Shy of relief

If the government’s own assessment is anything to go by, the much-touted immediate relief programs announced by Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai immediately after assuming the post has become a joke at best and an ordeal at worst. The fact that only 25 out of 243 programs, ranging from managing ongoing transition, promoting good governance, ensuring smooth supplies of basic commodities and improving law and order were translated into actions speaks loud and clear how incapable the government is in implementing the programs that it unveiled.



Though it is not a new thing for a country that has seen four governments since 2008—all coming with a nice bunch of never-materializing relief packages—it has come as a hard blow to the common people, particularly for the youth populace, who had welcomed Prime Minister Bhattarai with new hope and enthusiasm.



We have said many times that it’s not the high-sounding programs that country lacks, but initiatives to improve weak institutional partnership and capacity to implement those programs on the ground. In fact, no government seems to have paid attention to probe why many programs announced either in relief packages or in the annual budget go unimplemented, freezing resources worth billions of rupees.



We believe lack of participatory approach of concerned stakeholders while formulating programs and policies is the main problem. In fact, the practice of announcing a new set of populist programs prepared in hasty manner by partisan experts in some darkrooms of Singhadarbar without consultations with implementing agencies and without considering the political landscape of the country has become a well-worn ritual for governments in Nepal.



So, there is an urgent need to revamp institutional structure of some of the major government agencies that are responsible for promoting good governance and development activities. Their institutional capacity structured to perform few routine works and manage few million rupees decades ago are no longer capable of initiating major policy changes and implementing mega projects with annual budget running in billions of rupees. This has to be changed and we believe only massive reforms can bring the much-needed changes, even though the current political landscape is not exactly conducive for such initiatives.



It is high time for the prime minister to stand up bravely and tell people why he has performed so poorly in implementing the relief programs and what his new strategies are to improve implementation. Such a move might start a new era of accountability. So far we have not heard of any prime minister officially admitting his failures to deliver what he had promised to the people. We believe saying sorry to the people for failing to fulfill pledges can only add to the height of a leader.

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