It was a classic case of David versus Goliath. Dr Govinda KC of Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital was single-handedly taking on the entrenched medical mafia. In the arsenal of the frail sexagenarian was nothing but his unshakable moral conviction, built over an impeccable career founded on selfless devotion to the sick and the needy. But in the end, this proved enough to transform the way medicine is practiced in the country. Dr KC believed that the medical sector these days had become commercialized and urban-centric and it had become nigh impossible for those of limited means, or the vast majority of Nepalis, to get affordable and reliable healthcare. This is why the most recent agreement between Dr KC and the government comes as a music to the ears of all those who had supported his lone crusade against the medical mafia. The new agreement provisions for at least one medical college in each (future) federal province; it brings the controversial Manmohan Medical College under the ambit of Bir Hospital; it provisions for 50 percent free seats in government-run medical colleges; and it forestalls the likely construction of new medical colleges inside Kathmandu valley for a decade.

OIi government, like its many predecessors, seemed intent only on milking the state for the benefit of ruling parties.

Nepal is highly vulnerable to climate change. All its major rivers are snow-fed, originating in the high Himalayas bordering China’s Tibet. As the snow cover up in the mountains steadily recedes, less water flows into the rivers downstream during the winter season.

It is always easier to destroy than it is to build something. No other force epitomizes this saying more than the Nepali Maoists who, in the course of their decade-long insurgency, bombed and destroyed vital infrastructures like police posts, courts, schools, telecommunication towers, even national monuments and heritage sites with complete abandon. This is not counting the around 15,000 lost lives, nearly 1,500 enforced disappearances and hundreds of thousands of families who were displaced by the violence unleashed by both the Maoists and security forces. According to the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction, just rebuilding the destroyed infrastructures will cost the country around Rs 50 billion. Since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2006, the government has already spent Rs 8.8 billion in successfully rebuilding 2,870 structures that were destroyed during the conflict. But this also means less than half of the reconstruction work has been completed. Moreover, the real economic cost of the Maoist war is far more than the Rs 50 billion needed to rebuild damaged physical structures.

It is hard to find a silver lining in the bleak skies over Nepal these days. Last year’s earthquakes, swiftly followed by the Indian border blockade, are together estimated to have pushed an additional two million Nepalis under the UN-defined ‘poverty line’ of US $2 a day.

Political parties must understand that the rights of conflict victims are not things that can be bargained away.

To start with, we would like to offer our wholehearted apology to the Muslim community of Nepal. We realize that we hurt their sentiments with our editorial (Ignorance Kills, July 16) on Saturday. We didn’t mean to.

Our attention has been drawn to the flood of response to our editorial 'Ignorance kills' (July 16). The editorial team at Republica would like to clarify that we have the highest respect for all religions and we were not, in any way, trying to hurt their sentiments.

There is also an urgent need to strengthen the now at best patchy monitoring mechanism to evaluate the safety of existing school buildings. This is the least we can do for the little ones who trust the adults to do the right thing on their behalf.

This great opportunity for a more consensual constitutional settlement should not be wasted. For without such broad ownership of the constitution, we fear, it will be impossible for Nepal to witness a semblance of political stability, which in turn is indispensible for lasting peace and prosperity.