Welcome to www.nepalcares.com . Please do visit our website for more stories and chatpat

Today's Chatpat: October 5th, 2023

1. According to media reports, we have had a change of 40 government secretaries in the past 45 months at the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and the average time spent there for these secretaries is like six months. Majority of the government secretaries do not want the PMO posting.

Most of them transferred are those who are awaiting retirement or have pissed off our mantris or are looking for possible transfer to plum postings in the future as the department seems to be treated as a swamp or a stop-over for our civil servants.

2. The government is finally thinking of implementing the 'probation or parole' system after the Supreme Court ordered it do so three years ago. A convicted felon with more than a year sentence can apply for such provisions after completing two third of his or her sentence only if his or her conduct is satisfactory while in prison.

Let's do the math. If you are sentenced to ten years, you can apply for parole after spending 7.5 years. Nepal's prisons are overcrowded and now host three times the capacity in most prisons. The prisons are crumbling due to lack of maintenance and has become a safety and health hazard for most prisoners. The prisons are also run by inmates and his crew who seem to make millions of Rupees by renting out shops inside the prison while jail administrators get a cut from the piece of the action.

3. The government has signed a few labor agreements with European countries. Instead of providing job opportunities and life skills to our youth, the government seem to be more than happy to open hundreds of countries as labor destinations for our young and able-bodied people. Nepal will sign some kind of a labor agreement with Germany and Romania this week.

The German deal will allow Nepalese youth to go to Germany for a year-long training and then could receive further opportunities for a permanent job based on their proficiency while the Romanian deal will allow manpower companies to recruit workers here for their contracting partners in Romania.

The manpower agencies in Nepal have to pay off a lot of people. They first have to pay off the local agents who gather young people from their localities and bring them to Kathmandu to apply for such foreign jobs. Then, they take a cut to process and then another cut if they are selected.

Then, they have to pay off the labor department for permits, the immigration department to allow them smooth entry to the plane and apart from all these, have to pay local mundreys who hover around such agencies. We have not mentioned the mantris and the hakims but you know how this chiya kharcha works.

4. Dashain is almost here and businesses are worried that they will not be able to make too much profit like in past years while consumers are worried that their Dashain bonus or savings or money from remittance from their loved ones will not be enough to celebrate Dashain and Tihar as well.

As usual, thousands of goats will be coming from India while thousands of youth will be either coming home for Dashain from foreign lands or going there to make a decent living to provide for their families. During Dashain, most of the liquor shops runs out of Foreign whiskeys as byaparis finish the stock as they have to send gifts to the government hakims, netas and anyone who will make them an extra Rupee.

5. Our Tourism Minister who also gets to look after our Culture and also Civil Aviation has defended the appointment of Lyarkal Lama, a controversial political player who was appointed to head the Lumbini Development Trust (LDT) a few months ago. Mr. Lama is a very successful dealmaker and has managed to get appointed to many Buddhist organizations no matter which government is in power. He has also been our lawmaker many times representing different political parties depending on where the wind is blowing.

Mr. Lama was arrested a few years back by Nepal Police when they found a dozen bullets in his bank locker. While the media asked questions, the government ignored it as usual and he was released without any punishment or questioning. In Nepal, you can or should assume that whenever a controversial figure is appointed to head any government agencies or even get a seat as a MP then money has certainly changed hands.

for more daily chatpats, do visit www.nepalcares.com/guff