Today's Chatpat: October 19th, 2023

1. According to media reports, more than 700,000 citizens have left the capital for their hometowns to celebrate Dashain. The traffic police estimate that more than 1.2 million people will leave the valley for the Dashain festival this year. As thousands of buses leave the valley, the accidents have also increased along the highway, averaging 30 accidents every day since the past one week.

The government has failed to repair and maintain the highways and it has hampered smooth flow of traffic and passengers suffer as it takes longer to reach their destinations. The Narayanghat to Butwal section of the highway has been under construction for the past few years and will take at least another three years for completion due to the laziness of the contractors. It's the same story for many of our highways as well.

2. The election for the officials of Non-Resident Nepali Association (NRNA) is over and Dr. Badri KC is now the new chairperson of the association. The 11th NRNA convention ends today. The convention began on October 17th at the Soaltee Hotel. The government now allows dual citizenship for NRNs except for those residing in the South Asian region but with no voting rights.

3. Our Home Minister who is in China to attend a conference is recovering well in a Chinese hospital after complaining of chest pain. According to the Peking Union Medical College Hospital, a stent was placed in his heart and he is recovering well. We wish him well but it would also be nice if our politicians and hakim sahebs focused more on national issues than going around the world attending conferences just to spend a few more Rupees of our hard earned money.

4. A convict who was given a Presidential pardon by our President has now been arrested for murder, just 25 days of receiving the pardon. Lok Bahadur BK was pardoned by the President when he had only four months left in his previous sentence. Mr BK was serving his sentence on polygamy charges and now he is charged of killing his girlfriend. He is facing twenty years in jail and we hope the next President will not pardon this evil person again.

5. According to media reports, more than 70% of farm subsidies provided to Lumbini province by the Ministry of Agriculture has been misused by politically affiliated people in the province. The Ministry had provided Rs 500 million for the region. We all know that most of the government subsidies end up at the hands of political cadres and business people rather than the intended recipients.

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