Encouraging Scheme

THE hills in Mid-Western Nepal house some of the poorest districts of the Kingdom. The biggest problem is the difficult terrain and thus the lack of proper roads. Because of this difficulty, other facilities like health, education and communication facilities have also not reached these remote places. So naturally, the people living in this area are among the most impoverished in the country. It is not surprising that some dissatisfied elements, wanting to start a violent political campaign, chose to initiate their terrorist activities in these districts. Not only did they have the advantage of being able to hide in the inhospitable terrain, but they were also able to lure the poor people who had few options for a better life. However it is a very encouraging development that His Majesty’s Government is now implementing a basket fund programme on the basis of all party consensus in the five districts of Rolpa, Rukum, Kalikot, Jajarkot and Salyan. Speaking at a press meet the other day, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home and Local Development Ram Chandra Poudel informed that the government is initiating this programme to raise the social and economic conditions of the people in these districts.

Virtually everyone has agreed that the present terrorist activities being carried out by the Maoists, cannot be stopped through force alone. Yes, the people of these districts have to be given a sense of security, therefore the presence of more security personnel is essential. But at the same time, it is far more pragmatic to reach development and prosperity to the people there, so that they will not be lured in any way to anti-national activities being carried out by the insurgents. If the people in general in these districts prosper, the insurgents will automatically be isolated. The government has also done well by allowing the local level bodies to utilise the funds according to their own needs. The C entre, with the help of local and international NGOs will only play the role of a monitor. The consensus among all the political parties for this sort of a development activity is also encouraging. It can be hoped everyone will sincerely work to make this programme of the government successful and contribute in eradicating poverty and violence in these remote districts.

Two Cheers To SC

OVER these past years, there have been consistent and valid criticisms levelled against the members of parliament in relation to what appears to a layman as their obsession to pile up perks and privileges on themselves. The legislative tasks they have performed concerning the welfare of the nation may not be much, but passage of bills that adds more to their remuneration has been accomplished with remarkable alacrity. Consensus on many burning issues confronting the nation may be hard to find in the parliamentary chambers, but all members of parliament have come together when it comes to raising their salary and privileges including duty-free vehicles. One of such decisions legislators made without with few dissenting voices from among them has to do with the pension facilities. According to that law, in brief, a politician may remain an MP for just a few months, but he/she is entitled to a good pension for the rest of his/her life. His pension goes up according to how many times he has been an MP. A three-time MP is entitled to 75 per cent of the MP’s salary as the pension sum. The decision was slammed by the intelligentsia and the common people at that time.

In a decision hailed by everybody, a full bench of the Supreme Court on Wednesday accepted the writ challenging the constitutionality of such pension facility of the MPs. It accepted the writ on the grounds that the pension facility of MPs was in contravention of Article 67 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal 1990. The Supreme Court deserves two cheers for this decision. It is a measure of the public sentiments against the legislators’ tendency to give them one facility after another that there has been a resounding praise for the apex judicial body’s decision. And it is a measure of the correctness of the decision that there has hardly been any murmur of protest from the legislators. Scrapping of the pension facility will save the national exchequer a whopping 60 million rupees a year. What lesson should MPs draw from this Supreme Court decision and the all-round acclaim of it by the general public? It is to be hoped that the legislators will keep in mind such pravalent public sentiments next time they toy with the idea of putting through in the House some law that seeks to give them undue benefits.