On December 17,1999, the United Nations General Assembly endorsed the recommendation made by the world conference of ministers responsible for youth that August 12 be declared International Youth Day.

This year, the day is being celebrated under the theme “The Road to 2030: Eradicating Poverty and Achieving

Sustainable Consumption and Production”.

The idea about this day was first proposed in 1991 by young people gathered in Vienna and Austria for the first session of the UN’s World Youth Forum. International Youth Day was first observed in 2000 A.D.

The UN defines the world’s youth as the age group between 15 and 24 years. In the context of Nepal these sorts

of days are not properly observed which comes on our calendar and goes in vain.

Our government never thought of youth as a source of change and progress. Many youths are abroad in search of jobs.

Nowadays, there is a scarcity of young people in remote areas where only women, children and elderly people are left behind.

There are youths in the urban centres where they are pursuing education of their choice and who have got strong financial backing and have prospects of earning better within the country than what they may do abroad.

Providing better job opportunity with skills and technical know-how could be the best way to observe the International Youth Day.

Abhishek Kunwar, Pokhara

Elections

There was nothing to hide about the reason behind sudden fall of the Oli-led government. Once the CPN-MC realized Oli’s power hunger that made him undermine the gentlemen’s agreement which had taken place between him and

Pushpa Kamal Dahal, it decided to pull out of the coalition government.

All the previous UML led governments had also faced the same fate due to its internal feud. Both Madhav Nepal and Jhalanath Khanal’s governments had hardly survived for one year due to power games played by them.

This time, Oli is to be blamed for his downfall due to his egoistic and arrogant working style.

It is really a pity to see the senior leaders continuing to play self-centred power politics rather than for the nation and its people. Now, the Dahal-led coalition government backed by NC and other fringe parties is at the helm. He has started making several promises to the public to be fulfilled during the next nine months.

Let us hope that he will do it. It was good to see his government’s decision to bring the disgruntled parties on board by addressing their political and constitutional issues.

He should make public his detailed plan of action for the next nine months and act accordingly. If he failed to prove his political capabilities this time, he may lose his political credibility and not be able to regain his popularity in the days to come.

The major task for the Big III is to implement the new constitution but not to act against each other.

Rai Biren Bangdel, Maharajgunj.