Sluggish act
The
Himalayan Times
11 January
2018
Sluggish
act
It is not
new for the people of Tarai districts to be awfully gripped by cold wave during
winter and massively displaced by floods in monsoon every year. The local
people face extreme hardship in these seasons. Many of them even lose their
lives due to such natural calamities. There can be nothing done to stop these
natural calamities. Nonetheless, the number of people dying from such
calamities could be minimized if timely precautionary and necessary measures
could be taken by the government and the concerned authorities. In Nepal, this
does not happen in the need of the hour.
It was so
sad and unfortunate to know that over two dozen people have already died due to
extreme cold in several Tarai districts over the past few days. If the mercury
continues to drop, more people will lose lives due to lack of warm clothes, proper
foods and appropriate shelters. Now, the government is preparing to give relief
to the affected districts “Govt to release worth Rs. 22.2 million to victims”
(THT, January 9, Page 2). Why does the government not act in time? Why does it
wait until people die? Why don’t the District Disaster Management Committees (DDMCs)
quickly assess the situation and start reaching out to the needy people in
time? Don’t they realise that every winter brings cold waves in the Tarai
districts, effecting the lives of the poor people?
Was it
necessary for the government to wait for the President showing her concern
about the loss of lives in Tarai and then only act after its attention was
drawn to the deaths of the people? as your story “Prez concerned about loss of
lives in Tarai” (THT, January 9, Page 2) says? It seems that the future
government needs to formulate appropriate policy and programme to decentralise
its authority to DDMCs so that necessary relief materials can reach the needy
people in time to ensure that nobody loses his/her life due to cold waves.
Rai Biren Bangdel
Maharajgunj
https://thehimalayantimes.com/opinion/letters-sluggish-act/
