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Daily Chatpat
Today's Chatpat: October 7th, 2023
1. After an agreement between the government and transportation sahujis, the Dashain advance booking will now be open from Monday on wards. Every year, the transport wallahs charge double the normal price during Dashain while the airlines fleece consumers with similar price hike as well.
The government has stated that the transportation fare will not be increased this Dashain but we all know that our business folks neither follow the government's directives nor abide by any transportation regulations. It is near to impossible to get seats during the festival as millions leave the Kathmandu Valley to be with their loved ones during Dashain.
2. Mr. Rigal, the convicted murderer who happens to be affiliated with the youth organization of the Nepali Congress has fired back to all by blaming social media for harassing him and his family. Mr. Rigal, is a local criminal from Nepalgunj who was convicted for murdering his fellow former business partner eight years ago.
Our honorable President had pardoned him during the occasion of the Constitution Day recently, citing 50% of time served and good conduct during his time in prison. Our governments have been pardoning such murderers since ages but this case caused an uproar when Rigal's chamchas had the audacity to bring in twenty luxury vehicles outside the prison and celebrate his release with pomp.
Rigal now thinks TikTok and other social media should be banned like in India and blames it for mental torture to his family. If only had his followers not used social media to publicize his release, then this case and all other Presidential pardons so far would not received such massive coverage and condemnation from the public.
3. Nepal Airlines thinks that it can make a massive amount of profit if it can buy 10 more planes. Well, the state carrier has been plagued with corruption, incompetence and bloated staffing since the 90s. It has two planes for international fights and face maintenance issues every other week and its flights are prone to cancellations while other international carriers are minting profits every year flying to Nepal.
4. The government had decided to dole out Rs 50,000 each for families affected by the recent earthquake in Bajhang which they can use for temporary housing. The PM and high-ranking officials flew to Bajhang in army helicopters for some photo-op while the government has not even repaired most of the government buildings affected by the earthquake in 2015.
Our government is in no hurry to prepare for future earthquakes and is not interested to figure out how to minimize economic losses and losses of human lives during natural disasters in the country. The recent flash flood in Sikkim should serve as a reminder that Nepal also faces such bursting of glacier lakes as climate change affects us all.
5. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) thinks that our economy will grow 3.5% in 2023-24. The World Bank thought it would be 3.9% and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) had it higher at 4.3% and our Nepal government beat the prediction thing with 6% which is not only laughable but is impossible with no conducive environment for investment and lack of good fiscal and economic policies.
The IMF cites weak domestic demand for slow growth in the economy and they are probably right because with all the corruption, tax evasion and under-invoicing by traders and substandard development works and no budget for better infrastructure and energy, Nepal is lagging way behind in the SAARC region.
Majority of the annual budget is spent on salaries and perks for our public servants. Whatever is then left goes to paying interests on our domestic and foreign debts and a less than a billion dollars is left to carry out any development projects in a nation of 30 miiion people.
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