Every year, hundreds of our folks lose their lives and thousands are displaced from their homes due to floods and landslides but our incompetent government is neither prepared nor does anything to minimize the damage from such natural disasters.
I guess our government just waits for our lands to be flooded and they then ask our security personnel to rescue our folks. It would be wise for our folks in the plains to buy a raft and life jackets because the government is always too slow to respond to such disasters.
Our Narayang-Muglin road section is always obstructed during the monsoon but so far our lazy civil servants have not figured out how to prevent such obstruction. Why can’t our government build strong, sturdy retaining walls instead of carrying out shoddy works on highways prone to landslides?
Maybe, our Nepal Army should be given the task to build retaining walls across the country instead of doling out the contracts to slimy contractors who are neither punished nor lose their license for failing to do their jobs.
And when a day is wasted trying to clear the road, our petrol pumps are swarmed by people who somehow have to refuel their tanks the next day. Why can’t our folks always fill up their tanks when they get the chance instead of waiting for someone to spread the rumour that fuel supply is low and then only head to the pumps and stay in line for hours to put a few litres of petrol?
Our corrupt government only knows how to fill in the potholes and pave our roads a week before monsoon. Our capital turns into rivers whenever there is a heavy rain. Maybe our government could do us a favour if they deployed rafts in the city during monsoon so that we would not have to swim around the city. I guess our Department of Roads and the Sanitation wallahs have yet to learn how to build drains across the city.
Yes, our government agencies never coordinate with each other and we, the people have to suffer every other month. The Road wallahs pave the road. The Khanepani folks then show up a month later and then dig up the newly-paved road.
They tell us that it’s for the Melamchi pipeline. And after they are done digging, the Road wallahs do not pave the road again but just leave it in hopes that big trucks and tippers will come rambling down the road to level the dug up road.
Our folks up north are also suffering from floods and landslides. It seems that it will take us a decade before our traders can finally bring their goods from Khasa.
Our government is not serious at all to make sure that our highways are not obstructed. Our government doesn’t care if the prices of vegetables and other daily essential increase by 50% in a week. Our government does not think it is important to provide relief and rescue works for the people displaced by the floods and landslides as soon as possible.
But our government has other priorities to take care of and it cannot be stuck dealing with petty issues like controlling food prices, curbing corruption or clearing the obstruction in our highways. Our politicians and civil servants do not need to check their wallets when buying vegetables every day. They are not worried about inflation because they make enough chiya kharcha to last them another decade or two.
They do not want to fight against corruption because that would be like asking a pickpocket to stop stealing other folks’ wallets and find an honest job. It doesn’t matter if our highways are obstructed because our politicians will get to use Nepal Army’s helicopters to move around the country.
Yes, our Nepal Army needs not just one or two but a dozen helicopters to make sure that it can cover the whole country during natural disasters. We should have a law that bars politicians from using government helicopters for their own party programs. Our Defense Minister does not have to visit Army camps in rural areas.
If he really wants to make sure that our Army folks are doing their job then just visit the Army headquarter and get your briefs from the Generals there. But of course, when the Army or other security agencies buy any stuff worth billions then our clowns and contractors find ways to make some dough.
We still have not found out how many politicians got paid when our Nepal Police bought useless armoured personnel carriers for their Sudan mission? When will we have our own consortium of investigative journalists in the country who will then bring out our own ‘Nepal Papers’ so that we, the people will finally get to know who got paid by whom and how much of the dough is in the country or abroad?
Yes, we need the monsoon because it is good for the farmers. But our farmers never get their fertilizer on time. Our farmers never get better market price for their products because the middlemen make all the dough while the farmers get peanuts.
Our politicians are not interested to help the people. They are only interested to help themselves. Our politicians make sure that one of their own gets full medical treatment at the expense of the state or even travel overseas for medical treatment in an air ambulance while common folks get nothing.
Our major political parties are now running around trying to do their math to form a new government. But whoever gets to live in Baluwatar will not do anything good for the country. Maybe, we should just shift our ministries and even the parliament to Bhotekoshi. Maybe then our politicians will make sure that landslides and floods will bring minimal damage to the region.
Guffadi is a grumpy old man who blogs at guffadi.blogspot.com. You may contact him at maguffadi@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment