Have Your Say: Eternal Chaos

You dread going to the Government offices to get some paperwork done. The authorities are inefficient, sometimes even horrifyingly rude, and the system is such that you have to run around in circles around the same building at least thrice to get a single paper signed and stamped. All of us have such horror stories. The Week got a few to share theirs.

Kreesh Sapkota, 26
Student

I came all the way from Chitwan today. I sat through hours-long traffic and risked being caught up in all the disturbance going on in the highway to fill this form. I have to catch a bus in about two hours to go back. I have to go through all this hassle for a small procedure like obtaining a NOC letter. A Nepali can't get any official work done unless he/she is in the capital. It's infuriating that the government hasn't understood what an inconvenience this is to us and tried to solve the problem.
Also I have this one page of form to fill but there is no official body to help us with that. Everybody here has so many questions. Just a while ago, somebody asked me if we should use a specific color pen? I hadn't even thought of that. Then there are the questions itself. It's confusing whether they are asking for the details or the gist. The officers behind the counter are always busy and won’t answer even the simplest of questions. So everybody is asking around, hoping somebody will be kind and free enough to help them. I have had to correct a few of my mistakes. This is making me late. I hope I don't miss my bus back to Chitwan.

Anita Adhikari, 24
Audit

Department of Transport Management at Ekantakuna could do with a lot of reforms. First of all, we are made to wait in a long queue just to submit a form. It takes forever to get a receipt. The whole process to get a single license will take at least five-six hours. The form submission is only from six to noon, and not everybody knows that. I’ve met many people who have complained about that. They will have waited in line for over an hour and then they find the counter closed. This is the third time I’ve come here and the story is the same. They are still slow and careless. I asked an employee why they worked at a snail’s pace, and according to this person, the supervisor is rarely at the office and in such a case, the junior staffs don’t really see the need to stay back and work. He also told me that they only have three people for data entry, which is fine when there aren’t a lot of people but when there’s a big crowd it becomes really difficult to manage things. Clearly they are understaffed but it doesn’t worry them.

Rabina Gurung, 23
Student

I arrived at the Department of Transport Management at Ekantakuna almost five hours ago, and my work here is still not done. I have heard that either you need to know someone working here or you need to be able to bribe people to get your work done easily and fast. Either way, after I bought a form to apply for the license, someone immediately came up to me to help me fill it out. The man charged Rs 250, and I felt a little bad for having to part with that kind of money for something that I could have done on my own. I think I’ll be careful about reading the forms from now on. There’s always one thing or the other happening whenever I go to get such works done. Last time, when I went to accompany my sister to get her results and other documents at Balkhu, we spent the whole day there as well. It was crowded and there were simply too many things to be taken care of and hence a lot of chaos.

Praveen Karki, 23
Professional bike rider

It's clear that things need to be more systematic at Government offices. I joined a line at nine in the morning, and two hours later I’m still nowhere near the window where I need to submit my forms. Also there are no clear signs as to which window we should approach for different purposes. For example, people who need to make the payments are standing where we are waiting to submit the forms. There is a lot of confusion around and nobody to go to for answers. At the very least, they could put up bigger signs or arrows that would tell us what we need to do and where we need to go. The queues too are unorganized. Many try and get in without standing in line and there are arguments. I believe it would be better if there was a token system and waiting would be bearable and less chaotic.

Bhairab Dangol, 25
Job holder

I have been waiting for three hours to have my license renewed. Agreed that most people have had to wait for longer, but this is nothing new here. Five years ago as well, the procedure was as slow as it is now. I keep on checking and asking about the state of the procedure and they say they are working and ask me to wait for a bit. I actually applied at the fast track system, so they say that I won’t have to come back the next day, but I’m forced to spend my entire office hours here, waiting for the papers. I have no other choice. It helps that I know the process and can just jump from one step to the next. But they could have made the system a lot more efficient by managing things well. They definitely need more skilled and efficient people.

Nabin Shrestha, 30
Job holder

I understand that the documentation process can be tedious but I can’t help thinking that it takes unnecessarily long at some offices around the Valley. Instead of signing the papers and getting the recommendations from the same place like the Metropolitan office or the CDO, we have to run around to many places. All day long, until the documents come, we are just made to wait at these offices. I also understand that the employees are under a lot of duress when they have to handle many people, and we don’t expect them to perform a miracle and complete all the work in one go. But the least they can do is be a little polite and helpful. It is difficult for us, too, as we don’t always know where to go and who to look for. They should understand that and behave accordingly. Sometimes, they won’t even answer your questions.