not seem so. There seem to be more riots and disturbances coming up in the days to come looking closely at the ongoing political environment. Whatever happens in the streets, it will be the common people who will suffer the most. Madhesi and Janajati leaders have now joined their hands and announced another “do or die” movements against the ruling parties for making amendments in the new constitution especially related to the demarcation of federal units as reported in “Madhes, Janajati leaders vow intensified moveme...