Nepal’s Tarai plains have always suffered—from floods and inundation during the rainy months, from heat wave during summer and from cold wave during winter months. In almost all the cases people from the low-income bracket—such as Dalits and marginalized communities—have to bear the brunt.  It is no different this winter.

Through this space we have urged the top leaders of political parties, including the prime minister and ministers, to stay away from vested interests of business groups. When top leaders associate themselves with such groups the immediate fallout is undermining of rule of law which allows business groups to take advantage of their connection with power centers

The Office of the President has come under criticism once again and no other than president Bidya Devi Bhandari herself has triggered it. On Friday, she summoned influential ruling Nepal Communist Party leaders, ministers and advisors of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli at her office to discuss contemporary politics, just before party’s standing committee meeting was supposed to conclude on Saturday.

One of the biggest ironies of Nepal’s budget system has been that while the country somehow manages to allocate budget for development of infrastructure projects, huge portion of such budget remains unspent, even frozen in some cases. During the pre-budget discussion period, leaders from local, provincial and federal spheres demand money for different development activities. The respective governments address their concerns too by allocating it for the development projects demanded by them.

The Constituency Infrastructure Development Program (CIDP) has remained a controversial matter ever since it was started during the transitional politics. Its efficacy and transparency have always been under question. There have always been the reports of the elected leaders, who decide where they can spend the fund and how, misusing the state funds for the projects which they launch basically to fulfill the needs, also to warm the pockets, of their cadres instead of serving the needs of larger public.

Some Nepal Communist Party (NCP) leaders have been suspicious of 500 million dollar Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) grants provided to Nepal by the United States government. The grant is to be used for mega infrastructure projects like construction of transmission lines and building of highways.

Road accident is rising astronomically, and along with it, the death tolls and injuries but the country does not seem to have made any serious efforts to save people’s lives from these largely preventable accidents. This is a national tragedy and a national shame too. It is estimated that around seven accidents happen in Nepal every day and around seven persons are dying every day.

Granting affiliation to medical colleges has remained a matter of contention in Nepal’s medical education system.  Often the university officials, including the vice-chancellors and registrars themselves, are accused of grating affiliations to colleges to run medical education courses on the basis of political affiliation and other influences including monetary inducements.

Driving, the most sensitive job on the road, seems to be becoming reckless job in recent times. Last week, a truck driver crushed a student in Nepalgunj inviting widespread protests from the students and the locals.  According to the locals, the student who lost both of her legs in that incident, was actually pushed to that stage when the truck driver rolled back the truck over her when he noticed that she was only injured.   Locals suspect that the truck driver actually intended to kill her.

Nepal Police is usually the first security organ to be mobilized to maintain law and order.  They are the ones who successfully control crowd, who reach the accident, flood and landslide sites first to rescue victims.