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The 6.4 magnitude earthquake that struck Jajarkot and Rukum West last Friday has left behind a trail of death and devastation. Around 160 people have died (more than half of the dead are children), hundreds have suffered injuries, lakhs have become shelterless and lost the means of livelihood. 

In the immediate aftermath of the quake, the United Nations said in its report that around 1.3m people have been exposed to the quake, and about 0.25m may need humanitarian assistance within 72 hours of the disaster.  

After announcing the completion of search and rescue operations, the government is ‘focusing’ on the distribution of relief materials. 

But media reports from the ground are not that encouraging. This daily and a number of other media outlets have pointed out that the government has largely failed to provide for the needy in times of a crisis. 

With their possessions under the rubble, the survivors are in need of food, shelter, warm clothing and medicine. But even the tarps have become a luxury for most of the people, forcing them to live in the open without food and warm clothing in freezing temperatures. 

A report published in this daily, for example, quotes relevant officials as saying that one has to be a house-owner to get a tarp from the government. Another ApEx report states that the representatives of organizations involved in relief distribution are not bothering to visit the backwaters for relief distribution. 

What does it all mean? That the lives of those living on rent or on temporary shelters like sheds do not count? That the people hailing from remote corners are expendable? 

In the aftermath of the disaster, a series of chopper-borne high-profile visits to the affected areas have taken place like on previous such occasions, with promises of all possible help to the survivors. 

Promises aside, relief materials like food, drinking water, shelter and basic medicine are really hard to come by for most of the survivors, leave alone specialized care for the traumatized ones, including children. 

The quake and several jolts aside, the survivors have also been grappling with a cumbersome governance system that has largely failed to provide for the people in dire need. Leave alone the disasters from a distant past, government authorities do not seem to have learnt lessons even from the 2015 Gorkha earthquake that killed around 10000 people, rendered lakhs homeless and destroyed infrastructure worth billions of rupees even as a dilapidated Singhadurbar looked on. 

The government should get its acts together and rush relief to the needy, in close coordination with political parties across the aisle, defense-security agencies, donor agencies, civil society and the public to save lives.     

As they say, a week is a long time in politics. What about a month or a couple of months? 

Well, it’s a pretty long time, even for a laid-back society.  

Let’s leave politics aside and roam around a bit. Seasons come and go every three months. Numerous flowers blossom, die and fall. Larvaes turn into beautiful butterflies in 2-5 weeks, depending on factors like species and growing conditions.    

Wheat becomes ready for harvest in about four months whereas paddy takes up to six months, depending on things like varieties, growing conditions and agronomic practices. 

But politics, the Nepali strain in particular, appears to be a different ball-game altogether. 

The federal parliament of Nepal offers a not-so-shining example. 

The summer session of the parliament is coming to an end at midnight on Thursday. In its final hours, the opposition parties and the ruling parties are busy blaming each other for the sovereign body’s failure to introduce important legislations during the seven-month session. 

The main opposition has blamed the government for not listening to it and forcing it to encircle the well to make its voice heard. The second largest party in the parliament has defended its moves, stating that they were meant to make the government take corrective measures like the formation of a high-level commission for investigating the 60-kg gold smuggling case.   

It has also accused the government of failing to give the House business. 

On its part, the government has said that obstructions from the opposition bench, the main opposition in particular, are mainly to blame for the inefficiency of the parliament. While the opposition bench has every right to raise voices, it should not have brought the parliamentary proceedings to a halt, it has reasoned.      

The blame-game aside, the failures of the parliament are indeed glaring. Crucial bills on truth and reconciliation and money-laundering remain stuck. The bill on loan-sharking has made it through the parliament, though there’s no dearth of critics, who take it as a half-baked one.

The government as well as the Office of the President have come under fire for presenting and authenticating a Citizenship Amendment Bill in a very controversial manner. The presidential pardon in murder cases, granted on the recommendation of the government, has not gone well either.   

As for the achievements, there is not much to brag about. The ruling dispensation managed to get the budget for the fiscal 2023/24 through. And in the penultimate hours of the session, the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addressed the joint meeting of the parliament.    

The seven-month session is over, but the opposition and the ruling parties can still learn important lessons from it. 

While the government should give more space to the opposition bench, listen more to it and do its utmost to address its concerns, the latter should also give up it’s my way or highway attitude.  

Opposition parties have accused the three major parties, including the main opposition, of holding the parliament hostage for their petty interests. The main opposition and the government should take this charge seriously. 

Summing up, a principles-based conciliatory approach across the aisle will go a long way in making the parliament more effective.

A long festive season is around the corner. Marigolds, chrysanthemums, makhmali (gomphrena globosa) and a myriad other flowers are in full bloom, as if in celebration. The air is full of our very own Mangal Dhun and Malshree. The kites flying high in the sky and crops ready for harvest in our fertile fields also seem to be suggesting us all to not worry too much. 

But our hearts are not as full of joy as they used to be in the midst of festivities, with several factors seeking to eat into our peace, bliss and happiness. Rising market prices have become a killjoy with the absence of the state in the market giving black marketers a free rein.  

 Apart from the utter lack of the rule of law in the market, the wounds from the recent killing of 10 Nepali students in attacks in Israel are still raw. 

As a peace-loving nation, which itself has been a victim of violence and terror, our prayers are for peace and tranquility all over the world. As a country that has been contributing to United Nations peacekeeping operations around the world, including in the restive Mideast, Nepal, the birthplace and tapobhumi (the place of meditation) of Gautam Buddha and numerous other enlightened souls like Rishis, Maharshis and Munis, should do its utmost for the cessation of hostilities. 

On the domestic front, the government should do far more than it has been doing to curb the literal exodus of hundreds of Nepalis to foreign shores every day, At the heart of this alarming brain and muscle drain is a growing feeling among the most productive age group, the youths, that the country is heading toward a dark abyss, thanks to a rudderless political leadership and a bureaucracy that has failed to act as the permanent government, by and large. 

Instead of taking concrete measures to stop this drain, the government itself seems to be aiding and abetting this exodus, driven by the lure of remittances, without giving a hoot about the multi-faceted negative impacts of this drain on Nepal. 

Learning lessons from the tragedies in Israel, Afghanistan and Iraq and high death rates of Nepalis working in subhuman conditions around the world, the government needs to adopt policies that create jobs and a favorable environment for doing business in the country. Only then will Nepal be able to get a population dividend, ushering the country in an era of peace, progress and prosperity.   

On their part, the youths would do well to stop searching for the proverbial land where milk and honey flows. The youths should realize that their motherland/fatherland needs them the most, especially at a time when it has been facing serious crises. They should ask themselves as to why they cannot make a living in Nepal even when lakhs of people from the neighborhood have been doing exactly the same.   

They should never forget that this country is too precious to be left to a bunch of rulers, who have their petty interests at heart, at the expense of the greater good of the country.  

Let Goddess Durga inspire us to reclaim our country and our destiny.   

Dengue is a viral infection caused by the dengue virus (DENV) and transmitted to humans through the bite of infected mosquitoes, according to the World Health Organization. Half of the world's population is now at risk of dengue with an estimated 100–400m infections occurring each year. Dengue is found in tropical and sub-tropical climates worldwide, mostly in urban and semi-urban areas. While many DENV infections are asymptomatic or produce only mild illness, DENV can occasionally cause more severe cases, and even death, per the United Nations health agency. 

In Nepal, dengue has emerged as a public health crisis. It has already spread in 76 districts infecting around 40,000 people so far this year and leaving many people dead. Hundreds of dengue infections in a day point at the gravity of the crisis. Favorable climatic conditions from the southern plains to the hills to even the Himalayan region have definitely contributed to this spread, apart from a general lack of awareness about the disease. Water stagnated in tyres, flower pots, air conditioning equipment, buckets, drums and puddles can be a breeding ground for Aedes mosquitoes that spread this disease through their bites. 

Preventive measures at household and community levels can go a long way in bringing dengue under control. This does not mean that local levels, provinces and the federal government should do nothing to address this health emergency. There’s a deepening feeling among the public that the governments–local, provincial and federal–have not been paying much attention to the outbreak because it does not afflict the ruling elites, given the health safeguards in place for them and easy availability of treatment. 

Through effective steps, the government should prove that this perception is wrong. 

This daily, through extensive reports, has tried to bring the attention of the government toward a public health delivery system that has become dysfunctional, by and large. At least in part, rising dengue infections are an indication of a disease afflicting this system. 

In turn, dengue is symptomatic of governance that has not been as effective as it should be in providing remedies for multiple ills plaguing Nepal and the Nepalis, from violation of national sovereignty to unabated corruption to rising market prices to increasing defense and security challenges. 

The challenges are formidable but they should not be insurmountable. Once again, the onus is on the government to take political parties, civil society, the people and other relevant actors into confidence and do whatever it takes to tide the country over the crises.