LETTERS

Please,

keep it up

Hats off to you for bringing to the notice the pollution test issue of government vehicles. It seems the responsible persons have woken up after your write up.

Please do keep it up and follow it up. Likewise, there are many more issues which could be brought up by your esteemed newspaper. I am sure you will keep on hunting for them.

Keep it up.

S R Shrestha, Satdobato.

Message

The article by Yuyutsu RD

Sharma “Remembering

Kathmandu Streets” (THT, July 26) holds an important message to the Nepalese. The writer has compared Nepal and Slovenia , a Heart of Europe, and has shown many interesting similarities like having mountains; loving Everest climbing; poetry as supreme art; more interestingly had become an independent republic, almost the same time when Nepal

become democratic. Besides these all, Nepal is still with the same pace of development so that visitors take only disorder of the streets, filth, heaps of garbage and struggling lives as their memory and miss them when they remember Kathmandu. Can we still be proud of being Nepali?

Paru Poudel, Chabahil

Logical

When the country has already chosen the path of Loktantra/ democracy “Is Nepal a

democracy and does it really matter?” (THT, July 23), it is but logical that only “few” elected by many (electorate) will exercise the power to rule the country. As to Professor Ganga Thapa’s

contention that our society is “overwhelmed by a clan of

distrustful, domineering and

exploitative demagogues”,

suffice it to say that demagogy is considered as an inherent healthy practice in a democracy, especially in developing

countries like Nepal. It will be better if political science pundits like Professor Thapa gave advise to politicians, civil society and 601 CA members, in particular, to formulate certain mechanism, which will ensure that “forthright and inspiring” politicians with excellent leadership capabilities will come up to take leadership in each political party at the

earliest.

Sugat Ratna Kansakar,

Kamaladi

No surprise

I was not much perplexed to read the news “Lawmakers turn

law-breakers” (THT, July 23)

because such incidents were

repeatedly occurring in the past but the traffic police didn’t dare take any action and kept mum. Regardless of what the law says, it’s not applicable to them but the general public is made to pay fines for any kind of ignorable mistake. I remember the order of the Home Ministry that there should not be any black stickers on windows in vehicles, but very little seems to have changed.

Ranju Shrestha, via e-mail

Real trouble

The price of almost every single item in the market has been raised from soybeans to Pulsar Bikes. This rise in the price is real trouble for the citizens, challenge for the government and

opportunity for the retailers. This rise first hits the capital and

gradually its impact moves

towards the other towns and cities. Rich people hardly bother about the rise in prices, the

middle class manage somehow or the other, and it’s the poor who suffer. The students will have no other option than protesting. Before it is too late, the government should turn

active and find solutions.

Dwaipayan Regmi, Biratnagar

Price rise

In Nepal, the price of many food items and vegetables have

doubled in the past few days. The dramatic rise in the price of

vegetables and food grains create difficulties in people’s daily life. It doesn’t look like the prices are going to come down any time soon, and how do poor people like us survive in this situation? Now, Nepal has become a food deficit country. With these rises the families of those who survive on daily wages and spend a large portion of their daily income on food are hit the hardest. If the prices are going to keep on

increasing, I will also have to cut down on one of the meals. We are most worried about the effects that rising prices are having on Nepal’s eight million poor — those who typically spend more than 80 percent of their income on food. The government has to start thinking about subsidizing food, and working out ways in which farmers increase their yield and eventually become

self-sufficient. Feeding its people should be the topmost priority of any government.

Roshan Kumar Jha, Kathmandu School of Law, Bhaktapur