LETTERS

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These days strike and bandhs seems to be the best literal definition of the English words “useless”. The recent strikes being sponsored by government employees is the best example. Although the recent budget session didn’t address the demand of the concerned, how good is it to raised the demand of salary increment up to Rs 5000 and above. Rather than doing so they should make efforts to work sincerely and to make their

department efficient. If their demands need to be fulfilled then they should work sincerely as the whole nation knows how corrupt many of them are. They should be efficient and honest.Manoj Thapa, via e-mail

Pay raise

I think that government employees should receive a big pay raise when they do their work reliably and efficiently, and stop asking for bribes. Until then, they should get nothing more.

Janardan Chand, via e-mail

A remedy?

After the heinous murder of Khyati Shrestha, there has been a heavy debate on the need of

capital punishment. Yes, it is indeed a relevant issue and the pros and cons ought to be taken into account. But, will capital punishment hang more innocents than the culprits? So, capital punishment is not a remedy.

Alok Sharma, via e-mail

Railways

I felt quiet disappointed with the budget speech and that the present government couldn’t

initiate any steps for the development of rail transportation in Nepal. The

previous Maoist-led government had included something for the development of rail

transportation in Nepal. The East-West railway can play a huge role in the development of transportation in Nepal. In India, too, it is regarded as the “poor’s transportation”. The recent Indian budget has given importance for upgrading the existing rail network and constructing new routes. It has the world’s largest rail network in the world. But we are not even able to upgrade the existing short route system. Now, a large part of the total population of Nepal is concentrated in the Terai and the construction of an East-West

railway can facilitate them and also it can reduce the high cost of transported goods.

The present government has allocated merely Rs. 25 crore for studying the feasibility of

Kathmandu-Terai fast track highway, which is not sufficient, and the life span of that highway will be just 30 years. But the railway can be constructed at the same cost which will last for about 100 years, and as the trains will operate on electricity, they will also be environment friendly and will reduce the huge import of petroleum products. This also can lead to the development of the Metro in Kathmandu valley. The Finance Minister should have considered these.

Sanket Tandon, via e-mail

Suggestions

The spread of gastro-intestinal ailment in the remote west seems to be still out of control. Bodies looking after the public health services of the government should have sent teams of epidemiologists to trace the root cause of the epidemic. It does not mean that curing the sick should be ignored. It is only extremely important to identify the immediate root cause. Usually the root cause could be contaminated drinking water at the source. If the epidemiologists can identify the root cause by microbial examination of

different samples of drinking water especially collected for the lab-test, then the contaminated drinking water at the source could be treated.

People should also be suggested to protect the food from flies. People could also be suggested to consume only hard-cooked food including drinking water.

VP Sayami, via e-mail

Valid concerns

The government employees are striking for their salary increase. They might have valid concerns with the steep rise in the prices of essential commodities and the relatively meager pay they receive. However, let us hope that if the employees get a raise the price of these items will not increase as they did in the past. The government should

constantly monitor the market and check price rise. Meanwhile, the government employees should have chosen alternative means of protesting other than closing their services. Since

without their service much of the work of the common

people comes to a grinding halt, the employees should think twice before halting work.

Dinesh Dhakal, via e-mail