HELLO NEPAL

The Kathmandu Post 30 April 2017 FUTILE POLITICS Nepal is still in political transition; this transition should have been completed a long ago without wasting any more time on political and constitutional issues. We should thank the senior leaders of major political parties for their effort in promulgating the new constitution, but, the egoistic politics of some of the senior leaders may render these efforts useless, especially the actions of UML chairperson K.P.Oli (“One last leap of faith” April 27, Page 6). Recently, the Madhes-based parties agreed to come on board and participate in the local polls following an agreement with the ruling parties. RJP-N says that it will participate in the local polls only after the government amends the constitution. In line with this agreement, the government had promptly tabled the amendment bill, but it was denied by the UML (Government’s election moves irk UML” April 27, Page 1). The ruling, the opposition and the agitating parti...

The Himalayan Times 28 April 2017 Political confusion Looking at the ongoing political environment and blame game going on among the major political parties, it does not seem that the local level election will be held peacefully. The UML, the main opposition obstructed the House proceedings on the pretext of different reasons “UML obstructs House proceedings over DPM’s reply” (THT, April 27. Page 1). The ruling parties seemed able to finally convince Federal Alliance (FA) and Rastriya Janta Party-Nepal (RJPN) to participate in the local elections to be held in two phases. However, the RJPN says that it will not participate in the elections until the government amends the new constitution in accordance with the agreement. Both the ruling parties and opposition are still blaming each other for not being serious in holding local level elections. Senior leaders have been found exchanging hot words over their intentions about the polls “Deuba, Oli exchange angry words” (THT, 2...

The Kathmandu Post 23 April 2017 COMMERCIALISING EDUCATION   Private schools are doing business in the name of imparting quality education. All of them charge varying fees without any basis. This year, they have increased their school fees by more than 150 percent. In May 23, 2015, the Supreme Court (SC) prohibited the government and all stakeholders from hiking up their school fees for another three years. None of the schools seemed to have followed this instruction, and the Ministry of Education (MoE) does not seem serious about implementing the SC’s directives. As a result, private schools have been charging extravagant fees, making the education in the private schools increasingly unaffordable for the middle-class. It was encouraging to read a news story at a time when most private schools have increased their school fees in this new session (“Student unions want pvt school fees regulated” April 19, Page 02). My granddaughter is studying in a private school and ...