This is with reference to the news story “Govt bans essential services strike” (THT, October 5, Page 2). On August 25 the Ministry of Home Affairs issued a circular in the Nepal gazette stating that all essential services including the supply of goods, transportation and people engaged in medical services are essential services and they cannot be disrupted on one or the other excuses. The parliament has passed a law on essential services which includes among others things the transport, medical supplies, medical health professional, milk, water, food and vegetable supplies sectors. These are essential services and the people engaged in these businesses cannot be stopped or disrupted and the people resorting to strikes in these sectors are punishable by the law. But sad to say these are  sectors which quite often see strikes to get demands fulfilled by coercing the government. The recent strike of medical practitioners in all government hospitals caused immense difficulties to the health service seekers. Some of the patients who were waiting for the doctors’ appointment either for biopsy or surgery or follow up were denied the services by the doctors after they were manhandled by a group of people over the deaths of some patients during surgery and medical treatment. The government tried to bring a bill to make the concerned doctors liable for compensation if someone dies or suffers physical disability due to a doctor’s negligence. The government should have consulted the concerned medical association and the stakeholders before drafting a law regulating the negligence of doctors and unruly behavior of the relatives of the victims. The Nepal Medical Association of Nepal which called the strike should have opted for other options than to resort to the strikes causing hardship to the service seekers. Nobody can force the government to enact law in  favour of the interest group which will affect the interest of the general people. The coercive culture which is thriving in the country must be stopped. Amrita Neupane, Kathmandu     Gun crime  I am writing this to pinpoint the atrocities that have inflicted by the mass shootings in Las Vegas a few days ago. The horrendous attacks have caused the death of 59 people and wounded more than 500 innocent people in America. I do not really understand how people can get away by killing countless people. How does it work for them to pass the back ground checks in order to carry a gun and take the lives of people. It is very weird to see the Americans teach the rest of the world for maintaining peace and order. For instance, the recent escalation of tension between North Korea and America is a geopolitical hotbed that has nothing to do with other than fooling the world for achieving geopolitical -ulterior motives in Asia. It is high time that America stopped worrying and fixed her own national anxieties by letting the United Nations intervene in the international affairs independently. Shiva Neupane, Melbourne