Heinous Act

THE dastardly cold blooded murder of the Inspector General of the Armed Police Force Krishna Mohan Shrestha, his wife Nudup and bodyguard Sub Inspector Surya Regmi, on Sunday morning, comes as a shocking piece of news to all sensitive and rational people. As a person, late Shrestha, known as an affable person and a ‘thorough gentleman’, the loss bleeds the heart. The unidentified assailants have struck a blow which must be condemned in the harshest of words. There are no words to describe how heinous the act was. When any sort of violence is frowned at, shooting to kill people cannot be tolerated. The country is wracked by violence at the moment, and the terrorists are motivated by twisted and weird ideas that their tactics of violence is fruitful. By holding the country and its people to ransom through coercion and violence, they are not doing the country any good. Terrorism of any sort cannot be for the benefit of anyone. This method of shocking the very conscience of human beings is just a reflection of the brute for whom reason does not hold any ground. Murdering a person serves no purpose in the civilised world that we live in.

In the death of late Shrestha, the country has lost a patriot who devoted all his life in serving the country and the people. Everyone who knew him were impressed by his friendliness and easy-going manners despite him being a high executive. The people who thronged in large numbers to pay last tributes to the courageous ‘soldier of the country’ could not hold back their tears. This speaks for the respect people had for him. This respect arose from the way late Shrestha intermingled with everyone including his subordinates. Journalists too recall how he had maintained rapport of the best kind. Yet, today he is no more with us just because of the hateful and condemnable action of a few misguided and villainous people. It is an irreparable loss but it makes us all, the sensible lot, to be ever-determined to root out such evil and their perpetrators.

Alleviating Poverty

DURING a talk programme entitled “Poverty Alleviation: Role of Entrepreneurs” organised by the Nepal Chamber of Commerce (NCC), the participants pointed out that agricultural growth alone will not alleviate poverty and that equal emphasis should be laid on trade and industrial development for sustainable economic growth for which a proper environment is essential. When the participants said that agricultural growth alone cannot alleviate poverty, they were actually emphasising a point that is by now a truism among development experts throughout the world. For, poverty alleviation is not only a Herculean task but also entails the inputs from other sectors. As such, to alleviate poverty, the concerned authorities need to come up with a multi-prong strategy so as to give free rein to positive factors while nullifying the adverse variables. It could be this reason there is no single blueprint for development experts to consult or implement. And, also the reason why there is wide accord amongst development experts that poverty alleviation strategy is country-specific as each country not only has its own socio-economic characteristics but also development-related problems and challenges that are specific to that country. However, this is not to say that whatever poverty alleviation strategies that are being charted out and implemented are not useful. They are. Especially the experiences garnered and lessons learnt while implementing the poverty alleviation strategies. After all, poverty alleviation strategy is more, and not less, associated with a developing or a least developed nation due to its poverty-ridden situation and conditions. As such, all developing or least developed nations do share some similarities in their poverty alleviation strategies—which, if shared with others, could not only save them huge amounts of resources and valuable time from trying to find the right poverty alleviation strategies but, more importantly, assist them in expediting their respective poverty-alleviation initiatives.

Developing and least developed nations, as all know by now, not only lack economies of scale but their economies are heavily dependent on the performances of their agricultural sectors. Hence, if they were to industrialise their economies, then they need to not only modernise their respective agricultural sectors and activities but also come up with relevant measures to boost and upgrade their agro-based industries. By doing so, they would not only be helping their peoples to banish poverty from their midst but, through the foreign exchange earnings derived from exporting their agro-based products, assisting in industrialising their respective economies.