Not appreciated

The first 100 days of any government is taken up as a litmus test of its work-orientation and efficiency. Not all formatted plans and programmes can be implemented within the short duration, but it shows the inclination, tendency and sincerity in people-oriented works. The people at the moment are bewildered that a politician, who harped consensus all throughout and even helped the 16 rounds of prime ministerial election turn futile, is the Prime Minister who has not been able even to give full shape to his cabinet. Apart from this, nothing is working on any front for him. Going ad hoc is not the way to preen out the anomalies in politics or the economy. But, that is exactly what is happening to the dismay of every citizen. The country has 

not seen any direction despite having elected the chief executive almost three months back. The groundwork should have been prepared to set the country right on course, mostly to do with the peace process and drafting the constitution. But, no headway has been made in any area, whether it be to get all the political parties to sort out the contentious issues of the statute-draft to meet the May 28 deadline, a mere 29 days away. 

If the lackadaisical ways continue, the people’s frustrations will know no bound. PM Jhala Nath Khanal must be aware of the responsibility that he has to discharge, but he seems to be lost in making pledges only to miss them in action. He is found only to be squandering his time at the helm of affairs. In recent days, DPM and Finance Minister Bharat Mohan Adhikary has also been in the limelight for doing things his own way,

and in that he is alleged to be bypassing the bureaucrats concerned. The resignation of Rameshwore Khanal heated up the environment, and the event obviously pointed to FM Adhikary. In fact, the bureaucrats are there to help the ministers in making decisions or charting action plans. What is happening at present is that the bureaucrats are being kept in the dark, and important decisions are being taken by the FM himself. There have been allegations that he had prepared the budget draft without consulting

the bureaucrats in the ministry. This may be just the tip of the iceberg, more may be unearthed on scrutiny. But, not taking the bureaucrats into confidence is a breach of trust which the minister concerned

cannot escape the blame for. It is the bureaucrats who have the duty to offer their advices to the ministers and also prepare the field for the implementation of the decisions.

Another facet is the abrupt decision to transfer or promote officials, which runs at the whim of the minister in charge. The all round inept handling of the state affairs is taking its toll, particularly on the economy and law and order. If the ministers resort to side-stepping the rules of the game, and act out of personal interest, they cannot be serving the people who matter the most. It is high time that a sense of accountability and transparency was injected in the administrators, as it is their adherence to the rules and regulations that will create trust and confidence in the people. This obviously calls for the ministers not to hatch behind-the-curtain plots.

Here to stay



The protracted power outages that the people have to cope with could have been avoided had the political leaders and development planners exercised foresight. It was clear from the onset that the demand for electricity would grow phenomenally over a period of time. Now, we have to pay the price for this negligence. The leaders were concerned mostly in ameliorating their lot and least concerned about the plight of the people. Clearly, what the country needed was the exploitation of the hydro-potential which the country happens to have in abundance. Government after government have been saying that they would do something to ultimately do way with the annoying load shedding, but they were merely paying lip service. Foreign and domestic investors should have been encouraged to make investments in the hydro-power sector.

Now, the Minister of State for Energy claims that power outages would end in four years. This is difficult to fathom because as of yet nothing concrete is being done to solve the ordeal of power outages that the consumers have to put up with.