Today's Chatpat: October 31st, 2023

1. We can understand New Delhi and Beijing battling for the top ranking for the world's most polluted cities but with less than a third of these cities' population, we are surprised that Kathmandu tops the list every other week as well. Beijing is planning to implement traffic control measures to battle air pollution and New Delhi can't implement anything because the farmers in Haryana, Punjab and UP won't stop burning their stuff in their farms.

But what can we do? As per the laws of the land, all commercial vehicles aged above twenty should be sent to the scrap yard and all vehicles must pass the fume test but it seems that every other bus, tipper and trucks and even private vehicles blow out black fumes around the valley and no one seems to care. I think the best solution would be to implement a heavy fine system and increase our meager Rs 500 to Rs 1,500 fine to a bigger scale like a Lakh Rupees, then maybe our vehicle pollution testing centers will do their job well and so will the vehicle owners.

2. Once again, the Presidential Pardon is back in the news. Our honorable President had pardoned a few criminals on Constitution Day and Republic Day. The President tells us that he was just doing his job of rubber-stamping whatever crap the government sends him. A convict pardoned during the Republic Day in May has been arrested for threatening somebody else with abduction and murder.

A 55-year old recently pardoned convict was arrested for threatening to finish off a father-son duo unless they forked up Rs 25 lakhs. The convict was in prison for robbery and serving his 9-year sentence when our beloved President pardoned him five months ago. He still had four years to go but he is now facing a ten to twenty year prison sentence for his new criminal activity.

3. It seems that our government is more interested to work on its VVIP rankings than do any other job to help its citizens. The committee formed to decide the rankings has now pushed the Nepal Army Chief in 13th VVIP position from 10th while the IGPs of Nepal Police and Armed Police Force are now in the 16th position. A provincial minister seems to have a better ranking than our security chiefs. 

4. Nepal has now entered the semifinals in the ICC T20 World Cup Qualifiers being held in Kathmandu after posting two wins in its group. Nepal defeated Malaysia by 6 wickets in the match and had earlier defeated Singapore with an eight-wicket victory. It will now face Oman on November 2nd for its group match.

5. According to government data, more than 1100 accidents occurred in our highways during the past two weeks of Dashain festival and 100 people lost their lives. It may be due to the bad conditions of our highways and also reckless driving by vehicle operators. The Traffic Police does maintain a time-card system along our highways but it seems that overtaking and trying to squeeze in when there is a traffic jam seems to be the major causes of accidents during the Dashain festival.