This election is going to be historic in the sense that it will institutionalize the achievements of the new constitution 

Barring the pre-poll sporadic incidences of violence, the second phase of the parliamentary and provincial elections passed off peacefully Thursday in 45 districts from where 128 members of the House of Representatives and 256 members of the provincial members will be elected through the first-past-the-post system. The voters also cast votes for political parties under the proportional representation system. A total of 12,235,993 eligible voters took part in the elections which will form the federal parliament and provincial governments in seven provinces. The Election Commission has said results of the FPtP will come out within four days and results of the PR within seven days as enough human resources have been kept in place in all vote counting centres in the concerned district headquarters. A total of 1,663 candidates, including 130 women, are in the FPTP fray. A large number of security personnel were deployed in every polling station to foil any attempt at thwarting the elections. Reports from across the country said that people faced no difficulty to exercise their franchise.

This election is going to be historic in the sense that it will not only institutionalize the achievements of the new constitution drafted by the second Constituent Assembly in 2015 but will also give political stability, conclude the peace process and will try its best to address the grievances of the ethnic and marginalized communities, Madhesis, Tharus and Muslims who had long felt being isolated from mainstream politics. The new governments to be formed after the elections at the centre and provinces will have no time to waste; they have to deliver services from the beginning and carry out development works as per their promises during the election and public expectations. This election will also bring an end to the protracted political transition and uncertainty and usher in a new era of hope for prosperity through political stability.

However, there are daunting challenges as well. The most challenging job that lies ahead is how the provincial governments will function in the absence of physical infrastructure in all provinces. It will take years to develop such infrastructure. The federal parliament has yet to pass a law governing the duty and functions of chiefs of provinces who will represent the president. Other challenges include naming of the provinces and agreeing on provincial headquarters as political parties have proposed different cities as per their political interest except for Province-4. The main question is where the provincial assembly members will gather and hold their first assembly meeting. The federal government and parliament secretariat still have to play a facilitator’s role to make the provincial assemblies fully functional by supplying their expertise and resources. For the first time Nepal is going to implement the three tiers of governments in the federal structure and the provincial government is quite new. The concept of allocating resources from the central government to the provinces on the basis of population will create imbalances between the provinces having dense population and others with sparse population. Allocating the federal resources on the basis of population will make the sparsely populated provinces further underdeveloped. This will create tussle between the federal government and the least developed provinces.

Health concern

Smoke from burning plastics can be very toxic and is posing a major health concern. This is also a matter of environmental concern for burning plastics releases carbon monoxide furan and other harmful chemicals. Excessive smoke from burning plastics causes various respiratory diseases. Apart from burning plastic, the use of tobacco puts people at high risk of contracting chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases COPD and should be discouraged. Problems of the lungs could emerge from burning plastics. Smoke from burning plastics leads to hyper sensitivity eventually leading to lung diseases. Doctors advise to use alternative forms of energy for cooking purposes. They also recommend the use of surgical masks to avoid the harmful effects of smoke and pollution.

According to the World Health Organization the deaths from COPD would be increasing by more than 30 per cent in the next 10 year. It could be the third leading cause of deaths by 2030 unless remedial measures are taken. Since the damage done to the lungs is irreversible it calls for all concerned to not smoke and also to not burn plastics to stay healthy.