Government fails to handle emergencies

Kathmandu: Nepal has experienced two major crises this year and these have raised questions about the capacity of our government and major institutions to deliver services to the people.

Nepal faced a major earthquake in April this year. Many international organizations and governments immediately jumped into the scene to respond to the disaster and took the situation under control without much involvement of the government. There was chaos from Tribhuvan International Airport to the village level due to weak preparedness and coordination of the government. As the government failed to immediately carry out rapid needs assessments and coordinate with international communities as to what the priorities were, there was duplication of work by the aid organizations. For example, some people were compelled to live under the open skies for many days while some had extra tarpaulins. The government has come up with the report on the damage by the earthquake and its various needs, which is commendable, but it has failed to expedite reconstruction work even after it received good pledge from donor countries and agencies for reconstruction. Many agencies have pledged to construct different infrastructure like schools, health facilities and historical places but the government is yet to release guidelines for the reconstruction. This has shown that the government institutions do not have the capacity to work under pressure during times of emergency.

Nepal is facing another crisis after the promulgation of the new constitution due to Madeshi protests and undeclared blockade imposed by India but the government has failed to take any concrete action to immediately address the crisis. The erstwhile government led by Sushil Koirala did not even announced the term blockade to please the southern neighbor and spent almost one month in the chair making fun of the problems faced by the people, while the incumbent government led by KP Oli is spending its days in the name of nationality. It is shameful to note that our country did not even have sufficient goods to last for a month and the government seems helpless rather than taking immediate measures to resolve the crisis. Most of the ministers including six deputies of KP Oli are involved in a verbal war against India and agitating groups rather than working to resolve the problem.

The government has also failed to take action against those involved in black marketeering and corruption during the time of crisis. It took almost three months to bring aviation fuel through a private company and no one is sure when the commercial consignment of fuel will come from China. The government mechanism should be active during the time of crisis but in our case this is business as usual. For example, it takes five to six days simply to send a letter to China as Nepal Oil Corporation has to forward the letter to the Ministry of Supplies and the Ministry of Supplies has to forward the same letter to the Foreign Ministry and finally the Ministry forwards the letter to China. I do not doubt the intention of the current supply minister and I feel we need to give benefit of doubt to Prime Minister Oli, but they failed to deliver as expected and also they do not have capacity to handle emergencies. The Prime Minister should have formed an emergency team comprising senior officials and major ministers and they should have worked from the same table so as to not delay the process but they failed to do so as they are not touched by the problems the common citizen is facing.

Prime Minister Oli made good commitment of making Nepal self-dependent but the government has not taken any concrete measures in this regard. The Ministers are showing just the dreams as they do not have practical solutions. Take an example of the Energy Ministry; the energy minister, who is also a deputy prime minister, has been making plans and giving his rhetoric of producing 10 thousand megawatt electricity in ten years by declaring energy emergency in the country but he has failed to pay heed to the fact that many people are compelled to stay in dark for days simply because the Nepal Electricity Authority does not have transformers in stock. The minister should start from simple practical things rather than just giving speeches, which not only reduces their value but also creates frustration among the people.

Most countries face and have faced natural or manmade crises but the question is how prepared the government is to tackle the issues and handle the situation. If we refer to the earthquake and the current blockade, we can simply say that the Nepali people do not feel the presence of the government as it seems that the ministers and bureaucrats are just making fun of the problems the people are facing and the country is being pushed backwards. It is shameful that the state run monopolist Nepal Oil Corporation does not have gas bullets to bring gas from China and the Nepal Electricity Authority does not have some back-up transformers to handle emergency situations. On top of that, the government is not even able to take action against these organizations for their poor delivery.

The Nepali people got political freedom but not economic freedom. The government is only concentrating on collecting more revenue by hook or crook but it has failed to fulfill its duty towards its citizens who are paying taxes to run the government. The government should always have plan B to handle a situation in case of emergency but our government, our leaders and bureaucrats do not have any vision beyond today – as a result, the people end up facing numerous problems. The government seems ready to have more trade relations with China and improve the road condition towards China but if the blockade was lifted immediately, all these issues would not materialize and the government would not pay heed to them until the next crisis. The leaders should learn lessons from the present crisis and diversify trade with its two neighbors and make necessary preparations for such emergencies in the future. Rather than just having business as usual, there is an urgent need for concrete action to save the nation from being a failed state.

(Editor’s note: How do you find this article please send your comment to editor@nepalekhabar.com. Please send your opinion/thoughts to us, we will provide suitable space for it.)