Implement traffic rules:

Traffic accidents claim hundreds of lives each year in Nepal and it is the festive season that registers a large number of them. Though the World Health Day was marked highlighting the need for traffic safety this year, the rate of road accidents has not gone down. One might attribute the high rate to increased mobility. However, the record shows that too is not the case. A closer study of the accident pattern reveals that overloaded vehicles, rash-driving and drunken driving are the prime reasons behind the rise. The recent bus accident in Pyuthan that killed about 40 passengers, including a groom, is a clear case of conductors ignoring the risks of overloading. Such a heavy loss of life cannot be compensated by any means. Overloading of public conveyances is a real problem in Nepal but nobody bothers to take any action. It would immensely help if the authorities concerned engaged in regulating the traffic and strictly implemented the rules. This would relieve the problem of overloading. The Pyuthan accident must serve as an eye-opener for everyone.

Ambika Pandey, Chitwan

Going bust:

It is disheartening to note that pagers are now being cannibalised by the ubiquitous mobiles. Pager companies are now about to go bust or else are under pressure to find new ways of utility just in order to survive despite the fact that the cost of operating a paging

device is low and its uses quite wide-ranging. If the pager companies are to survive the competition offered by other means of communication technology, the government too will have to chip in to make a difference.

Bikash Shah, via e-mail

Schools:

It takes simple logic to understand that it serves no one’s purpose to close down private schools. The news of school closure makes one wonder what those dissenting about the way private schools are run actually want. How does it help anyone by closing schools in a country whose literacy rate is one of the lowest in the world? It negates the very idea of encouraging

education.

Alankar Khanal, via e-mail

Fund raiser:

With reference to the news “Together we care” published in THT on January 31, I would like to clarify that the amount handed over to CARE Nepal after a fund raising event on January 29 was Rs 330,501 instead of the quoted figure of Rs 260,600.

Shobha Rayamajhi, Kantipath

Free Iraq:

Although it remains to be seen how the Iraqi people will actually perceive the outcome of the recent elections, the success of the event must, however, mark the beginning of the end of instability that has been fuelled further by insurgents in that war-torn country.

Elections under under international banner have been a remedy for many troubled countries in the past. That has been true in former Yugoslavia, East Timor, Afghanistan, and now in Iraq. The outcome of elections will also determine the exit strategy of the American, British and other multinational forces that have been stationed in Iraq since invasion.

It is also time that Iraqis chose to rebuild their country. But the outside forces in Iraq,

including the insurgents, must give Iraqis a chance to live their lives the way they want to. For that to happen, a constitution must be drawn up by a balanced constituent assembly comprising members of the minority Sunnis.

Satiksha Sharma, Kathmandu