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Earthquakes In Nepal-XIV
Every time Prime Minster Sushil Koirala received the checks for any amounts for the quake victims on camera to be deposited in the Prime Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund, he repeated his commitment to punish anybody misusing the money intended for the relief of the quake victims. His government also announced that anybody using the shortage of goods and services in the aftermath of the quakes for the advantage of increasing the prices would be punished. The government would funnel all the donations collected by anybody or organizations thorough the Prime Minster’s Disaster Relief Fund to the quake victims. In other words, it is the Prime Minster Sushil Koirala’s business not of anybody to help the quake victims.
It was fine if the government were to do everything, or able to do so. Like it or not Mr. Prime Minister, quake victims would have been worst off if all compassionate individuals and philanthropic organizations were not in the field to help the quake victims immediately after the quakes, and if they were to wait for the government’s green signal for going to act then thousands of victims would have remained without roofs over their heads even temporarily, and thousands might have been dead without medical services and supplies. That was the fact Mr. Prime Minster.
It does not mean that the government has been totally inept. Prime Minister Koirala had been very smart to deny the entry of the British helicopters with relief supplies, and to keep them in Chandigad, India waiting for about a month before sending them back home. Why the prime minister did not want the British aircrafts with the relief supplies because the British Government did not release the Nepal Army colonel Kumar Lama held in Britain for his callous treatment of rebels during the civil war in Nepal. Ah! Then it was not the prime minister but the army that did not want the British helicopters in Nepal. The Nepal army must be very happy taking a revenge on the British but the suffers had been the quake victims not the callous and incompetent prime minister and the thickheaded Nepal Army officials.
The government also had started off the handout of Rs 15,000 to each family of the quake victims to buy tin sheets to cover the makeshift shelters. With the money provided by the District Disaster Relief Committee, the Dhading quake victims rushed to buy tin sheets in the nearby store only to find the store had no tin sheets. Then they moved on to the next store farther away no tin sheets were available there, too. Thus, they went from one store to another only to find that tin sheets were not available.
At the same time, the Hulas Steels Company had shipped drastically less tin sheets to the Dhading district than used to be according to the media reports. The company also increased the price of tin sheets. Probably, Prime Minister Koirala did not have much time to read newspapers not to mention the online news and watch the TV news. He must be very busy with receiving one check after another from the generous donors to be deposited in the Prime Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund and posing with the donors for photo shots.
Minister for Industry Mahesh Basnet of the Koirala government said that the government would set the prices of construction materials such as brick, sand, aggregates and tin sheets. Minister Basnet was certainly not an economist otherwise he would never say so rather he would be busy with increasing the supplies of those materials to control the prices. Any sensible economist would never say that the government would be successful to control the price of any goods or service. It would rather corrupt the price and supply chain at the cost of the consumers. So, Prime Minster Koirala needed to alert the industry minister to this fact if Mr. Koirala were really for helping the quake victims.
http://therisingnepal.org.np/news/3899
The government apparently knew that the parallel market had been flourishing. So, the government said that any such activity would be strictly brought under control but we have seen how the quake victims had faced the difficulty in buying the tin sheets at the hardware stores even at the higher prices. The company had increased the prices of tin sheets. The government had been deaf to all these realities.
The quake victims in the Sindhupalchok district had been still waiting for the government handout even after more than a month the devastating quakes had led them to homeless. The District Disaster Relief Committee had no idea how to distribute the handout of Rs 15,000 to the quake victims. The district leader of the NC had even complained about the conflict and the contradiction he had been facing with the quake victims. The district had received Rs 200 million for handing out to the quake victims, the news on Myrepublica.com stated on June 3, 2015.
The Special Parliamentary Committee had instructed the Koirala administration to include the tenants on the lists of the quake victims making them eligible for the government handouts after the lawmakers found only the homeowners received the relief supplies in the field. The parliament had set up a Special National Committee for Disaster Management, Monitoring and Direction. This committee in turn set up various sub-committees to monitor how the administration had been providing the relief supplies to the quake victims. The lawmakers on these sub-committees made field visits, their report on the field visit had been the ground for the parliament to instruct the government, the news on myrepublica.com stated on June 4, 2015.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) went one step farther for urging the government to manage relief supplies to the quake victims coordinating all the State agencies before the onset of the monsoon. It was the clear indication that the government had been unable to mange the relief supplies. How could the government coordinate all NGOs and INGOs if the State agencies were not able to coordinate among themselves?
Another truth the prime minister needed to take into account was that the government alone would not be able to do everything to rehabilitate the quake-destroyed cultural heritage, buildings and other public enterprises. The government needed to unbind the hands of the public to work freely and comfortably without the shackles of the undue government control. The government needed to ease the people’s misery of doing their businesses properly, honestly, and rightly following the laws.
That was not all. Prime Minister Koirala did not give a fig for the scandalous news about the attempt of the personal secretary of Finance Minister Dr Ram Sharan Mahat to divert the tin sheets intended for the quake victims in Nuwakot back to Katmandu so widely reported in the Nepalese media. O! It was his dear finance minister doing it probably not for himself but for the party. It would be the matter of Rs 4.5 millions if the attempt were successful. The personal secretary called Ramesh Mahat had to lose his political reputation and it cost him even his job. He would not go hungry because he had sufficient ancestral property to live on.
The next thing the prime minister announced was that all the money collected by any individuals or organizations for the quake victims would be automatically deposited in the Prime Minster’s Disaster Relief Fund. The prime minister was saying it was not the business of anybody but of his own to collect the money for the quake victims. The prime minister also announced that no individual or organization would do anything for the relief of the quake victims without the approval of the government. It was nice to have everything in the pocket for the prime minister.
Everybody was stunned with such an announcement of the government of the country hard hit by the tremendous quakes that tore down thousands of houses in a matter of a minute. No foreign donors dropped even a dime into the piggy bank of the Prime Minster’s Disaster Relief Fund for the obvious reason: the money would not reach the intended people.
The recent news on the Nepalese media has it that Prime Minster Koirala could not keep his head up under the tremendous pressure of the foreign donors. He had given in to the pressure, and he had to forget about the one-door policy of channeling all the resources collected for the quake victims through the Prime Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund. Mr. Koirala bowed down to the pressure and let the Jesuits use the money they had collected for the quake victims. The only condition the prime minister could set was the Jesuits would first inform the concerned Disaster Management Committee and then submit a report after the completion of its work, the news on ekantipur.com on June 4, 2015 stated.
On June 1, 2015, the Koirala government had issued seventeen-point directives to the NGOs and INGOs that they have to follow the norms and standards set by the line ministries for the specific geographical areas on a par with the international humanitarian aid. The NGOs and INGOs have to sign agreements with the government for implementing the programs or projects. They have to show detailed program or project costs, and then they have to start off the programs or projects within a week of signing off such deals. Breach of any conditions would mean automatic termination of the deals and the government would seize the project assets. Any activity of the NGOs and INGOs causing the threat to the national integrity, sovereignty, national security or religious, ethnic and social harmony would be the violation of the deals.
Everybody knew how difficult it was to work with the State employees. Moving a file of correspondence from one step to another took time. Bureaucrats at each step sought payoffs. To get programs or projects approved from the State bureaucracy meant to enrich the State employees and to delay the program or project implementation. Clearly, the Koirala administration was to enrich the State employees not to expedite the implementation of programs and projects for the rehabilitation of the quake-damaged country.
Individuals, various organizations and naturally political leaders with vested interest have been calling the Koirala government the most incompetent one; it has not been able to tackle the massive relief measures to be taken. This was the most appropriate time for the power hungry leaders to act. Naturally, Chairman of CPN-UML KP Oli waiting for such an opportune moment had been active to turn the tables on the prime minister.
Chairman Oli had been busy with meeting the chairman of UCPN-Maoist Prachanda and his colleague Dr Baburam Bhattarai to sound out the possibility of their support for his ascent to the throne of the prime minister of Nepal. If Mr. Oli were to be successful it would be the great advantage to the NC leaders. First, they did not need to eliminate the most unworthy leader from the position of the prime minister then from the position of the president of the party, too. Second, all ills of the Koirala government and his party the public have in their minds would be shifted to the shoulder of Mr. Oli.
The tremendous negative impact of Mr. Oli being the next prime minister would be on the UCPN-Maoist and the CPN-UML. They would be blamed for all the misadventures of Mr. Oli. The Madheshi leaders would never support Mr. Oli for his ascent to the position of the prime minister. They had labeled Mr. Oli as the man needed to be at an asylum rather than at the office of prime minister.
Prime Minister Koirala would be better off not to make many commitments but to keep the commitments he had made. He also needed to ask the donor agencies not more than what actually needed. The government needed to present the correct facts and figures to the donor agencies at the meeting to be held on June 25, 2015.
Prime Minister should state that only 10% building were destroyed in Kathmandu, about 50% in Lalitpur, and almost one hundred percent in Bhaktapur, Sakhu and other villages. Except a few hotels, all hotels were serviceable in Kathmandu and Pokhara; the trekking paths were all services, too except one. Visitors could come and enjoy the unique beauty of Nepal and its cultural heritages.
Certainly hundreds of billions of rupees worth of property were destroyed. Several times more than that amount would be required for reconstruction but the Nepalese in general could contribute most of those sources required in the form of labor, and other resources available in the country. Prime Minister Koirala needed to explain it to the donors at the donors’ meeting called on June 25, 2015.
June 5, 2015
