When the government fails to speed up infrastructure development, it could mean three things. One, the government has not been able to manage fund for development, meaning there is little capital to spend. Two, the government has enough money to spend but it has no proper plans for the same. Three, the government has commitment for speeding up capital spending process but the procedural hurdles are way too many or our bureaucracy is too lethargic. But in either of three cases, it is the government or the people in the government who are responsible. Nepal’s story has been that, despite being a struggling economy, we somehow manage funds for development but we simply fail to spend. Here is the irony, the irony that is making the mockery of capacity of almost every government, of federal democratic Nepal that needs to be sorted out once and for all.

The perennial delay, indecision and what now seems like brinkmanship of ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) over the selection of candidate for the post of speaker of House of Representatives is troubling for many reasons. It reeks of misogyny too. It is already more than three months since the post fell vacant after the resignation of Krishna Bahadur Mahara over the charge of rape attempt in October last year.  To keep the lower house of parliament headless for over three months in itself is against the parliamentary practice.

The ‘murder’ of a 24-year-old activist in Dhanusha on Friday by ‘crusher mafia’ spells disaster for our federal republic. From Kathmandu to local levels, politicians and mafia have been looting state resources with impunity. The murder of Om Prakash (Dilip Kumar) Mahato is a manifestation of larger issues of deep-seated corruption within our system. Dilip was spearheading a campaign against illegal mining of sand and aggregate in and around a local river in his hometown. Life of a promising engineer is cut short, and with it, dreams of his loved ones shattered. That a young man could be murdered for fighting for a just cause tells a lot about the kind of state we envision for our future generations.

An event that should ideally have been praised by the general public has become a subject of criticism because the person who led it did not think well about its timing. The incident is related to publicity campaign launched by Minister of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Yogesh Bhattarai in Sydney.  Here is the story.  Minister Bhattarai organized the inauguration ceremony of Visit Nepal 2020 campaign there.

At a time when the ruling party has been criticized by the victims and rights bodies for doing little to speed up resolution of transitional justice (TJ) process and the international community has been repeatedly expressing concerns regarding the perennial delay in ensuring justice to the victims of conflict-era crimes, the government has renewed the process to restart long-stalled TJ process.

The government, which has been receiving widespread criticisms over a number of flawed bills that it introduced in the parliament in recent months, has been heavily criticized again over Information Technology (IT) Bill which has been endorsed by the house committee recently, despite reservations from the members of opposition party, and which awaits endorsement from the parliament.

It’s unfortunate that a larger number of people are cheated by agents, often associated with foreign employment agencies, in the name of foreign employment in Nepal. There is a consistent pattern. People are offered well-paying jobs in destinations such as Dubai, Japan, Korea even the United States. In return, they demand huge money, often in millions, as fee to enable their entry in those destinations.

For more than two weeks sugarcane farmers from Tarai staged protests in Kathmandu against mill owners until the government signed a deal to address all their concerns on Friday. The farmers, who provide raw materials for sugar by selling which the mill owners make huge profits, have not been paid for years. In fact, getting the payment for their products has been a long ordeal for them.  They staged protests in their respective districts and drew the attention of the district authorities too.

The Visit Nepal 2020 campaign has officially begun. Amid the grand celebration in Kathmandu and several places of seven provinces, the program was inaugurated on Wednesday with great fanfare and rejoicing. There have been commitments from all sides to make VNY 2020 a grand success.

The year 2019 is bidding goodbye and we are entering New Year 2020 today. Looking back, there have been few positive happenings and several disappointing indicators for Nepal in 2019. To start with positives, the much-awaited visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping took place this year.