Welcome move

If morning shows the day, then we can expect much from Home Minister Bhim Rawal in the days to come. Staying in sync with his public commitment to make restoring law and order his first priority, he directed security chiefs to come down heavily on those who resort to road obstruction as a form of protest. A charged-up Metropolitan Police Range Kathmandu quickly responded to the directive by arresting five protestors Friday at Kapan who were demanding the immediate black-topping of a local road.



Blocking roads on a pretext as grave as a murder to something as flimsy as a quarrel between a husband and a wife has become the norm in Nepal in the recent times. According to a Nepal Police data, last year Nepal witnessed 1,011 road obstructions just along the major highways. The repercussions have been telling. Rising commodity prices have been burning holes in the consumers’ pockets. The most vulnerable group during such blockades, however, has been those in need of urgent medical attention, lack of which has sometimes led to grave consequences. In fact, the situation has become so bad that people now cannot make travel plans without keeping a buffer period of at least two to three days.



The Local Autonomy Act, which forbids any act disturbing public life, hasn’t been effective primarily because those creating mayhem on the streets are mostly party cadres/workers who enjoy political patronage. In fact, parties that profess to adopt a zero-tolerance policy towards such activities while in government resort to the same techniques to protest once out of it. The police will surely be left fighting a lone battle unless and until all the political parties change their ways and pledge to abide by the Act.



Going further, road obstructions resulting from VVIP-travel should also come within the purview of this Act. Take for instance, the president’s visit to parliament Thursday, which threw traffic completely out of gear for about four hours. We are not undermining the need for security of VVIP’s; we are just saying that such trips should be organized in a way that ensures minimum harassment to the public. Thursday’s traffic chaos is also an indication of how much the volume of traffic has gone up in recent times, thus calling for better infrastructure such as broader roads, flyovers, et al.



The Home Ministry should next seriously consider bringing bandas under its radar; in the recent times, it’s been raining bandas in Nepal. Again, like road obstructions, bandas are called by almost everyone and for every conceivable reason. If the Home Minister can put an end to this nonsensical culture of bandas as well, he will do a big service to the nation.

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