The Nepali people were shaken by the April earthquake which was followed by innumerable aftershocks that are now mellowing after eight months. But the human response to the disaster was very slow, and it is still compounded by utter negligence and political bias. There may not be earthquakes of the same intensity in the foreseeable future. But the negligence of quake victims seems to have no end in sight. This is crueler than nature’s hit because it had no bias.

Quake response

Let me be more specific. The initial response to the earthquake was prompt and it was supported by the internatioanl community. Our security forces fought nature’s wrath with courage and speed, and saved many lives that would otherwise have been lost under the rubble of smashed buildings. Our government and the people too showed tremendous courage in fighting the calamity. We showed the world that the Nepalis are resilient people. The quake caused greater devastation in rural areas than in Kathmandu. It was a proud feeling to see hordes of boys and girls from Kathmandu going to help rural victims. In a sense, the quake created a deep awakening in the Nepali people.

The international rescue and relief response was so huge that many a squad had to be sent back from Kathmandu airport because they could not be accommodated in the rush. It was followed by mobilisation of financial support for reconstruction and rehabilitation. An international meeting of donors held in Kathmandu by the government pledged Rs 4.4 billion which would not have been enough to rebuild everything that had been destroyed, but it was enough to get started. Some donors also seemed willing to reconstruct some of the World Heritage Sites in addition to the sum committed at the meeting.

Then the usual Nepali complacency reappeared. It took so long to decide whether the regular bureaucracy or an autonomous authority would deliver the required services better that the donors threatened to return with their promised support. The government eventually created the autonomous National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) with an ordinance which had to be endorsed by Parliament within 60 days. This did not happen and the Reconstruction Authority timed out. The much-awaited authority is still in limbo. This is the poorest show of the efficiency of the government.

Haste makes waste

Yes, there was pressure on the government to finalise and promulgate the constitution. The government rushed the constitution through the Constituent Assembly (CA) by skipping many needed steps, and a very limited time was given for the ventilation of popular feelings. The CA itself was not given sufficient time for deliberation. The country is currently paying a heavy price for that haste. The Madhesi issue should, and could, have been solved in the CA had the top leaders been more serious about it. The top leaders exhibited an overt lack of maturity and clear vision, and Madhesi leaders are reaping the harvest by creating anarchy in the Tarai. They have been emboldened by the government of India which has imposed an undeclared embargo on the import of essential goods and services into Nepal.

The so-called Madhesi Movement and Indian embargo are political issues that need to be settled politically internally and diplomatically in the Indian context. But that is not the focus of this article. Instead, it is the plight of the earthquake victims.

There is no denying that the whole country has suffered from the prolonged Madhesi Movement and the Indian embargo, but the hardest hit are the earthquake survivors who have had to live in poorly built temporary shacks and face a severe winter ahead. A substantial number of the victims are reportedly yet to receive the initial support of Rs 15,000 given by the government for immediate relief and help to build temporary sheds.

Politicisation of reconstruction

The government has allocated Rs 7 billion for reconstruction this fiscal year; but with the Reconstruction Authority bill pending, there is no agency to make use of the money even though five months of the fiscal year have already passed. More than half a million people have to rebuild their houses, and they are now living in temporary shacks in great discomfort. Their plight has been aggravated to the extreme by the dipping mercury. The delay in the formation of the Authority and the disuse of the budget is the result of an inexcusable lack of efficiency and utter negligence on the part of the government. Nay, it is an obvious result of political bias on the part of the political parties that are responsible for running the state.

The main hurdle in the path of recreating the Reconstruction Authority is the dispute over who will head it. Initially, Govinda Pokhrel who was also the vice-chairman of the National Planning Commission (NPC) was appointed as CEO of the Authority. He had been selected by the Sushil Koirala government, the president of the Nepali Congress (NC). The party has opted to remain in the opposition after the promulgation of the constitution. Following a (wrong) tradition, Pokhrel has been replaced by Yubraj Khatiwada as the vice-chairman of the NPC. While negotiating the reinstatement of the Authority, the main hurdle was the NC’s insistence on retaining Pokhrel as the CEO and the disagreement of the new government headed by Prime Minister KP Oli, the chairman of the CPN-UML. The bitterness was so profound that even when the agitating Madhesi Morcha agreed to table and pass the Reconstruction Bill in Parliament, the NC protested by claiming that it should go together with the Constitution Amendment Bill. Eventually, the two bills were forcibly tabled together and the Madhesi Morcha walked out in protest. Fortunately, the Reconstruction Bill has been approved by Parliament and the nation awaits is prompt implementation.

The succession of the chief of the Reconstruction Authority is not clear at this stage. Even so, the Authority has to spend the allocated funds and provide relief to the victims of the deadly earthquake. Given the habit of the Nepali bureaucracy, the Authority might face petty obstacles in getting clearance from the regular channels, particularly the Ministry of Finance. Although the Authority is supposedly autonomous, the support pledged by donors and the budget has to pass through the ministry, the epitome of red tape. So one can only hope that in the next phase of reconstruction, every agency and person involved will work with full empathy with the victims.