The parliamentary committee, in a strongly-worded statement on Sunday, criticized various ministries for not working as per its instructions even though these instructions were issued in the presence of the ministers and top officials from the ministries concerned.
“Had your respective ministries acted as per the decisions taken with your tacit understanding, the earthquake victims wouldn't be in the pathetic condition that they are in now,” the committee's chairman, Rabindra Adhikari, said at the committee meeting.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Physical Infrastructure Bijay Gachhadar and Home Minister Shakti Basnet were among the top officials present on the occasion.
“You all have so far not taken our directives seriously even though we have given the government very relevant instructions and done so repeatedly," Adhikari said adding, "Taking the committee's decisions merely as a formality is a mistake that must not be repeated.”
The committee had issued frequent directives to various ministries to expedite relief and rescue for the quake vcitims as well as step up the reconstruction and rehabilitation work in the various earthquake-affected areas, but only a handful of these directives have been heeded, according to the committee.
"It is exactly because of dillydallying on the part of the existing government mechansims over timely implementation of the committee's directives that the earthquake victims are today forced to live at the mercy of the freezing weather while still waiting for some response from the government. Had they implemented the directives on time, the situation in the affected areas would be different," said Chairman Adhikari.
The committee had convened meetings with all the ministries concerned on April 28, May 8, May 15, June 9, June 16, August 3 and November 23 to deal with issues related to relief, rescue, reconstruction and rehabilitation, and it had also deployed a team of lawmakers to districts such as Gorkha, Dhading, Sindhupalchowk, Dolakha, Rasuwa and Nuwakot to carry out field monitoring of relief distribution and rescue work.
“All the directives were issued only after due consultations with top officials of the ministries. But despite all this, our directives have rarely been implemented, and this has raised questions over efficiency of the government mechanism,” said Adhikari.
In a nine-point directive issued on Sunday, the committee has asked all the ministries and bodies concerned to implement all its directives or submit a detail report on why any directive could not be implemented.
Related story
Govt’s dillydallying puts EC in a fix to begin ‘actual preparat...
