The local level elections to be held on 14 May in three provinces after about 20 years have raised curiosity, enthusiasm and expectations among the local population.

Nominated candidates for mayors, deputy mayors and other positions are busy with home visits and campaigning to lure voters. Political parties have put in all their efforts to declare ambitious manifestos and development programmes.

It seems that their manifestos, if sincerely implemented, would turn all the metropolitan, sub-metropolitan and rural municipalities into prosperous cities and towns within the next five years as recently mentioned in the manifesto of Nepali Congress mayoral candidate for Kathmandu Metropolitan City “Joshi promises “well-managed metropolis” (THT, May 9, Page 3).

All the major political parties have made several promises in their political manifestos. They have even joined hands together to get elected in spite of their different political principles and ideologies. What a political drama there is to see in these local level elections! Many such promises were made by them in the past also. None of them were fulfilled.

However, political awareness level of voters, especially in the urban and semi urban areas, has significantly increased which could be one of the crucial factors for electing the right representatives in the upcoming elections rather than blindly going after the political parties.

If this really happens, appropriate representatives will be elected who will be the real change agents in the new federal set-up.Time is running fast. Not many days are left for the first phase of elections. There were not sufficient days for properly educating the voters.

Confusions among them still persist; where to put the stamps on the ballot papers with multiple symbols representing different political parties.

Rai Biren Bangdel,

Safety of girls

I was really impressed by the article “Occupational hazard” (THT, May 8, Page 8). The article talks about female bar dancers who undergo harassment while working in entertainment sector.

They chose that kind of profession with no other option left for them. Such girls are sexually harassed as well as abused by the male customers who come to visit such bars with sick mentality.

Of course, it’s the government which needs to ensure safety of those girls working in such areas as hotels, bars and massage parlours. However something more needs to be done in order to ensure that they are really safe.

The first and foremost thing is, there should be sufficient mobilization of police in such areas and the bar owners must be made accountable if anything goes wrong with the female dancers. Next, those girls should be taught about the discipline that they need to follow while dealing with the customers.

The “do not touch” policy should be strictly applied in all dance bars where liquor is served without any limit. Those who try to grab or touch the female dance bar girls should be punished under law.

Pratik Shrestha, Buddhanagar