On With The Tasks
THE much-awaited expansion of the council of ministers has taken place, with the new
members set to equip the present government with further experience, knowledge and skills
that it requires to tackle a multitude of challenges. His Majesty the King, on the
recommendation of Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand, added 13 new faces Monday to the
Council of Ministers in accordance with Article 127 of the Constitution. Prior to this,
the cabinet was functioning with much fewer hands than what was required. Understandably,
the burden on most of the ministers was bigger than normal. With the induction of 13 new
members to the council various ministries now can expect much greater attention from their
ministers, drawn from various spheres- business, politics, professionals etc. The tasks
for each minister, whichever ministry he or she may be handling, are more than handful.
People now will naturally hope that, with the added strength, the Chand administration
gets into full gear in tackling various tasks.
The major ones among them, as Prime Minister Chand said at a
meeting of representatives of international development agencies on Monday, are: adopting
a more integrated and comprehensive approach to security and development, enhancing the
reach and development-penetration to the seriously affected people and places, funneling
down more resources to the grass-roots level and improving the delivery system with the
help of local participation and decentralisation process. These actions are important as
bad governance, poverty and exclusion, were some of the key reasons that provided fertile
ground for the deterioration of the present law and order situation in the country.
Indeed, tackling these myriad tasks should fully exercise the minds of the newly-expanded
cabinet. The recently-announced relief package and economic reforms have gone in some way
to address the people's immediate needs and some weaknesses on the economic front. Mr.
Chand reiterated the government's commitment to hold general and local elections free,
fair and fearless environment to create which it was seeking to improve the security
situation with cooperation of political forces, civil society and the business community
as well as the international community. The yet again declaration of this commitment and
his indication that the anti-corruption efforts are to widen must have struck the right
chord in the community of development agencies working in Nepal who have expressed their
wish, time and again over the past years, that the government should embark upon
comprehensive programmes to address the people's most basic needs and promote good
governance. For even more visible signs of a positive turnaround in the way this nation is
governed, the new government should earnestly get on with the urgent tasks without any
let-up.
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