Tall poll promises!

South Asia Check / November 13, 2017

Wait patiently for another ten years and you will see a prosperous Nepal!

Even if you search hard, you won’t find an illiterate person!

Even if you search hard, you will find not a single Nepali who is poor!

Girl students from certain categories will be provided grants to buy bicycles, computers for free!

Once secondary education is made compulsory, in a few years everyone of school-going age will have completed the 11^th grade!

And even impossible things will become possible. For instance, chemical and organic fertilizers will be produced in the country and in the next ten years, the country will be declared (organic) free of chemicals and pesticides!

Agricultural productivity will be doubled to 3,278 tons per hectare! (At present, the country’s rice productivity is 3.154 tons per hectare).

If you don’t believe this, just leaf through the election manifestoes of the two big electoral alliances. Here we have listed some exciting commitments made by the political parties that came first, second and third in the last elections.

But the only disappointing thing is that these manifestoes have not promised a six-lane expressway, mono rail or cable cars to the moon. But if only we could have enough patience to wait until the next elections, maybe the parties will come up with such commitments also!

Area	Nepali Congress	CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Center)
Size of economy	Rs 5000 billion (in current prices)	–
Income per capita	Rs 150,000 within five years	US$5000 within a decade.
Economic growth	7 to 10 percent within a decade	10 percent within a decade
Employment	– 300,000 to 500,000 new jobs to be created every year. – Unemployment grants to be provided to youths by engaging them in community service and development work until they find appropriate jobs.	Create employment inside the country and increase basic salaries to ensure a modest living.
Agriculture	– Make Nepal net exporter of meat, fish, milk, fruits, honey, apple, mushroom, tea, coffee, ginger, and vegetables within the next five years. – Set up a chemical fertilizer factory based on public-private-cooperatives partnership.	– Make Nepal self-reliant on basic food items, fish, meat, eggs and milk within two years. – Make Nepal food exporter within five years. – Ensure food and nutrition security for all. – Manufacture chemical and organic fertilizers inside country. – Declare Nepal as chemicals and pesticides-free (organic) [sic] country within 10 years.
Tourism	– Bring in 3.2 million tourists to Nepal within the next ten years. – To promote domestic tourism provide civil servant 5 days’ vacation and Rs 25,000 per year. – Considering touristic and financial feasibility, set up at least eight cable car services across the country similar to those in Manakamana and Chandragiri through public-private partnership within the next five years.	– Bring in five million tourists within the next ten years. – Operate monorail and cable car services in important touristic destinations. – Rebuild Dharahara using advanced technology within three years. – Develop at least one tourist destination with local characteristics in each local unit.
Industry	Bring in foreign direct investment equivalent to around five percent of the GDP (Rs 100 billion to Rs 500 billion). This will increase the share of domestic manufacturing sector in the domestic economy to 15 percent from existing 5 percent and connect Nepal to the global manufacturing network.	– Under the ‘one province at least one advanced industrial estate’ policy, mega industrial estates will be set up in all provinces. – Set up factories in the industrial estates to provide employment to 1 million people within ten years. – Special discounts in taxes, and electricity and water tariffs for the first five years of establishment of firms. Explore, extract and refine minerals and petroleum products in various parts of the country within the next five years.
Human Resources	Financial investment programs to be brought targeting youths between 16 and 45 years. Such programs will funded through 25 percent investment from youth entrepreneurs, another 25 percent grant, and the remaining 50 percent concessional loan.	Set up CTEVT-affiliated technical schools in each rural municipality and metropolitan city. Provide technical education of one’s choice free of cost to all who have reached the age of eligibility.
Non Resident Nepalis and Foreign Employment	– Legal and administrative arrangements to be made within the next ten years to allow Nepali citizens who are currently working in foreign countries to vote in Nepal elections. – Arrangement to be made to exempt taxes on foreign earnings brought to Nepal by Nepali citizens.	– Properly maintain records of foreign-bound Nepali migrant workers. – Strictly control wrongdoings in foreign employment sector.
Irrigation	– Provide round-the-year irrigation to in 1.8 million hectares of arable land. Double the agricultural productivity from existing 3,278 tons per hectare within ten years. – Rapidly expand shallow and deep tube well for irrigation in tarai-Madhes.	– Irrigate all arable land in the country through modern irrigation system within five years. – To irrigate the tarai-Madhes and inner tarai, initiate river diversion projects including Tamor-Morang diversion, Sunkoshi-Kamala and Sunkoshi-Marin-Bagmati diversion, Kaligandaki-Tinau diversion, Rapti-Surai diversion, Bheri-Babai diversion, and West Seti-Kailali-Pandun diversion.
Energy	– Construct five cross-border transmission lines of at least 400 KV capacity. – Construct 1050-km high-voltage trunk transmission line extending from eastern to western Nepal within the next five years. – Generate 5,000 MW electricity within the next five years. – Reduce by at least 15 percent annually the number of households that use firewood and dung cakes for cooking. – Provide 30 units electricity free of cost per month to poor households for domestic consumption.	– Supply enough electricity round-the-clock to all the manufacturing estates, industrial estates and roads. – Generate 15,000 MW of electricity within the next ten years through water, biological sources, solar, wind and garbage processing. – Expedite Karnali Chisapani, Budhigandaki, West Seti, Nalsingh Gaad, Uttar Ganga, Naumure, Upper Jhimruk, Sunkoshi-1, Sunkoshi-2, Tamor, and Tamakoshi-3 among other projects so as to complete them within the next ten years. – Promote joint investment by the people and government in attractive hydropower projects through implementation of ‘Electricity in every household, shares to everyone’ policy.
Information Communication Technology	– Develop and expand broadband infrastructure, connect Nepal with the international communication network, give emphasis to private-public partnership in order to develop broadband application and content. – Introduce integrating licensing for telecommunications sector. – Expand the national identity card program throughout the country by 2020.	– Expand broadband internet service to the headquarters of all local units and the wards of all districts of tarai-Madhes and hill districts within two years. – Give the local units the authority to issue licenses for FM/community radio of up to 100 watts capacity and locally published or broadcast mass communications media, and renew their licenses.
Transportation	– Complete the construction of postal highway, mid-hills highway and Kathmandu-Nijgadh fast track within the next five years. – Expand the Kathmandu-Pokhara highway into a four-lane expressway. Construct at least five two-lane north-south highways linking the country’s southern border with the northern border. – Construct three more north-south highways within the next ten years to take the number of such highways to eight and use them for Nepal-China transportation. – Replace all tuins (makeshift cable crossings) with footbridges, and gradually replace the footbridges with reinforced concrete bridges in places where motor vehicles can be operated. – Explore the possibility of developing waterways along Nepal’s big rivers and Indian Ganga among other rivers to reach the sea. – Complete at least 200 kilometers section of East-West railroad within the next five years. – Prepare a master plan so as to complete within the next ten years a railroad running from the Chinese border through Kathmandu Valley to the southern border.	– Implement a work plan to ensure that in three years only electric vehicles operate in the Kathmandu Valley. – Complete the construction of Kathmandu-Tarai Fast Track within the next four years. – Upgrade the East-West Highway into six-lane highway within six years. – Upgrade postal highway into four-lane highway within five years. – Operate high-speed electric trains running parallel to the East-West Highway within five years. – Simultaneously build Rasuwagadhi-Kathmandu-Pokhara, Lumbini railroad. – Operate trains of appropriate speed along the ring roads of the capital valley within the next five years. – Complete upgrade of Pushpalal highway [mid-hills highway] into a four-lane highway within five years.
Tarai-Madhes special Infrastructure	– Construct at least 100 km of embankment every year to prevent flooding in tarai-Madhes. – Full waiver of income taxes for the next ten years to new five-star hotels that start operation within the next five years in the tarai.
Commitment to social progress	– Bring down the absolute poverty to under three percent in the next ten years.	– Eliminate poverty within the next ten years. – Upgrade Nepal to developing country within 5 years.
Education	– Achieve 100 percent literary within five years for 15-24 age group. – Provide monthly stipend to girl students from the Madhesi, Dalit, indigenous and Muslim among other marginalized communities who have scored distinction in the higher secondary level and wish to pursue higher studies in technical and science fields. – Provide grant for purchasing bicycle to girl students in tarai-Madhes who enroll in the 11th and 12^th grades. – Develop community resource centers equipped with library and wireless internet across the country.	– 20 percent of the total national budget to be spent on education. – Revise the education policy so as to generate non-technical and technical human resources in the ratio of 3 to 7. – Make education up to the secondary level compulsory and free of cost. – Set up electronic libraries and gradually provide students with textbooks and laptops among other modern study materials. – Make all citizens literate within the next five years.
Health	– Bring down child mortality rate to less than 15 and maternal mortality rate (per 100,000 live births) to less than 50. – Ensure health insurance coverage for all citizens. – End dependence on arsenic-laced water sources within five years.	– Bring all citizens under health insurance – Government to pay 50 percent of the health insurance premium of people living under poverty. – Provide free healthcare services to children below 15 years and senior citizens of 65 years and above.
Social Security	Significantly increase the existing social security allowances provided to senior citizen. – To encourage and reward entrepreneurs who provide employment to people with disabilities. – Take special initiatives to maximize participation of women in levels of government while ensuring that their participation is not less than 33 percent. – Provide cash incentives and laptops to girl students scoring excellent marks in higher secondary level and universities. – Provide women with Rs 2,000 per month for six months after child birth.	Increase monthly allowance for senior citizens to Rs 5000. – 25 percent discount on transport fares for senior citizens of 65 years and above and 50 percent discount for those of 80 years and above. – New mothers who give birth at government hospitals to be provided Rs 5,000 in lump sum for nutritious food and warm clothes. – Provide 14 months of maternity leave for employed women
Forest, environment	– Maintain forest cover at a minimum of 40 percent.	– Maintain forest cover at a minimum of 45 percent.

For Nepali Congress election manifesto, click here.

For left alliance election manifesto, click here.

(This matter was compiled by Injina Panthi)

This material is copyrighted but may be used for any purpose by giving due credit to southasiacheck.org.

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