Commuting on Our Narrow, Potholed Roads: PeopleSpeak, The Himalayan Times

The government needs to promote micro-bus for short routes and narrow roads, and big buses for longer routes and wider roads. Small vehicles are not a nuisance. Small vehicles such as tuk-tuk are seen driven in busy cities like Bangkok. Micro-buses can ply within the Ring Road during office hours. Big buses should be allowed on Ring Road and outside.
Basan Shrestha, Ghattekulo Marg
5 February 2017
https://thehimalayantimes.com/opinion/commuting-narrow-potholed-roads-nepal-vehicles-road-crowd/ 

Google Map of Village Development Committees and Municipalities I Visited in 20 Years

I had an opportunity to visit 168 Village Development committees (VDCs)/ Municipalities (MPs) spread in 40 districts of all five development regions of Nepal for academic and professional carrier development in more than 20 years from 1995 to mid-2018. 

The VDCs/ MPs are highlighted on the Google map with different colours for showing the VDCs/ MPs visited being associated with different organisations at different time intervals. Please visit the link: https://fusiontables.google.com/data?docid=1OmSL7SilJU8kHeuwhhAWmpB9Qn0yrpxVOI7WSISl#map:id=3.  

Besides, I've prepared another platform using the current Municipality names after declaration of Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal.

https://fusiontables.google.com/data?docid=1NVE-CKjb9K_K4HCjRjBilrRm-6X3lWd03O3rhT7w#map:id=8 

Hover over the map and click the finger pointer over a particular VDC/ MP, one can see the name of the region, zone, district and VDC/ MP; name of the organisation and objective of the visit and the year of visit.

I visited those VDCs/ MPs from 12 western districts to one eastern district.  The highest number of 45 VDCs/ MPs was in the western region and lowest number of one VDC in the eastern region. During that period, I visited being associated with ten different national and international organisations that included – Asian Institute of Technology based in Thailand; USAID's MEL Project (CAMRIS International), CARE Nepal, Forest Action Nepal, Lumle Agricultural Research Centre, Mercy Corps Nepal, Practical Action in Nepal, Tribhuvan University and Western Terai Landscape Complex Project (UNDP). The visits were primarily undertaken for needs assessment, monitoring and evaluation of activities in the communities related to agriculture and food security, community forest and buffer zone management, disaster risk reduction, reconstruction post earthquake 2015, girl’s education and saving and credit mechanisms.

I visited different clusters at different times of professional career. The first ten years (1995 to 2005) I visited mostly in western hills. The following five years (2005 to 2010), I'd the opportunity to visit mostly mid- to far-western terai communities. Afterwards, in next five years (2010 to 2015), I visited some far-western hill communities. In recent years (after 2015), I visited mostly in central hill communities. 

Freedom with Responsibility: PeopleSpeak, The Himalayan Times

in addition to letting them decide what they want to do, children must be aware of what right they are entitled to get and what responsibilities do they need to bear. Parents need to let their children decide what they want and how they want to fulfill their desire, but with guidance and support the children may expect from the superiors. This develops in children the confidence and decision making capacity to become a ‘chooser’ instead of simply a ‘user’ of goods and services. This will help grow the children to tackle the real-time opportunities and challenges. 
15 January 2017
Basan Shrestha, Ghattekulo Marg
https://thehimalayantimes.com/opinion/childhood-freedom-with-responsibility/