The first meeting of the cabinet held on Monday after Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal assumed office decided to improve public service delivery in various offices as a part of the government’s efforts to ensure good governance in the country. The meeting decided to address the serpentine queue of service seekers seen routinely outside the Department of Passports in Tripureshwar. The woes of those seeking driving licenses have also drawn the attention of the new government. While those seeking a new driving license or wanting to renew their licenses currently need to wait for months, those wanting to pay transport tax are also forced to wait in queue for hours, if not days, due to the poor management on part of the government bodies concerned. A large number of service seekers even complain that they are forced to pay an extra amount to hire brokers even to renew their blue book at the Transport Management Office. Against this context, the decision taken by the cabinet meeting is a welcome move. Ordinary people, who are forced to undergo unnecessary hassles to avail even these basic government services, will be benefitted immediately. But these decisions should not be limited to only two government offices.

If there is anything that needs immediate intervention in Nepal, it is the public offices, which cater to the day-to-day services to the people. The service delivery of all our public offices is pathetic to say the least. If you visit the land revenue office or the office that issues labor permits, you will see the real mess. Service seekers are forced to visit the office early in the morning to make sure that their turn arrives within the same day. The serpentine queue seen outside the office that issues No Objection Letter (NOC) to Nepali students wanting to go abroad for study is no less telling. The government authorities concerned can easily solve the problem if they take help of the digital technologies available. Similar is the situation in most state-owned hospitals. Patients seeking immediate medical attention are also forced to wait for months, if not years, to get services that are offered by the public hospitals. The government has invested a huge pie of its resources in the education sector. But the continued negligence of the government bodies concerned to improve the quality of teaching/learning activities in public schools has forced parents to send their children to private schools even if it is beyond their financial capacity. As a result, an average Nepali citizen today is forced to spend most of his income on the health and education of his children.

Good governance is to make governance objective, responsible, transparent, and people-oriented. As the newly-appointed Prime Minister Dahal has vowed to ensure good governance in the country, he should first make sure that ordinary people are able to avail all the services that the government provides to the people without any hassles. This should be his immediate priority area of action. Government officials often attribute this situation to lack of resources at their disposal. But as experience suggests, it is not about resources but lack of efficiency and effective management. You can see how effectively the private sector has managed things even with the meager resources. Even if it requires additional resources to make sure that ordinary people are able to avail public services without any hassles, the government should not shy away from its responsibility.  Prime Minister Dahal has already assumed the post of prime minister twice. As his previous stints have drawn mixed reactions, it is high time Dahal worked towards making his new term as the prime minister worthy so that people will remember him for years for all his good deeds. We wish him all the best in this endeavor.

 
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