Pic: Bikram Rai

From the Nepali Press

www.onlinekhabar.com  (4 August)

Hours after being sworn in as Nepal’s 39^th Prime Minister on Thursday, Pushpa Kamal Dahal made four decisions: to carry out ‘the government for the people’ program, provide the first instalments of the reconstruction grants to 533,000 earthquake-affected families within the next 45 days, mobilise doctors in all Primary Health Care Centres, and encourage registration of births by offering allowances to the Dalits.

It is customary for every new PM to make one decision right after assuming office. With his four, new PM Dahal showed that he is more ambitious than his predecessors. But will his decisions be implemented? To find out the answer, it would be helpful to review the first decisions made by his predecessors, and whether they were or are being implemented.

When he became PM for the first time in 2008, Dahal’s first decision was to get the new constitution promulgated by the first Constituent Assembly itself. But the first CA was dissolved four years later without a constitution in place.

Madhav Kumar Nepal, who became PM after Dahal stepped down, decided to build a memorial in Ratna Park to honour those killed during the struggle for republicanism. But his earliest decision as the country’s executive chief is still in limbo.

After Nepal’s resignation, Jhalnath Khanal became PM, and his first decision was to build a tunnel road connecting the Thankot depot of Nepal Oil Corporation with the East West Highway at Jhyaple Khola of Dhading. But he had to resign in just seven months. And the successors did not follow up on his decision.

The first decision of Baburam Bhattarai, who succeeded Khanal, was to implement the United Nations Convention against Corruption. He also prepared guidelines for this, but no progress was made after his resignation.

The then-Chief Justice Khila Raj Regmi — who headed an interim government to hold the second CA elections — decided to prepare guidelines to distribute financial assistance. The guidelines were also put in place. But his successors did not follow them.

After the second CA elections, Sushil Koirala became PM. His first decision was to upload receipts for bills amounting to more than Rs 5,000 each, on the websites of the ministries concerned. This is the only decision that is being implemented even now.

The first decision of KP Oli, who became PM after the promulgation of the new constitution, was to replace all the 171 twin-rope crossings with suspension bridges across the country. But only three were replaced during his nine-month tenure.