Govt frustratingly slow as public reels under hardships

KATHMANDU, Nov 4: With the election of K P Sharma Oli as the prime minister last month, people from various walks of life had expected some momentum from the new government.

The public’s expectation was high as Oli was widely regarded as an action-oriented leader in contrast to his predecessor Sushil Koirala, who was criticized for being indecisive head of the government.

But over the recent weeks the public has become frustrated with the Oli government as it has failed even to give full shape to the cabinet, let alone carry out some urgent tasks such as expediting rehabilitation of the displaced people and speeding up the task of reconstruction of the quake-destroyed structures.

The prime minister is yet to pick ministers from his own party for some key ministries such as finance, defence, local development and information and communications, among others.

He hasn’t been able to include some small political parties including CPN (ML), CPN-Samyukta, Rastriya Janamorcha and Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) as he failed to nominate ministers from within his own party, CPN-UML.

The continuous general strike in the Tarai-Madhes districts is nearing three months and that has crippled life not only in the southern region but across the country. The undeclared Indian blockade has created acute shortage of fuels, medicines and other essential goods and people are worried that it may result in a humanitarian crisis in the country.

The government has been criticized for not taking serious initiatives to solve the crisis.

While Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Kamal Thapa is in Geneva, the prime minister so far failed to win the confidence of the agitation Madhesi parties.

Dismayed by the government’s failure in spreading hope among the public at a time of such crisis, even leaders from the prime minister’s own party have started to express their dissatisfaction toward the government’s performance.

UML leader Rabindra Adhikari said that the government has remained too slow in addressing the ongoing crisis and providing relief to the crisis-hit people.
He said the government urgently needed to improve its performance in various fronts.

“The first and foremost priority of this government should be to hold decisive talks at the top political level with the disgruntled Madhesi parties,” Adhikari told Republica.

He urged the government to find alternative measures to address the ongoing supply crisis and sort out effective and sustainable solutions. Adhikari has been taken by surprise at the government’s failure to internationalize the ongoing crisis caused by the economic blockade.

“The other urgent task is to immediately form the Reconstruction Authority and expedite the task of rehabilitation and reconstruction in a war-footing level,” he said.

Since the country is facing national crisis, the major ruling parties should take genuine initiatives to improve relations with the major opposition party, Nepali Congress, when it comes to dealing with the national issues, he said.

Also, UML lawmaker Rajan Bhattarai, who is believed to be a member of Oli’s core group within the party, isn’t impressed by the government’s performance so far.

“The government has become slow and it has become urgent to speed up its pace before the public loses its patience,” said Bhattarai.
Bhattarai said that the government may get an excuse for its slow pace as the prime minister was engaged in elections of president, vice-president, speaker and deputy speaker and other political issues.

According to Bhattarai, Oli has failed to give momentum to the government also because he has had to spend his energy for internal management of the party.

“It was only yesterday that the party had mandated to nominate ministers in consultation with other top leaders,” Bhattarai said, adding, “The public may lose patience if the government doesn’t speeds up its performance soon.”