Prachanda on right track

US President George W Bush and Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ meeting in person on the sidelines of the 63rd United Nations General Assembly augurs well for Nepal. The country needs continual support of its foreign friends to bring the peace process to a logical conclusion and attract foreign aid for the development of logistics and infrastructure.

Let us hope the relationship between Nepal and her foreign friends, big and small, improves in the days ahead. Prachanda has started right. There is every reason to hope that he will be able to right the foreign policy wrongs of past governments.

Shobhan S Khadka, Tokyo

Wrong place

Why don’t the night restaurant operators settle their disputes with the government in a court

of law instead of blocking streets at great inconvenience to common people? Should not a Nepali respect his fellow citizens’ basic right to move about freely?

This goes not only for restaurant owners but also for all those involved in activities that make the lives of common people hard. Every responsible citizen of the country should take into account the possible repercussions of his action for others. We are not living under a jungle rule, but are a part of civilised society.

Paul Rai, Bhaktapur

Raw deal

The news report “Muslims miffed at Ramadan blackout” (THT, Sept 24) was an eye-opener. I never realised that the Muslim community would feel left out of the festivities surrounding Dashain. But after going through the report, I have little doubt left that they do.

Just as Dashain and Tihar are the main festivals of Hindus, Ramazan and Eid are for the Muslims.

Muslims, who comprise around 4.2 per cent of population, should be granted as much right as is given to the large Hindu community.

Jitendra Mulmi, Gaur

Unbalanced

Nepal is now passing through a period of transition, a turbulent time for any country. Recently our finance minister delivered the budget, giving details of policies and programmes and revenue and expenditure. I have some confusion regarding the real intent behind the policies.

Ministers have publicly said that the government is committed to blocking brain drain in order to retain skilled and highly skilled manpower and utilise their expertise for nation building. The government has also pledged to create a congenial atmosphere to attract highly skilled

people from abroad and give them the opportunity to take part in building New Nepal.

As per the new budget, salary hike for government staff varies from nearly 46.7 per cent for low government employees to nearly 7.8 per cent for those in high posts. This method is unscientific and will only distance the high-level staff from those at the lower rungs of

bureaucracy.

It seems the non-skilled workers are more important for the government rather than semi- and highly-skilled manpower. The priority should also have been to shift the focus from agriculture to the much more profitable industrial sector. But the budget has no provisions for the same.

Arvind Gupta, via e-mail