Monday, September 7, 2020

The plight of the sovereign nation and sovereign people!

On/Off the Record

By P.R. Pradhan

I was very much shocked to see the photographs and video clips of thousands of people in the queue at the Open Theater to get food. Thanks to the Hundred Group and Manabi Creative Foundation volunteers who are providing at least one-time meal to those hungry people who have lost their job due to the ongoing lockdown and prohibition order for the last six months! Our leaders, ministers pass through the Open Theater area in luxury vehicles but they didn’t feel the plight of thousands of people in the Valley. This is not the story of the Kathmandu Valley alone. Labour class people and their families are dying due to the lack of food and in many urban areas, youths and social workers are distributing meals at free of cost. Nowhere is the government!

Baluatar was busy in holding the ruling party’s secretariat meeting. The meeting was called to decide on nominating the party’s vice chairman Bamdev Gautam as the member of the National Assembly. The communist leaders in the government didn’t get time to discuss on empty stomachs of those people suffering from lockdown and prohibition orders.

When sudden floods claim around four dozen lives in Baglung, Home Minister Rambahadur Thapa rushed to the flood-hit area by paying around 4.5 million rupees as the helicopter charter cost. The victims didn’t get relief and even by spending such a huge amount for the helicopter, the Minister was unable to reach the flood-hit village due to the bad weather!

At a time when the entire nation is passing through multiple problems including economic recession, the government decided to provide 320 million rupees to the Jhalanath Khanal Foundation named after an NCP leader. The Foundation is, in fact, a snake farm. This is a private foundation established to produce anti-venom medicine. There are many such foundations named after the political leaders but running from the taxpayers’ money. The government funding on such a foundation based on political influence is not justifiable for Nepal like a poor county. Let’s assume if the government had spent the 320 million rupees for the medical supplies related to the Covid-19 patients, how many people could be able to get a new life!

Nepal is said to be an agricultural country. The government has announced to become self-reliant on agriculture. Unfortunately, we saw a large queue of farmers in Chitwan, the electoral constituency of NCP co-chairman Pushpakamal Dahal, and other parts of the country to buy fertilizer for their paddy plantation. Even after waiting for 10 to 12 hours under the sun, the farmers had to return empty-handed. This Weekly had created doubt on timely delivery of the fertilizer when the government inked a negotiation with the two suppliers – Shailung Enterprises and Honika Multiple. The Shailung Enterprise is the very trading company of Sharada Prasad Adhikari, house owner of NCP co-chairman Pushpakamal Dahal. Adhikari is the very contractor who has occupied many construction projects but never completed on time. With the political blessings, Adhakari’s company has never faced hurdles even after a violation of the government regulations, instead, has continuously been rewarded. Finally, our doubt has come true that the nation witnessed an acute shortage of fertilizer during the paddy plantation time.

Of late, Agriculture Minister Ghanashyam Bhushal has decided to punish those fertilizer suppliers who deceived the government. Will Minister Bhushal be able to take such a bold action against those people who are being blessed by his own boss?

In the Nepali context, communism and corruption are deeply rooted. The rate of commission in some political appointments has scaled to crores of rupees. According to a source, the person who will submit 13 crore rupees, will be appointed as the managing director of the Nepal Electricity Authority. If Kulman Ghishing will be able to do so, surely, he will be re-appointed. A big deal is going to take place between party chairmen-duo KP Sharma Oli and Pushpakamal Dahal for the post of the NEA chief.

The government has been very badly exposed from the deal with the Omni Enterprises on the emergency purchase of the medical supplies by paying five times more price than the market price. Neither the concerned ministers nor the concerned officials are ashamed of being involved in corruption and commission. Instead, the Health Ministry has shown especial affection with the very supplier by deciding to pay all its dues.

Again, the Ministry has published a new tender for the supply of ventilators. On this also, specification qualifies for the ventilators produced by the Phillips company only, which is against the government procurement regulations. It is an example of daylight loot under the political setting.

The Nepal Airlines Corporation has decided to dispose of six brand new aircraft including two China donated aircraft and has planned to procure five new aircraft – two ATR and three twin otter aircraft — for its domestic fleet. The Corporation management has developed a report that the Chinese aircraft were not viable for commercial flights and thus the Airlines faced billions of rupees worth loss.

According to a source in the Nepal Airlines, there is no benefit for those corrupt officials in the Corporation by operating the aircraft. If purchased new aircraft, a hefty amount of commission can be managed. Therefore, the Corporation board has taken such a decision.

Similarly, the source said that the two wide-body aircraft purchased by the Airlines are going to be a white elephant as the Airlines cannot manage its huge market. The source informed that the Airlines would have first managed its regional market by operating its two or four narrow-body aircraft before jumping to the wide-body aircraft. However, corrupt political leaders, government officials and Corporation officials developed the plan to procure two wide-body aircraft through a controversial deal. The Public Account Committee in the Federal Parliament has reported that there could be the commission worth above four billion rupees.

For the last ten years, the communists are talking about establishing a fertilizer factory in the country, however, the fact is that it has not been established. Very soon, if Nepal cannot export the locally produced electricity to India, the Nepal Electricity Authority is going to face a loss worth billions of rupees. Understandably, the government is planning to export electricity to India at a very low price. If the government had developed a plan to supply the electricity to the local factories at a subsidized price, at least, Nepali industries’ production cost could be cheaper and our products could compete in the international market. Accordingly, if established a fertilizer factory consuming a large quantity of the electricity, we should not have face electricity loss, in the meantime, we could save billions of rupees worth foreign currency spent in the import of fertilizer.

The government never thinks about these aspects as the leaders are not interested to make Nepal a prosperous and self-reliant nation.

People’s Review Print Edition

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