Security stock-taking

The two-day Nepal-India Home Secretary Level meet rounded off on an amicable note despite the fact that the signing of the extradition treaty was deferred to be done at the highest political level. It is well-understood that Nepal and India regularly embark on bilateral talks on various issues so that greater misunderstanding on the part of either side can be mitigated at the earliest. The present meeting of the home secretaries of the two countries was basically aimed at taking stock of the security situation of South Asia and in particular the focus on terrorism that has proved to be pervasive. Terrorism as such affects almost all the countries of South Asia and has been a stumbling block for the economy as much manpower and resources have to be allocated to tackle the menace. This is where bilateral as well as multilateral cooperation among the countries of the South Asian region to tackle terrorism can be of immense benefit to all the stakeholders. This is, however, not to say that efforts are not on to overcome the tentacles of terrorism on a country-to-country basis. However, with technical innovations, the terrorists too have made forays that were considered impossible in the past. Hence, the threats look sinister unless there is a sustained and coordinated move at their annihilation.

India, as it is known, is cognizant of the reality that for checking cross-border terrorism mutual cooperation with Nepal is essential and vice versa. With the open border that exists between the two countries, it is necessarily a tough task to boost trans-border security, but given the will and cooperation to do so it can be done. For this, it becomes necessary to strengthen the border security arrangements, which has been agreed upon during the home secretarial meet of the two countries. Besides, mutual cooperation is the agreed upon plank not only to check terrorist activities but also to combat trans-border crime, human trafficking, and circulation of fake currencies. The assurance of necessary steps to be taken in the future makes sense in that both countries stand to benefit through the arrangement. The modalities, however, has to taken up as per the severity of each element. For Nepal, the agreement is only an indication that the talks were held on an amicable footing. The boosting up of the level of understanding between the two countries must exude confidence that there will be further tangible efforts in the future for mutual benefit.

For Nepal and India to maintain their ever-strengthening bilateral ties, the urgency rests

in trying to untie the knot at the earliest of stages through the vehicle of talks. This guarantees that any issue, however trivial it may be, does

not grow out of proportion to dent the cordial ties that has sustained many an ups and downs along the way. One thing that has to be borne in mind is that whatever is agreed upon needs follow up at regular intervals so as to ascertain that the implementation aspect is up to the mark. Now that the next home secretary level talks is scheduled for next year in New Delhi, the need is to not to wait for the meet to arrive but for both the countries to make the progress agreed upon recently.

Stick them up

The recent action against 25 shops in Kathmandu valley for violating laws over a period of six days shows the scale in which irregularities are taking place. Among other offenses, some of these shops were found selling date expired goods. Now, according to the law, the manufacturers are duty-bound to provide information on prices of commodities, their date of manufacture and expiry date, batch number, net weight and ingredients. It is common knowledge that many consumers are duped, and they unknowingly buy goods whose date have already expired. Along with the price list, manufacturers should be compelled to give these details in their products, and for the wholesalers and retailers to sell only goods which do not exceed the expiry date.

Stringent action should be taken against those involved in the racket of selling date expired goods. This is necessary for some of the consumer items have direct impact on the health of the public. Another thing is that some retailers are found erasing the expiry dates of the products they sell. This is a serious crime and it is high time the concerned dissuaded such cheating by ensuring reach of the law.