Take serious measures

Smoking is gaining popularity in the country, particularly among the youth. It is a serious killer,

with an estimated 15,000 succumbing to diseases related to tobacco consumption. The World Health Organisation estimates that five million people die yearly due to tobacco-related diseases and 85 per cent of liver cancer is found to have been caused by nicotine alone. So the government plan to push for anti-tobacco campaigns (THT, June 1) must be supported by the people of all backgrounds. In fact, there is a need for long-term planning to fight the increasing use of tobacco. The Nepal Cancer Relief Society has it that nearly 25 diseases are caused by tobacco including those dreaded diseases like cancers of lungs, liver and mouth. The government must also push for the ratification of the anti-tobacco statue that many countries have ratified.

Sulakshana Chettri, via e-mail

Missing link

This is in reference to the article titled “Conflict resolution through service delivery” by Siddha Raj Pant published in THT on June 1. I would like to congratulate the author for writing such a good piece and bringing to the fore one of the most important issues confronting the Nepalis

today — service delivery. There is no doubt that the key to resolve the current conflict is to somehow get the have-nots to engage in earning their daily bread and butter, and to provide them with an access to basic services like health-care and education. One need not go further

than our southern neighbour to see how this type of problem has been successfully addressed

there. The conflict the author is referring does not have any other agenda outside the basic livelihood question. Given the fact that the living standard of the majority of the Nepalis has not changed a bit in the conflict areas despite the magnanimity of our donors for decades, it is not very difficult to understand that the problem lies in addressing the basic needs issue. While the article must have provided some incentive to the policy-makers, the executives of the country will have to go beyond doors to put the missing links in place.

Jhapendra Pokhrel, Canada

Poor quality

I am a regular reader of your newspaper as it gives a wide variety of news items. I want to draw your attention to the quality of the passports the government issues to the Nepali citizens. It is unfortunate that when we travel abroad, the immigration officers at the airports treat Nepalis rather “differently.” They look at Nepali passports as though they were forged.

I had such a bitter experience just a couple of days back in Amsterdam. The officers isolated me from the rest of the passengers and I had to go through a complete body check followed by the checking of my luggage thoroughly. All this because they took my passport to be fake. Under normal circumstances they should have apologised to me for having put me through

unnecessary trouble, but in this case they did not even say a word to me. This happened to me because of the poor quality of the passport I was carrying. Can’t the government do anything about this? One way is to get all passports holder’s identification printed instead of being handwritten.

Adarsh Jha, Florida