Submit your Article

Kathmandu: Preparations are almost complete for the first historic session of Nepal’s federal parliament formed following the completion of House of Representatives and Prov­ince Assembly elections last year. The session is scheduled to take place at the International Conven­tion Center, New Baneshwor at 4.00 pm on March 5. Earlier, on February 20, the President, on the recom­mendation of (new) Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, had summoned the parliament session on March 5 in accordance with the Nepal’s Consti­tution Article 93 (10).

Nepal’s federal parliament is bicameral and the upper house con­sists of 59 members (56 elected from the February 7 National Assembly election and three nominated by the President) while the lower house has 275 members (165 elected from first-past-the-post system and remaining 110 from proportional representa­tion system). RSS

Yubaraj Khatiwada is the right man to lead the Ministry of Finance. Not just because he has a Phd in monetary economics from the pres­tigious Delhi School of Economics—although that is no small consideration in a country where this vital portfolio has time and again gone to those with limited economic nous. The new finance minister has a record of helping steady the economy through diffi­cult times, particularly during his previous stint as the central bank governor.

Khatiwada takes over as finance minister when the economy is again hitting turbulence. Over the past one decade, the country’s trade deficit has declined by a yearly average of 21.9 percent. It has notched up over Rs 90 billion of deficit in the first five months of the current fiscal alone.

Foreign remittance, Nepal’s one sure source of steady income, is drying up. In the five months of the current fiscal, remittance is down 0.8 percent compared to the same period last year—the first negative remittance growth rate in over a decade. Recurrent expenditures are shooting up, productive spending is stagnant, and another real estate bubble is building. Even someone with Khatiwada’s stellar credentials could struggle to bring the twisted economy in shape.

But Khatiwada seems to be in a mood to make a good fist of it. In his first declaration as finance minister, he vowed to bring all government transactions online from the upcoming Nepali New Year. This, if can be done, could make a significant dent on bureaucratic corruption and reduce money-laundering, a growing problem. As a representative of the unified left gov­ernment, Khatiwada added, he is as committed to the left alliance’s electoral commitment of common pros­perity. Moreover, he said he was determined to bring Nepal’s economy back on track. But therein also lies the problem.

CPN-UML, the senior partner in the recent merger with CPN (Maoist Center), has long been seen as a par­ty that protects cartels and syndicates. It also has a vast patronage network to look after. This raises a legitimate fear: Will the new finance minister be allowed to work freely? Or will he be used primarily as a smokescreen behind which the various vested interests of the new communist juggernaut can hide?

Having shown the courage to sideline his cronies who were all angling for the finance ministry, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli would do well to give his cho­sen one enough room to work in the country’s interest.

TOYANATH BHATTARAI | ILAM

The number of heart, kidney and cancer patients in Ilam district of eastern Nepal has shot up due to the regular consumption of food grown by using excessive pesticides. According to the District Public Health Office, excessive use of car­cinogenic pesticides has turned Ilam into a district with a disproportion­ately high number of cancer patients relative to its population.

In the fiscal 2015-16, 73 cancer patients had sought government help for treatment. In the last fiscal year, 152 cancer patients were rec­ommended for government help. Similarly, in the same year, 89 heart patients, 29 kidney patients and two patients with spinal injury had been the beneficiaries of govern­ment assistance.

This year, with still a few more months to go before the fiscal ends, 134 cancer patients have already been recommended, according to Jeevan Kumar Malla, head of the District Public Health Office, Ilam. He adds that these figures only include those who request the Rs 100,000 government aid for cancer treatment, and that the number of people who don’t seek government help is also high.

Malla has no doubts that the pes­ticides are to be blamed. The prev­alence of cancer, as well as of other diseases, is particularly high in four local units: Suryodaya municipality, Ilam municipality, Mai municipality and Chulachuli rural municipality. These are areas that engage in exten­sive commercial vegetable farming.

Suryodaya is a pocket area for vegetable cultivation where most pesticides consumed in the district goes, while pesticide use is also high in Mai and Chulachuli.

Kathmandu: The Second South Asian Yoga Sports Competition is being organized in Pokhara. The various Yoga Sports Associations from around Asia, including one in Nepal, are jointly organizing the competition in May 2018.

Yoga Sports Association Nepal’s treasurer and coordinator of the publicity committee, Maniraj Kun­war ‘Yogi Shantidoot’ informed that the competition was being orga­nized to create public awareness of yoga as a sport.

The competition will see repre­sentation from Nepal, India, Bangla­desh and Pakistan.

At the meet, various yoga rules would be explained and put into practice. The organizing committee has further said that as the yoga is recognized by the World Health Organization and the UN, its pro­motion as a healthy life choice is important in Nepal as well.

It is believed that the principles of yoga were propounded by Lord Shiva and gradually transferred to the hermits and sages and, finally, to the common folks. RSS

SAPTARI: Chinese apples are being smuggled into India, via Bihar’s Kunauli bazaar located on Indo-Nepal border, appar­ently in collusion with the police and customs officers. The smuggling came to light after the Saptari District Police Office in eastern Nepal mount­ed a raid on the house of one Binod Raya, where the apples were being stored. The police team led by Inspector Heman­ta Bhandari seized 78 cartoons of apples and a bicycle used for smuggling.

The police admit that such smuggling of apples has been taking place for a long time. They said they learnt about Raya’s house after they caught four people red-hand­ed in no-man’s land as they were trying to smuggle apples. Those arrested have admitted to receiving Rs 20 for each cartoon smuggled across the border.

The law prohibits the export of Chinese apples via Nepal. According to the police, a criminal group of Indian nationals purchase apples in Nepal during the day, store them in border areas and smuggle them using bicycles in the thick of night.

By MANOHAR POKHAREL

A draft directive whereby citizens can directly petition the provincial parlia­ment has been endorsed by the Province 3 provincial assembly. The passage of the proposal marks the beginning of a new practice in Nepal’s parlia­mentary system.

Rajendra Pandey, chairperson of the Draft Committee of Provincial Assembly Directive 2074 BS, comprising members of seven political parties represented in the provincial assembly, had tabled the proposal last week.

The draft states: “If any Nepali citizen resid­ing in the concerned province feels aggrieved by a decision of the Cabinet, the government or a non-governmental entity, he or she can directly petition the parliament, pro­vided the petition is signed by 100 Nepali citizens and approved by three members of provincial parliament”.

“It is a new practice in Nepal,” said Pandey. “Earlier, a complaint submitted by a commoner was discussed in the [national] assembly only if the parliamentary committee it was submitted to deemed it important enough”.

It was a long process. But now, “ordinary citizens have a quicker way to have their concerns addressed.”

By Krishna Saru Magar | Hetauda

 FICTION

Home Fire

Kamila Shamsie

First Published: August, 2017

Language: English

Pages: 264, Hardcover

 ‘Home Fire’ is essentially a sto­ry about love and the lengths we go to for those we hold dear. A contemporary reimaging of Antigone, a tragedy written by Sophocles in or before 441 BC, Home Fire explores what happens when love and loyalty are pitted against each other. Shamsie, who has previously writ­ten six novels, has based Home Fire on two Pakistani emigrant families from completely different commu­nities in London. On one side of the spectrum is the devout Isma Pasha, daughter of a jihadi fighter, and then there’s Eamonn Lone, son of the British Home Secretary who is a secularized Muslim.

Eamonn’s family has the power to save Pasha’s family from a horrible fate and that’s what Aneeka, Isma’s sister, initially has in mind when she initiates a relationship with Eamonn. Aneeka wants Eamonn to help bring her twin, Parvaiz, back to London.

Narrated through the perspectives of five different people, Home Fire that tells the haunting tale of what happens when love and politics col­lide was longlisted for the 2017 Man Booker Prize.

Review by APEX BUREAU

One of the most popular international franchises, “Who Wants to be a Millionaire”, is making its debut on Nepali tele­vision, thanks to AP1 HD TV. At a press conference organized last week in Kathmandu, AP1 formally announced the Nepali version of the international franchise as “Ko Bancha Crorepati?”—to be aired on AP1 HD with the co-sponsorship of SRBD media.

The television game show, which is of British-origin and created by David Briggs, Mike Whitehill and Steven Knight, is one of the many international reality TV franchises AP1 is bringing to the Nepali market.

Participants will be selected on the basis of SMS and IVR. For each episode, ten participants will be selected who then will play the iconic “Fastest Finger First” to make it to the “Hot Seat” for the top prize of Rs 10 million.

The program, to be hosted by veteran Nepali actor Rajesh Hamal, also has a dedicated mobile app (QR codes above) where aspiring participants can practice for the show and win prizes in the process as well. APEX BUREAU