SHAME SHAME
The Kathmandu Post
26 March 2017
SHAME SHAME
In
the past, it was not uncommon to hear that the influential ministers and
leaders had misused their authority and the budget allocated under their
ministries for haphazard distribution in their constituencies. These
irresponsible transactions used to take place especially towards the end of the
fiscal year. Millions of rupees are transferred from one development project to
another project for a number of reasons. Every year, the Auditor General Office
indicates in its annual report that these transactions are illegal and should
be recovered. Such transitions amount to billions of rupees which are yet to be
properly accounted for or recovered. However, none of the past governments have
been able to eliminate such practices.
It
is surprising to hear that the Maoist ministers are also found to be carrying
out such practices (“Maoist MPs lash out
their ministers” 22 March. Page 1). During a recent meeting, MPs raised
their voices against Hitraj Pande, Krishna Bahadur Mahara and Pushpa K. Dhahal
for distributing the budget in their constituencies. They fought for 10 years in
a people’s war against the state aimed at liberating the nation and its people
from corruption, poverty, suppression of marginalized people, unequal
distribution of state services and so on. It is unfortunate to know that the
Maoist ministers including the Prime Minister himself are committing such
irresponsible acts. Are they not supposed to discourage other ministers of their
coalition from committing such acts instead? Are they not supposed to be the
exemplars of good governance?
So
far, the Dahal led government has completely failed to address the aspirations
of the common people. The Supreme Court’s final verdict on the promotion of
Chand as IG has been a slap on the face of the government (“SC quashes govt decision to promote Chand as IG” 22 March, Page 1).
Disgruntled political parties have started threatening to start street
protests. Around 100 new laws required to implement the constitution are yet to
be enacted by Parliament. Records of the Ministry of Law and Justice show only
37 laws are under consideration either in the House or in its various
committees, which means that the government is yet to draft 63 new laws. What
is interesting amid this is that Parliament lacks business, thanks to
government sluggishness in drafting new laws (“House sits idle no business to deal with” 22 March, Page 1).Will
the Dahal led coalition government be able to implement the new constitution
within the stipulated time?
Rai Biren Bangdel
Maharajgunj
http://kathmandupost.ekantipur.com/printedition/news/2017-03-26/shame-shame.html
