LETTERS (Spotlight Weekly)

Pleasant Surprise To Employees

Finance Minister Mahesh Acharya has won praises from thousands of government employees with the budget (Will It Bring relief? Spotlight June 2). By raising their salaries considerably, Acharya has made a timely attempt to raise the morale of civil servants. Now, the government can take strict actions against any employees found indulging in corruption. It is time that the government effectively implemented carrot and stick policy to make its administrative machinery efficient and transparent.

Rakesh Shrestha
Pulchowk

Will It Meet The Targets?

This year's budget has made a huge estimation of expenditures but the question is will it meet them? (Will It Bring Relief? Spotlight June 2). At a time when the government could not meet its estimated expenditure of last year's budget, it is difficult to believe that it will do so now.

Dinesh KC
Balaju

Still Relying On Foreign Aid

Once again, the country's budget has relied heavily on foreign aid (Will It Bring Relief? Spotlight June 2). While it is a well-known fact that our country has not reached a stage where it can refuse foreign aid, at least the government could have decreased its reliance on foreign loans and assistance. At least the government could have come up with a policy on how and where it is going to accept foreign assistance and how is it going to pay them back.

Deepak Khadka
Baneshwor

What About General Public?

Although this year's budget has increased the salary of government employees, there is a large section of Nepalese population that have been left unattended (Will It Bring Relief? Spotlight June 2). The people belonging to classes including farmers, labors and others have no reason to rejoice with this year's budget. At least some provisions should have been made to make their living more comfortable.

Bijaya Acharya
Lagankhel

Education In Shambles

Your main feature on education (Misguided Teachers Hurt The Nation Spotlight May 26) was really overdue. Rather than the teachers alone, our whole attitude, the policies and their implementation are to blame. As you rightly point out, the new education system was imposed by the Panchayat System to maximally politicize education. The old, timetested textbooks were replaced with those full of errors, written by so called educationists at the helm of power. One such book for school defines watershed as "a large body of water like Trishuli..." while another by the same author classifies tomatoes, potatoes and carrots as cereal and leafy vegetables and "chamsur" as grass. Little contact with the educational authorities allows one to get any book imposed as texts for schools. The recent SLC examination has bared everything. Teachers refusing to prepare cheats for their students were garlanded with shoes. The examination office manipulates the results in an auction for position in the board. To impose such corruption throughout the school system, the authorities have hatched plans for district level exams for class five and eight. Why did we throw away the Panchayat system if we are determined to continue its philosophy, practices, mentality and culture? Just like the Panchayat rulers, the multi-party rulers are looting the country. At that time the masters were few and volume was small; now the masters are too many, and the country is being bled dry by the vampires. They have inculcated corruption in the whole society, and want to train our youths in its methods from the very primary school level. When will the society realize the great crime being perpetrated on it through the school system, and refuse to collaborate?

Shukra Raj Acharya
Naya Bazar, Kirtipur

VAT Dilema

The over reliance the budget has stressed on VAT is definite to land the government in stop. Even though the finance minister has focused on VAT as a potential source of revenue, the weak and unsystematic administration of the tax system will encourage leakages and corruption in the managerial staff. VAT is being realized from the consumers with no receipts. Under such a situation to believe that the tax will find its way into the government treasury would be sheer foolishness. If the government is serious about realizing sizable revenue from VAT. They must see that all the organizations that realize issue a proper receipt.

Rajesh Shrestha
Maitidevi

CORRECTION

Read as Jai Pratap Rana and not Trilok Pratap Rana, member secretary of King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation (KMTNC) instead of what inadvertently appeared on page 15 of June 2nd issue of Spotlight. Error is sincerely regretted.

- Ed.