By Narayan Prasad Mishra

Most European and American countries have some problems with nature and weather. In the winter, they get heavy snow, and the temperature goes down up to minus 24 Celsius. Because of that, sometimes, the power breaks down, and people suffer from the cold and necessary supplies. In the summer, they get heat waves, hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods. Despite good governance and excellent management, they would sometimes be in trouble beyond human power to save people’s lives and property. But the people hardly get problems because of the mismanagement and absence of the government. They have good governance and the rule of law.

We do not have such problems in general though once in many decades, we also get earthquakes, and sometimes, in the rainy season, we get heavy rain, landslides, and floods. But we have innumerable problems of mismanagement, bad governance, corruption, wrongdoings, and the absence of a government in the country. Most of our problems originate from mismanagement and the absence of the government. When we keep our eyes open without sleep before going to bed or when we open our eyes after a good sleep, a variety of disturbing thoughts come to our mind about the problems we must face because of the absence of government in the country. Everyone experiences it more or less every day. We become helpless.

We know that people have been facing enormous difficulties with long lines and many hours waiting for passports, driving licenses, and paying taxes – including property, vehicle, or other taxes. Recently we heard that our newly appointed Deputy and Home Minister Ravi Lamichhane showed timely concern about those problems and for making it easy for the people. We all know those problems are due to mismanagement and corruption. We hardly see it in developed countries. There are many problems, like those in municipality offices, land offices, survey offices, water offices, electricity offices, police offices, hospitals, courts, and many other administrative offices. They are also examples of the absences of the government. We learn more about these problems when we or our close, near, and dear are involved.

I am seriously disturbed by some problems these days. I think they all are the problems arising from bad governance or the absence of government.

1. My life-long earned money was deposited with Civil Savings and Credit Cooperative Ltd., run under Ichha Raj Tamang, the ex-parliamentarian of the Nepal Communist Party (UML), who is now in custody according to the court’s decision. He raised about 8 billion rupees from the depositors. He invested the money in building the Civil Mall, CTC Mall, Dharahara Luxury Apartment, and many other housing and apartments, buying land and bank shares. He earned billions of rupees renting and selling. He also took other billions of rupees in his hand by placing collateral for the remaining parts of those buildings in the banks. Besides, according to the news report, he showed a little property in his name, displayed separation from his wife legally, and transferred his property to his wife and two daughters. He said he does not have money to pay the depositors their principal and interest and is not responsible for paying them though he needs to pay according to the court’s verdict. That is visibly seen as a case of contempt of the court and as a case of lying and cheating.

I think if this case occurred in developed countries, the responsible government would take all his property under government control and pay the depositors money without delay. It would not be that the depositors need to go to court to get the deposited money to the government-registered organization. That is not a topic of controversy about whether the depositors deposited the money to his organization. It is recorded in his documents, and we have his receipts and statements for the money we own. I think that is not the case which should be in court. In this simple case, we all have been moving around different levels of offices and courts – Department of Cooperative, Bagamati Pradesh Sarkar, District Court, High Court, etc. with many worries, agony, humiliation, and torture. If there is a lack of laws, rules, and regulations to take action against the culprit and punish, or if there are provisions of laws that prevent taking action against the culprit, the government should immediately study it. They should be able to amend or formulate new practicable laws without delay, punish the culprit and give justice to the sufferers by paying the deposited money.

2. I was born, grew up, and had an education in Bhaktapur and am a true Bhaktapurean though I live at Balkhu, in Kathmandu now. I have some land at Katunje, Bhaktapur. After the earthquake of April 15, 2015, Krishna Gosai of Bhaktapur city, the former tenant of that land before I owned it, requested me to make a shed for their temporary living as his house was not in a living condition because of the damage made by the earthquake. With a good heart, I permitted him to make a shed and live there. How could I deny him to make a shed in that condition being a man of helpful attitude, honesty, and integrity?

When I asked him to remove the shed as he now had built his city house and moved there, instead of being obliged to my generosity, he threatened me showing his connection with some gangs and political parties taking the law into his own hands as if we have no government in the country. He asked me to give him some portion of land or cash; otherwise, he would give me more trouble as his group and gang are more powerful than the government. He even tried to create fear in my mind that I would have to repent later if I did not fulfill his demand. I do not know yet which gang or party is behind him and from whom he is getting support and strength in his deplorable behavior, as I have not been able to go there after it. Imagine, if someone can speak like this in the Kathmandu Valley against the law, how would the situation be in the villages and remote areas? Until now, I have not complained against him in any place and do not know how the government and its offices will take this case and punish the person taking the law into his hand without fear in the capital. I think this atmosphere appeared in the country because of the different groups formed by the political parties and misused them against the rule of law. In this context, I would like to request all political parties with youth wings, like YCL, Youth Force, and Nepal Tarun Dal, to note my case and be aware of wrongdoers against the law of the land and punish them without delay. I would also like to request all concerned government offices, CDO, Police, and Municipality’s Ward Office to be more vigilant of this type of people in the country. Otherwise, the Mobocracy will flourish in the country, not the Democracy.

3. The underground drilling work has been going on in my area- Unversity Road (Kalimati-Balkhu) for an underground electric line. When they drilled at Balkhu Chok in front of my house, unfortunately, they lifted my drinking water pipeline and damaged it badly. I did not have drinking water for almost a month, from December 14, 2022, to January 11, 2023. I called Bikas Adhikari, the man supervising the working site; they said they did whatever they could to fix my pipeline and would not do more. I was astonished to hear it. Then I called another senior supervisor Sunil. He said he would get the work done, but he did not.

I suffered because of their fault and had no water for a month, which was essential for life. I did not know whom to approach for this problem – Underground Drilling Project, Nepal Electricity Authority Office, Nepal Khanepani Office, Municipality, etc. I knew even if I reported it to the Nepal Drinking Water Office, they would give me more trouble – sending me to the road office to get road permission for digging with a lot of money deposit, then hiring the laborers and digging the road and after arranging a car to bring their staff to the site, giving a token of money whatever the amount the person from the water office asked for Khaja Kharchha (amount for tea and snacks), etc. There would be so many problems one could hardly imagine. So I suppressed my suffering and intolerance and still tried to get the work done by the people who damaged the pipeline keeping my grumbling in my mind about the absence of good governance. I called and called them dozens of times until January 11. But they did not do except assurance. At last, I got the work fixed by hiring some other person on January 11 and got some water though there is still some leakage

4. According to the schedule, we get drinking water once a week, Wednesday, for a few hours in my locality. On Wednesday, January 5, our locality was supposed to get water, and that day, the unthinkable muddy water came into the tap for about ten minutes and then stopped. There was no water supply that day in the locality. I would not have water even if the water were supplied that day, as my pipeline had not been fixed. No one knew where to approach or complain, and people were puzzled to experience this irresponsibility of the concerned office.
5. The sewage pipe was blocked on the main road, and the area near my home was stinky. I heard the water office is supposed to take care of this problem, but you need to know some influential person to get things done. We gave the application to the sewage section of the Nepal Drinking Water Office on January 9 in Patan, and the staff in the office asked the applicant who went to that office – they would send someone tomorrow. The next day, a man from the office called the applicant, asking whether he would give a tip for tea and snacks (Khaja kharcha), and without that, they would not be able to come as the work would be difficult. When the applicant asked how much they needed to give, the caller said he got Rs 5000/- when he did the work for others. Think and guess how much he would ask for a launch or dinner when he asked for Rs 5000 just for tea and snacks. Imagine! If you say you will not give the amount he asked and complain against him, he will not come showing a long line of applicants for the work, and you will get more problems. We are in that situation in the country and are bound to bribe the people in the name of Khaja Kharchha to get the work done. So I strongly think that we must have an easily accessible place to complain that takes care of our problems without fail. But we do not have that, and life is not easy anywhere in our corrupt country.
6. For work, people must go to different offices and markets – Kathmandu District Court, CDO Office, Municipality, Transportation Office, shopping centers, etc. There are no parking spaces anywhere, inside or outside. We face the parking problem wherever we go. The traffic police are not permitting people to park their vehicles even on the broad road where you do not see traffic jams because of the parking on the roadside, like Kalimati-Kuleshwor Ganesh Road, and they give you a ticket. I think a system without a solution to the problem is a flawed system. I am scared to go anywhere with my car when I remember it. No one seems to think to solve this problem as if we have no problem.

These are some examples of the country’s bad governance and absence of government. There are unlimited numbers of problems. Different people face different problems and try to keep quiet as they see there is no place to complain. When they complain, they get more problems. That is the situation in our land. The situation should not be like this if we want true democracy and good governance. The government must show its presence of the government everywhere.

I hope to have a great beginning to establishing good governance this time, as K. P. Sharma Oli, ex-prime minister and the chairman of the Nepal Communist Party (UML), the main hero of creating the present government, has been forcefully speaking for it. The present Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has been assuring the people that he will not make happen any wrongdoing in the country. I hope the new government will show its presence visibly and encourage the people to participate actively; according to the assurances given to the people by our deputy prime ministers Narayan Kazi Shrestha, Rabi Lamichhane that they are determined to establish good governance in the country. I also hope their speaking and action will not be different from now on.

narayanshanti70@gmail.com

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