It was not surprising to know that the amendment bill that was put to vote by the ruling parties on Monday could not garner a two-thirds majority in Parliament, “Amendment bill falls through in Parliament” (THT, August 22, Page 1). The UML led opposition bloc was dead against the amendment bill from the beginning. The Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal (RJP-N) did not participate in the first and second phase local level elections citing they would not participate in the elections until their demands were met. One of their demands was to amend the constitution. The other demand among others was to increase the numbers of local level units in Province 2 which was earlier rejected by the Supreme Court and has now been okayed by it. However, the RJP-N had recently shown flexibility in its political stance saying that it would accept the outcome of the parliamentary process and would participate in the third phase of local level elections in Province 2 scheduled for September 18. Looking at the end result of the parliamentary process concerning constitution amendment process, it seems that the existing dissatisfaction of these political parties will continue to exist in the coming days. Would it not have been better if the three big parties had come to consensus on the RJP-N demands and put the amendment bill on vote in order to avoid future political confrontations and problems? As said by deputy parliamentary party leader of UML Subas Chandra Nembang, after this voting, the constitution had been accepted by all parties.

Rai Biren Bangdel, Maharajgunj 

Nuisance

Kudos to P. Senthil Saravana Durai for his letter titled “Inspiration” (THT, August 22, Page 8). Yes, those people who physically toil in construction, farming or industrial sector create the infrastructure of the society. Yet these are the very people whose human rights get violated routinely. Not only do they have to labour extraordinarily long hours in the harshest of conditions, but they are also often deprived of good wages, basic amenities of life or minimum social security. Besides, their huge contribution to the society remains absolutely unacknowledged and they get bereft of social dignity and respect also. In many industrial establishments, workers are not allowed more than five minutes during the entire working day for visiting the toilet! Thus the hapless workers find no other option but to drastically cut their intake of fluids, so that they do not violate their quota of five minutes of toilet visit per working day! What a barbaric assault on human rights and health of the workers!

Moreover in many industrial units, workers are paid only eight hours’ wages for a piece of work that actually takes them no less than ten hours! They do not get a penny for the two hours of extra work they do to fulfill their work norm. And to ensure that none can prevent the workers from being exploited, the “nuisance” named trade unions has virtually been removed.

Kajal Chatterjee, Kolkata