What are the people of Khotang, who are the second number in the country in the grip of excessive migration, thinking about the rapid exodus of their best friends, male relatives, friends and colleagues, sons and daughters? What is the picture of the country in the near future for parents who are living in barren fields, barns and houses that are being covered by bushes? With the aim of understanding these things, some friends of ours went out for about 20 days on the theme of 'What is Khotang thinking' and went to the doorsteps of Khotang people and people.

We had about 5 dozen questions commenting on the society that has changed in many ways with the restoration of the parliamentary system, the agriculture adopted by the rural society and the rural economy oriented towards sickness, the current apolitical atmosphere created by the political change, distrust with the development of physical infrastructure, environmental problems, increased haste with access to education and technology, identification of industrialization and employment opportunities and personal thinking, political distaste and migration increased by good governance and corruption i.e. emigration and despair that 'nothing will happen'.

On the 19th day of our walk, the Government of Nepal announced the policy and program for the fiscal year 082/083 through the President. Due to the delay in sowing corn, we separated for a few days, keeping the talks to be held in two municipalities and one campus. But after reading the government policy program at the end of this month, I realized the old adage - 'Kam Kuro Ekatir Kumlo Boki Thimitir.' Even though MPs discuss the issue in their own way, they have no choice but to pass the government's policy program.

Why policies and programs year after year? 

The elected government covers the programs mentioned in its election manifesto in a periodic plan. The government annually announces policies and programs for the implementation of periodic plans. Let's talk about policy first. There are two ways of looking at policy in a changing environment. One, how to make this year different from last year? Production, distribution, institutional management and change in responsibilities etc. More production, more profit and more work than ever before. Two, to manage the old policy effectively, in other words, to set a declared policy about who, how, and in whose interest will make decisions.  A

program is a work or activity to achieve a certain objective. The work of bringing the policy into practical reality. Actually Policies and programs are processes or actions that are implemented to support long-term planning for the government.

How much did regular activities contribute to long-term planning? The policy program of the new financial year is prepared by evaluating how successful and unsuccessful the work of the current financial year has been compared to the previous financial year. 

For a long time, the country has been suffering from many problems. There is a serious challenge of economic recession in the country for almost a decade. Comparatively, the revenue has been under-collected at a poor ratio for decades. The world's wealthiest countries, especially the United States, Britain, France, Germany and other Western countries, have been heavily cut in aid. More than four dozen large and small projects, including the US-backed MCC, have been completely scrapped. It seems to have a serious impact on the education and health sectors. The impact of a possible Gulf War on foreign employment in general is being seriously assessed. Farm barns are being sterilized every year. It is likely to have a serious impact on food security. 

As the population in the hilly areas is dwindling due to migration, most of the schools without students are closing down. Due to the lack of proper information exchange between the elderly and teenagers, the distance between generations has increased. Because of this, social relations seem to be getting complicated. Due to excessive centralization of village relations, planning, budget and authority, the people's representatives of the provinces and municipalities are confused like the crows of Kuiro. With these external and internal problems, the country's economy is becoming more complex day by day.

What policies and programs covered these complex economic-social questions and what did they leave out? What was prioritized and what was taken seriously? What programs of institutional reform have been fixed for tasks that could not be completed on time? As the lack of ancient sources is getting worse, how to find new sources and what alternatives to look for? How has the government decided to operate the projects that have been blocked in the future? Answers to these questions are not found within policies and programs. What is the

policy and program? 

One of the points of the 56-page long document is that 'the economy will be made dynamic by implementing the report of the High Level Economic Reforms Recommendation Commission'. In point 7, according to the strategy of the Sixteenth Plan, it is said that information technology, tourism, agriculture, energy and green industrialization will be implemented as a new basis for employment-oriented economic growth and structural transformation, and emphasis will be placed on achieving sustainable development goals within the year 2030. It is mentioned that a strategy to facilitate the transition of upgrading from a least developed country to a developing country will be implemented in 2026 i.e. 1 year later.

(1) The High-Level Economic Reform Suggestion Commission submitted a 447-page long report a month ago on Chait 29. Based on the neoclassical economic ideology, the document proposed policy concepts and programs to complement the neoliberal market economy. Its main goal is economic liberalization, privatization and globalization. In some points 8, 9, 10 of the policy program, there is a concept of legal arrangement for privatization of assets belonging to public institutions. In point 10, it is mentioned that public institutions will be managed and restructured based on the study of the existing situation, transfer to the private sector and monetization of the assets through appropriate methods.

Point 13 mentions modernizing and commercializing subsistence agriculture. The same old slogans and methods are being repeated to improve the agricultural sector where more than 64 percent of the workers are active. Even the current government does not seem to realize that the slogans used for decades will not work when millions of families are moving from the mountains to the plains, from villages to cities, from cities to capitals, and from capitals to developed countries.

In fact, during the past 3 decades, there has been a big change in the production method that Nepali society has been adopting in the past. As the number/size of families has decreased. Confidence in earning a living has declined. The government does not seem to think that how the agricultural sector can compete in the liberalized market, especially in the past three decades, when compared to the development and protection done by the neighboring countries India and China in the agricultural sector, the government has not thought about it.

is part of agricultural culture. Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli and his group have tried to make arable land a commodity for sale (commodification of land), forgetting that if there is a disturbance in agriculture foreign employment, it can become a source of livelihood. It seems that they want to hand over fertile agricultural land to the hands of rich multinational corporations and their agents, especially by promoting the concept of land bank.

This concept transforms common farmers into landless farmers by evicting them from their land. It seems that the government does not want to find an answer to the question of where to earn a living if foreign employment ends in a country that lacks industrialization. The words used in points 13 to 21 in the name of upliftment of agriculture do not seem to address the solution to the current problems of agriculture.

(2) The green industrialization plan, which is the second priority of the Sixteenth Five-Year Plan, is a task-free bridge. It is known that Prime Minister Oli made an agreement to export buffalo meat to Nepal during his visit to China this time. However, according to the household survey conducted by the Nepal Alternative Studies Society for the Ministry of Finance two years ago, there was an average of 80 percent decrease in buffalo rearing in the hills and an average of 50 percent in Madhesh. How can meat be exported in this situation? Green industrialization probably means increasing production and processing and packaging of cash crops such as soybeans, tea, tobacco, sugar, corn, herbs, fruits, sugarcane, coffee, etc. on a large scale.

In the same way, it can be assumed that they tried to maintain the balance of payments by exporting to neighboring and rich countries. But no integrated concept of mass-scale production, processing and packaging has been put forward in the policy programme. Not only import substitution, but also preventing youth exports, the expansion and development of industrialization in Nepal has become an important issue. What is industrialization in the context of Nepal? What is comparative advantage and competitive advantage? What kind of industrialization to achieve these benefits? Who will take the initiative? How to be successful? How to take practice from where? It is not mentioned in the policy and program.

(3) The constitution envisages a socialist-oriented economic society. He spoke about the need for a three-pronged economy. Whether it is agriculture or any industrial expansion, cooperative management is of great importance. Especially the management of agricultural cooperatives, industrial cooperatives and labor cooperatives. In Nepal, credit and savings cooperatives are now in disrepute due to the interference of the ruling parties. They have become a hotbed of fraud especially for family-centered benefits. In such a situation, it is necessary to re-define, explain, regulate the organization and the institutional law according to the international principles of cooperatives. Point number 23 of the policy and program presented by the government is very inadequate and incomplete. It does not seem to support the cooperative principle and connect with the way of life of the common people and raise the standard of living. 

(4) The level of education is not only falling. From primary school to university, there has been an increase in the ratio of not enrolling and dropping out of school and university even after enrolling. If the number of students in village schools is decreasing, it is clear that after 5 years, there will be a shortage of qualified teachers in primary schools. Adding a university is not bravery.

Why and by whom did the universities become unstandardized, who caused the interference to produce the University of Kudakarkat? This is important. Even if there is no industrialization in the country and no jobs can be created, it is the duty of the government to think that skilled manpower should be sent for foreign employment. But it is an irony that the policy program of the government does not seem to emphasize on stopping the distortion, inequality, migration and impracticality seen in the education sector. 

(5) Some topics seem strange. On the one hand, slogans are raised for power generation. On the other hand, the goal of expanding petroleum pipelines and developing storage is exaggerated. Since most of the negotiations are not standardized, they are conducted barely half the time of the year. But in the policy program, the slogan of reducing the transportation cost by developing the infrastructure of rail and water transport is used. Let's say, the government has its own rules for infrastructure development, it doesn't know that the needs of all infrastructures and their fulfillment should be determined based on political economy and not on the money. 

(6) is not a word to quote in public private sharing gossip. It needs a proper interpretation to put it into practice. How is our industrialized business society? How loyal are government officials to the state? It also depends on how expert our ministers and officials are and what kind of long-term thinking they have. Looking at the institutional conditions of East Asian countries that have adopted state capitalism, this is a successful model, but in pure neoliberal capitalism, it seems that the national wealth is handed over to the private sector.