There is a line in Marike Heppe's Nepali Pan piece ('My second time', #215) where she says 'All this despite all the hardships that have piled up because of the Insurgency'. The condition in rural nepal was the same before insurgency and the fight Maoists have been putting up all these years is to close the economic gap between these poor villagers and Kathmanduites. The economic engine has slowed down only in urban areas due to insurgency but the rural area there has been no major economic impact because the poor have always been ignored. They were neglected before, and they are still neglected, nothing has changed for them. Even if the Maoists lose this war it will have made lot of people aware of the problem beyond Kathmandu. I hope the lawmakers can now focus more on these problems once the house is restored instead of only paving the road leading to their houses in Kathmandu.

Kiran Thapa,
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