As planned during its formation, the ruling alliance has accorded topmost priority to saving the lives of people by reining in COVID-19, reviving the pandemic-affected national economy, building up high quality and sustainable physical infrastructures and ensuring good governance as well as efficient service delivery. The coalition government, led by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, has come forward with the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) so as to deal with a myriad of problems and challenges facing the nation. The CMP that was prepared by a taskforce headed by Nepali Congress leader Purna Bahadur Khadka incorporates 11 different priority areas. They include strengthening the battle against the current global public health crisis, generating a general feeling of supremacy of the constitution, rule of law, concluding the peace process logically and initiating the process of amending the constitution through forging consensus among the political parties.

The government has also adopted the policy of holding mutual talks and developing a co-work culture. Formulating and endorsing laws to enforce federalism, realising high economic growth by focusing on production, reforming the supply system, introducing relief packages for the pandemic-hit sectors, rehabilitating the people affected by natural disasters, adopting a balanced foreign policy and enhancing national unity are other priorities included in the CMP. This document is an important guideline for the government to proceed. As per the plan, the government is going to take the initiative to establish a lab for producing COVID-19 vaccines within the country. When this plan materialises, the country is sure to be free from a shortage of the essential jabs.

Besides, the government is going to revise the national security policy so as to deal with the emerging security-related challenges more effectively. It also seeks to resolve the border disputes through diplomatic channel and review all the treaties and pacts that are not in our national interest. The CMP also includes the provision to start issuing drivers’ licenses and passports from the province level. People from different provinces will not have to visit Kathmandu just to get such documents. It will also issue identity cards to the poor households and extend necessary support to them. The government will also make public the Lal Commission report that describes the varied facets of the Madhes movement.

Since its outbreak, the COVID-19 contagion has paralysed most of the sectors such as manufacturing, tourism, education and infrastructure development. As this invisible enemy has kept on taking a heavy toll on the lives of people and the national economy, it is not possible for the authorities to move the socio-economic development process ahead in a smooth manner without tackling the pandemic. A strict adherence to the prescribed health norms and vaccination alone can help contain this deadly viral disease. Keeping this in view, the government has remained dedicated to vaccinating one-third of the total citizens against COVID-19 by mid-October this year. It plans to administer the life-saving jabs to the remaining population by mid-April next year. The vaccination campaign against this pandemic has now been going on well as the country has received hundreds of thousands of doses of different vaccines from various countries. More than 150,000 people have been getting the jabs a day on average for the last couple of days. All the coalition partners must remain determined to work in line with the spirit of the CMP to achieve the desired goals.