By Golu Thapa Magar
In spite of a good leader like Balen Shah leading the government, the country still seems in shambles. Of course the government has announced some long-term policies to uplift the country; the common people are not feeling any relief through the government decisions. What they want is immediate actions to make their day to day living better in different other aspects.
We have mentioned time and again, certain issues that directly affect the life of the common people. Like for instance, hundreds of thousands people have no access to better health facilities even in district headquarters and also in capital Kathmandu. Most medical institutions are being for profits only. It is the same with schools and colleges which concentrate more on making money rather than educating their students
The situation has been aggravated by vision less politicians and greedy civil servants. The country can least bear the huge expenses being made by the government for useless projects which actually are not beneficial for the general people, at least for now when they are going through difficult times.
However many people accept the fact that the government has started well by arresting even high profile leaders, like for example how they arrested former finance minister Bishnu Poudel from a public gathering which he was attending as one of the top leaders of UML. Poudel has been remanded to police custody for a week but what people hope is he should be punished severely if he is found guilty of the crimes he has been accused of.
Not very long ago, he had called himself a landless person who now owns a lavish bungalow in Kathmandu itself besides having land in the name of his families in many other places of the country. How did he accomplish this? He surely must be involved in corruption as per reports and thus he should receive the harshest punishment for the government to set an example so that he would not be released like many other politicians and civil servants before him.
The government should show its seriousness in implementing the action it has taken against corruption.
Many others should also be arrested not only for a short period of time, they should also be made to pay double amount of fine as per the funds they have embezzled.
This includes also the highest level of police personnel and civil servants.
For example even during the Maoist civil war individuals like the then IGP Achyut Kharel and Home Secretary Padam Prasad Pokhrel made a lot of money illegally by making fake claims about how they hired helicopters to tour the Maoist areas like Rolpa and Rukum area for instance.
We are not asking for the death penalty like in many other countries, we are only suggesting that there should be stiff punishment which will deter for getting involved in such acts which are against the people and nation. People who are involved in such acts should not be jailed for long periods but also made to pay hefty fines. This should not only discourage others from being involved in corruption case but also make the country save revenue and belittle the rampant difficulties the nation and the people have been facing because of the action of such corrupt people.
Even if an individual is the former prime minister, he should not be allowed to go scot free. They must be punished like any other ordinary people who have been accused of breaking the law.
Similarly Ex-Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and Arzoo Deuba also must be brought to justice. Just because Sher Bahadur Deuba has been prime minister for five times, he cannot be pardoned. His wife Arzoo Deuba has also been allegedly been of involvement in many huge scandals. It is the same with the case of ex-prime minister Puspha Kamal Dahal, still the commander of Maoist Party who has been accused of not only corruption and nepotism but also of the heinous crime of killing thousands of innocent people.
If the country is to get out of such horrible situation, then every guilty person has to be punished. They were leaders and decision maker of the past but also people from the present reformist government.
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