For Social Justice

PRIME Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand said that the government is effortful to strictly implement the existing acts and regulations concerning human rights and social justice and chalk out comprehensive policies and programmes for the uplift of the dalits, the oppressed communities, in the country. Addresing a function organised by the Nepal National Depressed Social Welfare Organisation in Kathmandu the other day. Prime Minister Chand said that it was necessary to provide equal rights and opportunities for all including Dalits in every sector of the country. The Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal-1990 has fully guaranteed equality and equal rights to all citizens irrespective of caste, creed, colour and sex and has protected them against any kind of discrimination. Discrimination in any form on the basis of caste, creed, sex, and colour is a crime. Similarly, Nepal has also expressed its commitment at the international level to eliminate all forms of discriminations by ratifying several United Nations and other international instruments relating to human rights. Despite these constitutional and legal provisions and international commitment concerning equality and human rights, some perversions and aberrations continue to exist in various forms. The deep-rooted social and cultural superstitions serve as a stumbling block for completely rooting out these social and cultural perversions in our country. In many places, dalits are not allowed to participate in certain social, cultural or religious programmes. Some people belonging to the so-called lower castes are not allowed even to enter temples and other religious places. This is not only a discrimination and exploitation but also gross violation of human rights. Such a shameful practice is a scar on democratic and civilised system, which must be brought to an end in order to ensure sustainable development in the country. Against this background, the remarks and commitments of the Prime Minister carry a special significance towards creating an equitable and just society. Almost half of the country's total population live below the poverty line and are deprived of minimum basic needs. The majority of these absolute poor are dalits, who are out of the country's mainstream of development. Realising this, His Majesty's Government has also brought about several specific programmes for the improvement of the poor, downtrodden and oppressed sections of the society. The formation of National Dalit Commission is a step towards bringing the dalits and socially and economically depressed section of the society into the social, economic and political mainstream of the country. This is no doubt a lofty goal, which can attain success only when cooperation was extended from all sectors of the society.

Wait Until Polls

STRONG and functioning local bodies with competent elected representatives are important instruments of decentralisation in a democratic dispensation. Effective decentralisation of authority paves the way for local development, development that people choose for themselves. However, in Nepal, the local bodies are yet to become capable of functioning in the true spirit of decentralisation of power albeit efforts have been made in this regard by introducing relevant laws and regulations. The Local Self-Governance Act-2055 and the Local Self-Governance Regulations govern the process by which the local bodies are empowered to carry out their tasks. The local representatives had greeted the provisions, introduced by the then government, with a lot of enthusiasm. But with the tenure of the local representatives ending before another local election could be held, the people are now finding it difficult to get their official jobs done and feel the difference because there were new arrangements for the functioning of the local bodies. Meanwhile, the government is reportedly bracing for the amendment of the law and regulation, which has been questioned by ex-law makers. According to a news item carried by this daily the other day, some of the ex-representatives of the various local bodies, speaking at a programme organised by the Association of the District Development Committee Nepal (ADDC-N), questioned the government's motive behind amending the Local Self-Governance Act and related Regulations and demanded that their fiscal rights be widened.
In fact, without empowering the local bodies, both legally and economically, and in the absence of people's active participation in development works, consolidation of democracy in the country is difficult. The local bodies are instrumental in carrying out the development works by enlisting the people's participation and lobbying the central government for their share of benefits from bigger development projects. Besides, they are the key functionaries to look into the problems of the local people and solve them. Hence, they must be given the right to have a bigger say in fiscal matters without which they cannot mobilise the local resources for development. Now that there are no people's representatives, it will be wiser for all to wait until fresh elections for the local bodies, which is what the mainstream political parties are demanding.