Critical Assessment

PRIME Minister Sher Bahaudr Deuba warned the Maoists not to sell dreams to the people and instead join the democratic mainstream to uplift the condition of the people and strengthen democracy and people’s rights. Addressing a mass meeting in Nepalgunj the other day, Prime Minister Deuba said that the law and order situation in the country has improved in the last three months since the new government was formed. It is due to the Prime Minister’s peace initiatives with the Maoist rebels that has brought about a somewhat positive scenario. At the call of the Prime Minister, Maoists rebels ceased their violent and offensive activities and agreed to hold talks with the government to solve the Maoist problem. This is a historic achievement made in the last six years. Herein it may be worthwhile remembering that the peace talks had not been initiated with the rebels despite repeated calls of the previous governments for dialogue. Two rounds of talks have already been held and the third round of peace talks are expected to be held some time next week. Despite the agreement for halting all types of offensive activities from both the government and the Maoists, the rebels have not fully stopped such activities. Some cases of abduction and extortion have been reported in different parts of the country. Against this background, Prime Minister Deuba has warned the rebels to completely halt such activities and be committed to peace talks in order to solve the problem peacefully. If rebels do not completely stop such undesired for activities, there would be enough room to suspect that the Maoist leadership does not have control over its workers. If that is the situation, other decisions of the Maoist leadership may not be translated into action, which ultimately will lead to anarchy. Thus, the onus lies on the Maoist leadership, if they are honest to their own promises, to halt all violent activities. Another thing the rebels also need to understand is the fact that selling dreams does not at all serve the interest of the nation and the people. But it ultimately backfires on those who sell cheap slogans and dreams as a propaganda measure. In a democracy, one needs to be practical to mobilise the people to improve their own economic and social status. In this, lies the supreme interest of the nation and the people.

Ban Toxic Pesticides

ABOUT 74 tons of date-expired and banned pesticides, according to a news item carried by this daily recently, are said to be giving the concerned authorities some amount of problem. Especially in their safe storage or disposal. Some of these pesticides are reported to be in gaseous form, others are said to be in either powder or liquid form. Nevertheless, all these pesticides are said to be highly toxic. In other words, detrimental to both the environment and human life. If, as reported, they are, then a pertinent query is: how did they manage to find their way into the country? But then, they may have been imported before the concerned authorities came to learn about their toxic effects on both the nation’s fragile environment and to the health of the people. Be that as it may, disposing such highly toxic pesticides is indeed a risky problem for the concerned authorities. In all probability, these toxic pesticides are non-biodegradable chemicals. Hence, burying them is out of question. The more so in an earthquake-prone country like ours since the danger of these toxic chemicals eventually seeping into the underground water table will always be there. Nor, for that matter, burning them because they could pollute the air—and, through it, lead to health hazards for the people. But then, keeping them in their existing states as well as storage sites will not lead to any solution. Hence, it looks to reason for the concerned authorities to get in touch with the manufacturers so that they could either take back their toxic pesticides or tell the concerned authorities how to safely neturalise their toxicity.

Pesticides, for a nation like Nepal which is heavily dependent on agriculture to not only feed its burgeoning population but also keep its economy humming, are necessary evils. But all this does not mean that the import and use of toxic pesticides should be given the green signal. Rather, the import and use of toxic non-biodegradable pesticides should and must be completely banned if the nation’s fragile ecology as well as the people’s health are to be safeguarded. In this regard, the concerned authorities need to be very selective whenever giving the permits for importing any toxic pesticide. Only those that have maximum effects on pests but minimum or no impact on human health and the environment should be given import permits.