Editorial

Reckoning time

The budget session has moved ahead in ernest with President Ram Baran Yadav presenting the policies and programmes of the government on Thursday. Though it is a customary practice, it holds significance in that a base line has been defined for the budget for the fiscal year 2009/10

to be presented. Earlier, though belatedly, the House obstruction was cleared with the UCPN (Maoist) agreeing to let the session continue smoothly. Elaborating on the policies and programmes of the government President Yadav, in an address to the Parliament, emphasized that all the government bodies and the political parties should work in tandem so that the Constitution would be written within the slated time. The government’s top priorities have been highlighted as getting the peace process completed successfully and the constitution writing task reaching fruition within the stipulated deadline. The ambitious nature of the government’s policies and programmes are evident trying to keep pace with the rising aspirations of the people and the country’s woes accumulated from the past regimes. An uphill task considering prevailing circumstances.

In order to complete the peace process, it is

necessary for all the concerned parties to abide by the various commitments already made. Hence, the thrust to be taken up for the supervision, integration and rehabilitation

of the combatants of the Maoist army and management of arms in accordance with the provisions of agreements, including the Comprehensive Peace Accord signed with the UCPN (Maoist), to be done before the statute writing task is completed. Furthermore, the government aims at implementing the agreements made with the different political parties in the past and the commitments made in the Parliament. If all goes according to plan, it will a great achievement that had eluded the previous government.The President’s speech also addressed several urgent prerequisites of the country among them law and order, drive against impunity and corruption and relief to the people figuring prominently.

Furthermore, as mentioned by the President, it is necessary to provide relief and special packages to the families of the deceased, injured and missing during the conflict period. Also there should be

special programmes for the uplift of disadvantaged groups like dalits, women and the marginalized

indigenous ethnic groups and other backward groupings. The people who are reeling from the steep rise in the price of essential commodities should also be provided some relief. For this there should be appropriate plans to provide this and also to deal

with the scarcity of these commodities that surface unremittingly. The government’s plans and policies have tried to encompass the achievements of the

historic people’s movement which was made possible by the sacrifices of the Nepalese people. The government’s policies and programmes are well-written to cover a wide array of national concerns but sceptics can always find faults with the implementation capacity that the government possesses. Yet, if the intentions are well-founded, the achievements may speak when it is evaluation time.


Amnesia no more!

When someone comes up declaring his/her development of new techniques to boost memory power, it naturally makes a bid like the proverbial hot cakes. It is another matter that cakes are not in the average Nepali’s menu. The gullible have their own way of taking things but there are many who have some sense of practical curiosity to study the justification for the claim. One cannot comment on it in any way before becoming familiar with the techniques. Yet, the memory power talk is of interest to all. So many prescriptions may have been written by medical practitioners over the centuries and the writings still continue but there is no record as to what percentage of the recommendations and their adherence really got the brain retain a greater amount of information for future retrieval.

Memory booster is of interest to almost everyone. Be it students or even those in the waning hours of life want a sustainable memory power. It’s a big market to capitalize on—no offense meant. So when the talk of boosting the capacity of the brain cells is concerned it is bound to raise the hairs on the head with the all too famous queries “How?” and “How much?”