Enhancing Efficiency

MINISTER for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Mahesh Lal Pradhan asked the chiefs of different public enterprises under the Ministry of Industry to enhance their efficiency and improve quality. At a meeting with the chiefs of the public enterprises the other day, Minister Pradhan said that since the objective of the present government is to ensure efficient administration and swift services to the people, the public enterprises also need to change their working styles and provide better services to the people. At a time when performances of many public enterprises have not been satisfactory, the remarks and instruction of Minister Pradhan carry special significance. It is beyond any shade of doubt that the performance of the public enterprises has been very poor. Some public enterprises have not even been able to pay the salaries of their employees. There are several reasons behind the poor performance and failure of the public enterprises. One of them is political intervention. There are instances that politicians often misused their authorities to turn the public enterprises into a recruiting ground for the workers of the party in power. Loyalty to the party or person in power was made the basic criteria for the appointments of chiefs in the public enterprises. In such a situation, it was not possible to expect good performance and results in the organisation. Gone are the days of monopoly. This is the age of competition and every enterprise must compete and accordingly survive. But public enterprises have not been able to compete with the private enterprises. If you fail in competition you cannot survive. Thus, our public enterprises must also be competitive. In order to survive in the competition, performance must be enhanced. His Majesty's Government has adopted the policy of economic reform package which promotes competition in the economic sector. Under the policy of economic liberalisation, the government has decided to privatise some public enterprises in order to improve performance and raise productivity. Against this background, Minister Pradhan has also asked the chiefs of some sick public enterprises to prepare a detailed report and frame necessary strategy for reforms and improvement of their performance. One of the major tasks the chiefs of public enterprises need to do is to check the leakage and corruption, and the most important job that the government needs to do is to discourage unnecessary political intervention. Merit and qualification must be promoted and encouraged. This would definitely lead the public enterprises in the right direction.

Crime: The Drug Link

THE Kathmandu Valley's population growth rate is the highest in the country due chiefly to internal migration, that has gone up especially in recent years because of the security situation which propels many people to make it their home. But even under normal circumstances, the bright lights of Kathmandu always served as beacons to many youths to gravitate towards and try their luck at employment. With increasing urbanisation and thickening population density of the Valley, the high unemployment rate, the breakdown of social fabric, influence of consumerism and so on have all combined to make it a place with the highest crime rate in the country. Sociologists and criminologists have been witnessing a disturbing trend over the years as the crime rate went up and up on account of various factors. However, it has come as a pleasant surprise that the Valley's crime rate this year shows a decline of over 25 per cent compared to last year. It appears that the reduction is thanks to a programme that the police have launched with partnership with the public. According to Valley Crime Investment Branch (VCIB), the Public-Police Partnership Programme that it has promoted in 38 places of the Valley, has yielded good results. Under the programme, many members of the public are encouraged to be informers. At the same time plainclothes police are deployed as sleuths round the clock.

As a result of increasing public cooperation in informing the police about incidents, hoolinganism, for instance, has also declined by 26 per cent this year. All this is good news. However, some of the findings of the Crime Pattern Analysis that VCIB did not be borne in mind in tackling the Valley's crime rate in the days ahead. The analysis revealed that the highest number of people found involved in the criminal activities are in the age group 18-25, with most of them Kathmandu youths. Some 60 per cent of the crimes were committed by drug addicts while only 30 per cent was commited by those motivated by poverty. This clearly shows that efforts at containing the vicious clutches of drug abuse must be stepped up. Very often, those youths in the grip of drug abuse, have little sense of what is right and wrong. To satiate their hunger for drugs, they easily turn to crimes. The Valley's crime rate could further go down, if the drug ring could be broken and more youths could be saved from this menace by sensitisation and awareness programme. This is where the police would do well to focus on in the months ahead, if it is to make a further dent on the Valley's crime rate.