Sluggish act

The Himalayan Times

11 January 2018

Sluggish act

It is not new for the people of Tarai districts to be awfully gripped by cold wave during winter and massively displaced by floods in monsoon every year. The local people face extreme hardship in these seasons. Many of them even lose their lives due to such natural calamities. There can be nothing done to stop these natural calamities. Nonetheless, the number of people dying from such calamities could be minimized if timely precautionary and necessary measures could be taken by the government and the concerned authorities. In Nepal, this does not happen in the need of the hour.

It was so sad and unfortunate to know that over two dozen people have already died due to extreme cold in several Tarai districts over the past few days. If the mercury continues to drop, more people will lose lives due to lack of warm clothes, proper foods and appropriate shelters. Now, the government is preparing to give relief to the affected districts “Govt to release worth Rs. 22.2 million to victims” (THT, January 9, Page 2). Why does the government not act in time? Why does it wait until people die? Why don’t the District Disaster Management Committees (DDMCs) quickly assess the situation and start reaching out to the needy people in time? Don’t they realise that every winter brings cold waves in the Tarai districts, effecting the lives of the poor people?

Was it necessary for the government to wait for the President showing her concern about the loss of lives in Tarai and then only act after its attention was drawn to the deaths of the people? as your story “Prez concerned about loss of lives in Tarai” (THT, January 9, Page 2) says? It seems that the future government needs to formulate appropriate policy and programme to decentralise its authority to DDMCs so that necessary relief materials can reach the needy people in time to ensure that nobody loses his/her life due to cold waves. 

Rai Biren Bangdel

Maharajgunj

https://thehimalayantimes.com/opinion/letters-sluggish-act/