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Kathmandu Saturday February 02, 2002 Magh 20, 2058.
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Misplaced plan and programmes
By PROF M L SINGH
Though Nepal completed the implementation of
Ninth Plan and is soon to embark on the Tenth Plan, it is still the world’s third
poorest country because more than 50 percent of its population continue to live under
poverty. The reasons for this unfortunate state are: (a) Plans are highly centralized and
most of the development works are centred in some selected areas only. They are often
formulated without making need assessments of the concerned people and provisions of
maximum utilization of the local material and human resources.
(b) The priority areas covered by the plans are
the development of roads, agriculture and education. Many plans exist only on documents
with wonderful policies and targets but far from ground realities. Also major plans/
projects are sponsored by donor agencies. Donor agencies manipulate the proposed policies
and targets of the plans to suit their interests.
(c) There is no continuity in plan’s
policies. Successive governments often manipulate the priorities set in the plan and, in
many instances, the plans are discontinued. Also most of the plans/projects, instead of
being public oriented, are capital oriented. As a consequence, only a few privileged
people enjoy the benefits from the programmes implemented. Administrative cost while
implementing plans often exceeds the technical cost. It is said that only 25 percent of
the cost allocated for a project are spent on actual work.
While a few regions of the country manage to
develop and some people are getting benefits from the plans, most of regions have remained
unaffected by these plans and people in these regions are living under subsistence level.
Due to the adoption of a capitalistic approach in development plans, the gap between the
rich and the poor is increasing day after day, creating dangerous social and economic
imbalances in the country. One reason of the present Maoist movement may be due to
frustrations created as a result of increasing gap between the rich and the poor.
Plans/projects formulated and implemented are
often of such nature that all materials required are to be imported from foreign
countries. As a result, a substantial amount of money is draining out of this country.
Also in most cases, the economic benefits generated from such plans are less than the
investment and maintenance costs incurred. Besides, the products in neighbouring countries
are much cheaper than the similar products produced in this country. This means Nepalese
products are not getting proper markets even in this country.
There are a few attempts to utilize Nepal’s
own human resources in the development works. A large number of Nepalese labourers are not
only migrating to India and Arab countries but also to Australia, the US and the UK. This
is creating a critical population polarization in the country. Lack of skilled labour
force in the country is attracting labourers from neighbouring India thus accelerating the
volume of immigrants in this country. This indicates that there are plenty of works in
Nepal for foreigners but not to Nepalese themselves. This is a classic example of
misplaced planning.
All these facts indicate that the development
plans implemented in the country are not in consonance with country’s needs but such
plans have been misplacing the general people, widening the gap between rich and poor.
Most of the development plans should be of local
in nature. Different plans for different places should be launched according to the
resources available there. Assessments and surveys of local resources - both material and
human - should be made before launching a local level planning.
Local human resources should be tapped and the
skills of local people should be upgraded to make them competent enough to take part in
the development of their locality. Activities should be launched so as to retain the
population in their locality. Also attitude of the people should be changed, giving
preferences to white colour jobs to labour intensive jobs, along with due respect and
dignity for any kind of work.
Instead of adopting foreign models of
development, plans in Nepal should be based on its own models and requirements. Also the
development activities should be changed from tradition prioritised sectors to new
sectors. For instance, agriculture practices in hills should be changed from traditional
cropping to new activities such as fruit, herbal cropping, animal farming, etc. Products
produced by these practices will definitely have unchallenged markets in the neighbouring
countries. Along with roads, rope ways should be developed. Production and consumer
centres should be linked with such ropeways.
As far as possible, minimum priorities should be
given to foreign sponsored projects and any political interference in development plans
should be taken seriously. Since the planning are to be based on population parameters,
major population data at local level should be made available regularly in short periods.
For this purpose, VDCs and municipalities should be given the tasks of maintaining records
of the population in their localities every six months as regards to population size,
births, deaths, migrants as well as their potentialities and the publications of the data
every year. This activity should not be confused with the existing vital registration
system practised in this country.
Present practice of depending on foreign aids
and loans for launching development works in Nepal should be discontinued. Major expenses
for the development works can be met by generating income through immediate development of
Lumbini area alone. There are millions of devoted Buddhists all over the world who want to
make pilgrimage to Lumbini and spend their money in Nepal. In spite of such income
generation potentiality of Lumbini, it is not understood why actual development of this
area has not taken place though many plans and programmes to develop it have been
formulated since the last four decades.
Let us stop making Nepalese confused with
nonsense plans and programmes. Seminars, inaugural ceremonies and lectures are making our
lives more complicated. Irrational new acts, rules and regulations in administration have
further turned things from bad to worse. What Nepal to day needs is peace and development.
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