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Incompetent And Corrupt Ministers
By KTM Metro Reporter in Kathmandu
On December 17, 2009, speaking at the interaction program in Kathmandu, Minister for Commerce and Supplies Rajendra Mahato has said that the supply of petrol will ease in a couple of days, and has blamed the frequent shutdown of the main transport route and the petroleum workers going on strike for the supply disruption. However, reality is different; if the minister has ordered the manager of the state-run company called Nepal Oil Corporation to issue permits to the truck owners to transport petrol from the Indian town Barauni to Kathmandu we will not have the short supply of petrol in Kathmandu. However, the minister and his toadies have not been for issuing such permits, as they benefit from not doing so. During the two-year period of interim Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, the minister had done the same thing keeping the short supply of petroleum products in Kathmandu for two years.
Nepalis have been living in darkness for 28 hours a week, and the period of outage will gradually increase, as the rivers will have short supply of water during the coming dry season. Minister for Energy Dr. Prakash Sharan Mahat has repeatedly said that the outage will not be more than 10 hours a week during his tenure as a minister. However, even after seven months of taking the office he has done nothing to mitigate the short supply of power in the country but only enjoying the job of the Minister for Energy.
The state-run water company has increased the price of water in the Kathmandu Valley but the supply of piped water has been drastically reduced as the dry season sets in. Deputy Prime Minister Bijya Gacchedar holding the portfolio of Housing and Physical Planning has not been able to set the contractor to work at the Melamchi area to divert the water from the Melamchi River to the Kathmandu Valley. Nobody knows when the construction of 26 km long tunnel intended for carrying water from the Melamchi River to Kathmandu will be completed. However, the Deputy Prime Minister has amassed sufficient money to support the legislators for supporting him.
In addition to the short supply and price rise of basic items such as petrol, electric power and water, Prime Minister Madhav Nepal has successfully shot up the prices of food items such as potato, onions, lintel and rice. He has been maintaining the price of potato at Rs 50 per kg and has increased the price of onion from Rs 25 to 45, prices of lintels from an average of Rs 60-70 per kg to an average of Rs 150-170 per kg, and prices of various grades of rice two folds.
Thanks to the unelected Prime Minister and his incompetent but corruption ministers, Nepalis have to live in darkness, stay home for not having petrol to travel, and eat less food because of the spiraling prices of food items.
