By Our Reporter

All was not well for Nepal in the year 2081 of Bikram Sambat, which we bid adieu on Sunday.

The country faced political upheavals as usual with a changes in the leadership in the federal and six of the seven provinces.

In a dramatic political development, arch rivals—NC and UML-- forged an alliance and formed a new coalition government under UML's KP Sharma Oli in July by replacing the government of Pushpa Kamal Dahal.

The effect of the change was also seen in the provinces with the formation of either new governments or changes in coalition partners. Consequently, Hikmat Bahadur Karki, Satish Kumar Singh, Bahdaur Lama, Surendra Pandey, Chet Narayan Acharya, Yamlal Kandel and Kamal Bahadur Shah were appointed new chief ministers in Koshi, Madhes, Bagmati, Gandaki, Lumbini, Karnali and Sudurpashchim Provinces in the year.

By-elections to one seat each of the House of Representatives and the Sudurpashchim provinces were held and both seats went to the UML.   Likewise, in the by-elections of the local levels, the CPN-Maoist Centre got advantages.   

In yet another shocking political incident, the chairman of Rastriya Swatantra Party, Rabi Lamichhane, who served as powerful Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister twice in the Dahal-led government was detained for his involvement in misusing the funds of several cooperatives. Though he was released after 84 days' detention by an order of the Kaski District Court, he was arrested and jailed following a verdict of the High Court at the end of the year. His party obstructed the House and staged street demonstrations against the arrest for weeks.  Lamichhane has been suspended from parliament after his arrest.

Worst was the Tinkune demonstration of pro-monarch groups on Chait 15, which turned violent killing of two persons, injuring several and damaging public and private

Although both the government and the pro-monarchy groups blamed each other for the unwanted situation, the valley witnessed the worst violence since September 2004. 

Police arrested several individuals involved in the arson and violent activities.

 The government had clamped curfew to bring the situation under control.

The country was also badly marred by monsoon havoc just before the Dashain festival. The incessant rains in Ashwin swept away 12-kilometer section of Japan-built BP Highway bringing vehicular movement to a complete halt while the rains caused massive damages in Kavre and Lalitpur. Even six months after the destruction, government has not initiated process to rebuild the BP Highway though a temporary track has been built.  Altogether, 90 people were killed in the floods and landslides of two days.  

Independent Student Union Election and the agitation of school teachers keep the streets of the valley overcrowded.

A few cases of corruption were revealed in the year with the grabbing of the land of Bansbari Shoes Factory by billionaire Binod Chaudhary and misuse of the land of Nepal Children's Organization (Baalmandir) in Naxal, Kathmandu, being two key cases.

Gandaki Provincial Assembly member Rajiv Gurung alias 'Deepak Manange' was sentenced to five years imprisonment by the Supreme Court in the industry case of murder. Foreign currency worth about 25 million rupees was recovered from Tokha in Kathmandu.

The country also lost a few prominent figures in the year. They included former speaker Damnath Dhungana, writer Leel Bahadur Chhetri, writer, diplomat and senior journalist Kamal Prasad Koirala, and senior journalists Bhairav ​​Risal and Mathavar Singh Basnet.

The death of Prakriti Lamsal, a Nepali student studying in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India, due to suspicious circumstances, invited a tense situation for a while.

The country also witnessed fatal road and air accidents in 2081. Two buses carrying 62 passengers disappeared in the Trishuli River when a landslide occurred in Simaltal under the Narayangadh-Muglin section.

Eighteen people died when a Sourya Air plane flying from Kathmandu to Pokhara crashed inside the Tribhuvan International Airport complex and five perished in an Air Dynasty helicopter accident within a few moments of taking off from the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu.

Likewise, 27 passengers died and 16 injured when a bus carrying Indian tourists crashed on Prithvi Highway in Ambukhaireni.

Similarly, 35 people died when two microbuses and one bus coming to Kathmandu fell into a landslide in the Jhyaple River due to two days of rain.