It’s really a tragic news that in a recent act of Tarai violence, CPN-UML leader Ram Naresh Raya Yadav of Hempur, Sarlahi was murdered while on a morning walk in his village today. During the time of his death, his age was 60. UML district working committee member Yadav had set out from home for his morning walk at about 5:30 am. According to the police, his dead body was found about one hour later on the banks of the eastern canal of the Bagmati Irrigation Project. The site is about two kilometers far from his village. His death has been cited as a fully planned murder because his body had been thrown in such a way that it would have never been recovered. Nepal has been suffering from problems of violence in Tarai for a long time, and this murder is sure to create much more tensions in the southern plain. What the government needs to do is to form an investigation committee and book the murderers so that the bereaved families get justice.

Pratik Shrestha, Katmandu

NY 2016

As we arrive at the penultimate day of 2015, some of us are gripped by the urgency to write a lot of stuff about the eventful year on which the curtain will finally come down in a matter of hours. 2016 might or might not be good for us. It will largely depend on the politicians. As a leader, Napoleon Bonaparte did not leave his fortune to his stars and allegedly wrote his own destiny in blood by carving his future in his palm with a knife. Our politicians might lack such valour for the sake of nation and its people. So 2016 might not be any different from 2015 or 2005 or 2000 or 5000 BC, the year of the hunter gatherer. They say morning shows the day and the morning does not seem to be very promising. The news “Thapa returns with China’ pledge of another fuel grant” (THT, Dec. 30, Page 1) does not lift our spirit and hope as it would have if he had returned with a joint communiqué on trade and transit. Alms however huge cannot be a cause or a reason for a New Year party. So as theyear ends, the hype of new channels of trade and transit treaty fizzles out as foul gas. If we judge by the news headline “UDMF may ease border obstructions” (THT, Dec. 30, Page 1), we might after all get gas and oil from the south.

Meanwhile, NEA’s cock and bull story of transformer explosions is throwing cold water on the people’s last viable hope to cook their daily meals with electrical energy “Just an excuse” (THT, Dec. 30, Page 8). It has conveniently resorted to 11 hours of power outage and 13 hours of useless voltage. At this rate, NEA might take 500 years to produce 500 MW of additional power.

The youth of the country must lead by example. Walking is the best way to health and wealth by way of savings on bus trips. To those who say it is easier said than done, as a student I walked from home in New Road to Ananda Kuti at Swoyambhu for two years. Today I walk to work and back which has helped me save precious fuel in my cars for 6 months straight.

Manohar Shrestha, Kathmandu