Budget crisis highlights Nepal's post-war woes

Months of political deadlock have plunged Nepal into a budget crisis that could leave 500,000 workers unpaid from this week in the latest sign of the country's woes since civil war ended in 2006.
Nepal has not had a parliament or fully functioning government since June and has been surviving on emergency funds, which run out on November 15 unless rival parties agree on a new budget.
With no deal likely, the Maoist caretaker administration faces being unable to pay teachers, nurses, police and soldiers.
"The budget plays a critical role in the remuneration for hundreds of thousands of civil servants," Kathmandu-based economics analyst Gokarna Awasthi told AFP.
November 20 marks the sixth anniversary of the peace deal that ended the decade-long Maoist insurgency which claimed more than 16,000 lives.
A tentative calm returned after the Maoists swept to power in 2008 elections but Nepalese politics has been in flux ever since, with rival parties swapping control of the government several times.
In May, lawmakers failed after years of wrangling to meet a deadline to write the country's first post-war constitution. Parliament was then dissolved, leaving the nation with no government and no elections currently scheduled.
The Nepalese voted in an assembly in 2008 to draw up the constitution for a new social and political order in a nation that remains deeply impoverished and riven with inequalities.
The country has more than 100 different ethnic groups, and marginalised lower castes are pushing for more power and increased access to jobs and education after the abolition of Nepal's Hindu monarchy four years ago.