As Indu Nepal highlights in 'Ten lost years' (#283) Jumla has been more ravaged acutely by the on-going conflict in the country than any other region of Nepal due to its geographical adversities as well as the neglected state's political priority. However, Karnali should not be a synonym of poverty, backwardness and inaccessibility. As previous coverage in your paper have cited: Karnali is not a food deficit area, just a rice deficit area.

It's also a pity that some NGOs from the Karnali keep bemoaning the neglect by the centre and point their fingers at Kathmandu rather than think of innovative ways for self-help. Why do they always think that somebody else should come to help them? Before pointing the finger to Kathmandu, there is a lot to do in creating awareness at the local level, there is a dire need to change attitude of the Karnali people themselves. They have to come out of their own fatalism. Some Karnali thinktanks have themselves become Kathmandu-centric running their activities by remote control from the capital. Nobody should expect the development of Karnali region overnight, it takes time. And the priority should be to resolve the conflict.

Rajan Khatri,
Hamburg