Tale of Two Ministers

It was a nice evening yesterday. I went all to Soaltee to listen to two ministers all the in the rain. And I found two jokers, begging for alms there.

One was Dr Ram Sharan Mahat. He had a lot of things to say. He says that we need all - big hydro-projects to export electricity to India, medium-size projects to consume in our cities and small projects to electrify small villages. He knows all that. I bet, we did his doctorate in the importance of hydro-electricity projects and this is why he was made finance minister, without counting the votes he earned. What else he can say? There are much to preach to criticise others. But he cannot say one thing. He cannot say how much Finance Ministry is going to invest in developing one single hydroelectricity plant in the year to come. This is indeed a fun time for the ministers. They don't' have to do anything than assuring that the election of the Constituent Assembly will take place in time (may by mid November these days). Thank God, he did not have anything to say that Severn Trend is the best company to handle Kathmandu Valley's water.

And then the great Environment minister Mahantha Thakur. What else he could say? He sincerely read out the handout he was given with. All he could do was to beg the European Commission to extend the project of Renewable Energy Project. Very honestly, he did what he was told to.

Friends, I lately came to know that the whole programme was held (in the invitation, it was said that a workshop was taking place) to pressure the donors, that is, European Commission, to extend the project, which is scheduled to be complete by 31 December 2008. As the government and the NGOs were more busy in enjoying the project facilities (loot ko dhan phoopu ko shreaddha), the government fails to complete it in the given time and there was no other option than to beg the donors for more money (to swim in the dollar-pool) for some more years.

And you see, the failure project implementers had at least money to host a cocktail dinner at the Soaltee hotel ! This is Nepal, man, try to understand.