Optimism Grows

MONARCHY is the institution that has been revered throughout the ages. The respect for the Monarch, looking up to the King for inspiration and guidance has been a tradition of the Nepalese people. There is a reason behind all this expectation from the Monarch because there has always been a profound and keen interest of the Monarch in seeing that the people’s welfare is the uppermost concern. With the Monarch being the fountainhead of inspiration there is no doubt that the country sees its benefit in the same. The Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal-1990 came about as the result of the democratic wishes of His late Majesty King Birendra. That marked a new era in the history of Nepal and is evidence of the fact that people are of the utmost concern in the eyes of the Monarch.
His Majesty King Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev having realised the sufferings of the people has taken the steps that are necessary for bringing about what is the best. Looking at all the comments made by some with a narrow vision is just uncalled for. It is the Monarchial culture that has made Nepal proud among the nations of the world. This must be realised by all instead of voicing words that reflect petty interests.

Minister for Information and Communications and General Administration Ramesh Nath Pandey, speaking at the 18th Nepal Television Anniversary, the other day, underlined the fact that Monarchial culture is the country’s historical and cultural legacy. This makes it clear that Constitutional Monarchy and multi-party democratic set up are a part of the system itself. Minister Pandey also made it clear that the present system stands for peace, progress and prosperity of the country. His Majesty the King’s wishes are for the welfare of the people. Minister Pandey further stated that the past mistakes and shortcomings must be forgotten and the times ask us to forge ahead acknowledging that the combination of the multi-party democratic system and the Monarchial culture is the perfect and ideal system. It is true that the past twelve years were not free from aberrations but when realisation dawns, there is enough ground for moving ahead rectifying the mistakes of the past. The recent declaration of cease-fire by the Maoists hints at the fact that the present government is working towards finding a peaceful solution to the lingering problem. Now it is time that all should join hands, despite ideological differences, to work in the greater interest of the country and the people as is the wish of His Majesty the King.

Conserve Forests

DURING the inauguration of the fifth national conference of Nepal Rangers’ Association in Biratnagar, the Minister for Forests, Soil Conservation and Management Badri Narayan Basnet, as per a news item carried by this daily the other day, called on all those working for the conservation of forests to give up the tendency to point fingers at others and enhance their responsibility towards doing away with irregularities and malpractices in forest conservation and the forestry sector. At a time when the nation’s forest cover—which is reported to be a round 28 per cent—is increasingly coming under pressure from illegal settlers on the one hand and threat from the timber smugglers on the other, that the need for the concerned forest conservation and protection authorities, including the forest rangers, to come up with speedy remedial measures hardly needs any emphasis here. The more so if the nation and the people were to be safeguarded from adverse natural calamities like landslips, flash floods and widespread soil erosion, not to leave out erratic weather and climatic conditions. For, it has been conclusively proved by now that forests, big or small, sub-tropical or temperate, do play very important roles in not only preventing natural catastrophes from ever taking place but, more importantly, in also maintaining the weather and climatic conditions prevailing over the land. As and when such adverse natural calamities and inclemental weather and climatic conditions do ever occur due to, among others, the absence of necessary measures to conserve the nation’s remaining forests, then the soci-eocnomic and environmental costs that both the nation and the people may have to shoulder could be indeed very enormous and prohibitively expensive.

If, on the one hand, the nation’s economic well-being is still heavily dependent on the performance of its agricultural sector, then, on the other, the very survival of its people, the vast majority of whom are small farmers, is also intricately entwined with the ability of their small farms to yield the expected harvests. All this, and more, would be well-neigh untenable if the nation were to be visited by periodic adverse natural calamities as well as by unpredictable weather and climatic conditions. As such, it behooves upon the concerned forestry authorities to speedily come up with short and long-term initiatives to do away with the malpractices and irregularities, if any, in the forestry sector in general and the forest conservation sphere in particular.