By P.R. Pradhan

There left just one week or so to cast votes for our candidates in the local government. Let’s choose better candidates – not Hamra (ours) but Ramra (capable and good). If we vote for corrupt, incapable, non-visionary, inefficient, cheaters and thieves, surely, we are going to be deceived for the next five years. If we choose better candidates who are honest, dedicated, non-corrupt, visionary, polite and accepting politics is not a profession but a service to the people and nation, the nation and the people can be benefited. This is the right time to decide on our valuable votes to choose the perfect leader for the local governments. 

Big parties doing wrong:

The five big parties in the government have developed an alliance with the fear of defeating the election if contested alone. The supreme leaders of different political parties in the government are planning to develop a syndicate for enjoying power. They, in fact, have already lost the public sympathy, still, they are trying to grasp power by developing an electoral alliance. Let’s discard those candidates under the electoral alliance as they plan to loot the nation in an organized way. 

Corruption is a serious disease and service recipients are being deceived at every step either in the government offices or in the local bodies. The three governments – federal, provincial and local – have squeezed citizens by imposing an unbearable tax burden. It seems, they only know to raise taxes but they don’t know how to provide services to the taxpayers. The general practice of taxation is that the government collects tax at the cost of services they offer to the taxpayers. Contradictorily, in Nepal, the three governments collect taxes and use the fund to feed the elected people’s representatives. The taxpayers' money is misused for salary and other facilities of those political employees. The different levels of governments are watching towards collecting tax ensuring a maximum level of profit. For example, if citizens import one car, the tax on the car is not less than 300 percent of the real price. The government is collecting above 60 rupees as tax per litre of petroleum products. When the Indian Oil Corporation increases the price, the Nepal government will enjoy more tax accordingly. An increase in the price of petroleum products will have a chain effect as the price of every commodity we are transporting will also increase. The Nepal Oil Corporation is facing a heavy loss but the government is not concerned. The government is not ready to reduce the tax amount even for a temporary period. It seems the stomach of the people elected representatives in the government is so big that it only knows how to eat much. 

Our mistakes: 

We are solely responsible for electing those corrupt people in the past. If we had voted for the honest candidates, we would not have suffered in such away. If we had elected capable leaders, they would not have introduced such an expensive political structure. If we would have elected visionary people, they would not have destroyed and shut down the government-run industries. We have elected those brokers and foreign agents who are exploiting the nation and serving their foreign bosses. We can do nothing except regretting from our past mistakes. Therefore, if we don’t want to be fooled again, let’s be alert and elect our representatives with a vision for developing the nation and making the economy vibrant.