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Garbage management is one among many sectors of national life that is directly linked with the right to health, one of the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution. Without an iota of doubt, it is the duty of the state to safeguard this and other fundamental rights. Without a doubt, this right is for both the people living at the sources of waste as well as those living close to waste disposal sites. But this right, like other fundamental rights, has remained largely on paper. Waste collection and disposal coming to a halt has ceased to be news despite its serious impact on public health, especially at a time when the threat of coronavirus and other health risks are lurking. Imagine, for example, the situation in the Kathmandu Valley, which is home to millions of people and produces 1, 200 tons of waste daily—15-20 percent of it is recyclable—when waste collection and disposal comes to a halt. Avoiding such a situation requires increased coordination and cooperation between different tiers of the government, including the federal government, Kathmandu Metropolitan City and the local government, communities living close to the disposal sites, political parties as well as security apparatuses. Without a seamless coordination and cooperation, waste management is bound to come to a halt, much to the detriment of a large population. Forget seamlessness in this crucial task, even working coordination and cooperation between the federal government and the KMC seems to be a far cry as a recent, much-publicized spat between Mayor Balen Shah and Singhadurbar shows. Citing indifference on the part of Singhadurbar toward concerns regarding waste management, Mayor Shah has made it loud and clear that KMC will not collect garbage from nerve centers of the state, namely Singhadurbar and the Presidential Palace, unless the center addresses KMC’s concerns. Singha Durbar, on its part, has deemed Shah’s move as irresponsible and reminded him of KMC’s responsibility. This episode has once again shown that garbage management is a multi-lane way requiring all sides to work together for an obstruction-free traffic movement. Apart from concerns of people at the source, people living around disposal sites also have their concerns related to public health and the environment. Addressing conflicting concerns may not be easy, but there’s no shortcut to this problem. More often than not, political parties have faced charges of politicizing issues surrounding garbage management for petty gains. The onus is on them to mend ways and raise genuine concerns of the public. Waste management in urban centers like the valley will require short-term, medium-term and long-term plans. The policy of reducing, reusing and recycling non-degradable waste may help mitigate the problem apart from the promotion of greener alternatives. For now, the onus is on the feuding parties to sit together and prevent the conflict from aggravating further, in the larger interest of the public.

Open sewer lines. People, including senior citizens, women and children, waiting in long queues for their turn. Discarded materials scattered in the entrails. Stinking toilets. Poor infrastructure. An utter absence of occupational health and safety measures. A perennial lack of human resources. Most importantly, mismanagement presiding over the chaos. Well, this is our diagnosis of two government-run hospitals—Civil Service Hospital and Bir Hospital. Let’s delve a little deeper into the matter. The recent ApEx report titled ‘Civil Service Hospital Crowded like a fair’ points that the 112-bed hospital has been serving more than 1,000 people daily, despite a chronic lack of infrastructure and human resources required to cater to a burgeoning crowd of patients. What’s more, there’s a long list of patients awaiting surgery, for months. The hospital administration remains upbeat, nonetheless. It hopes that many of these problems will be gone once its plan to develop a 10-storey building with 1,000 beds materializes. What’s hindering the ambitious project? The government’s inability to approve a budget for the same. Our diagnosis of Bir is that the country’s oldest hospital is also gravely ill. In the course of roughly two decades, the condition of the hospital’s main building has gone worse from bad, what with taps either broken or leaking, stinking loos that are literally open with bolts of the doors gone and tap water that is murky as the report titled Bir Hospital must change itself to deliver quality services points. Add to these spectacles people holding medical reports while assisting their sick relatives to walk, senior citizens sitting on the floor (for want of chairs) or wandering aimlessly wearing confused expressions on their faces, long queues outside counters and inadequate infrastructure for wheelchair-bound patients. Worryingly, the above-mentioned points are a pointer to a systemic disease. They show that the country’s public health system is seriously ill. Per records, 32,218 MBBS and BDS doctors, and 10,080 specialist doctors are registered with the Nepal Medical Council, while 73,889 nurses and 1,326 specialized nurses are registered with the Nepal Nursing Council. Many of these professionals have left the country in search of greener pastures. Summing up, the sorry state of affairs at the two hospitals paints an alarming picture of the public health system. While the medical fraternity has a crucial role to change things for the better, the government should play a lead role to fix the system before it’s too late. The focus should be on improving public health infrastructure and curbing the outflow of human resources associated with the sector.  

A couple of days ago, Speaker Dev Raj Ghimire made the headlines.  His remarks that Nepal’s journalists are for sale created some stir in the gradually calming waters of Nepal’s fourth estate. If getting media publicity was his intent, he should pat himself on his back.   Interestingly, the Speaker’s ‘quotable quote’ came during his meeting with a delegation from the Federation of Nepali Journalists that had gone all the way to the Parliament Secretariat last Friday to meet him.  The harsh remarks coming from Speaker Ghimire during a courtesy call perhaps show how disenchanted he is with the independent media.  Had it not been for ‘up for sale remarks’, the free media could have thanked itself, at least, for making the helmsman of one of the three organs of the state uncomfortable. The lion’s share of the credit would surely have gone to the FNJ. What a proud moment that would have been! Lambasting the remarks, FNJ demanded that the Speaker either substantiate the allegation or apologize for such irresponsible comments.  With no word coming from the Speaker since then, the chapter remains pretty open.  The Speaker is neither the only high-profile figure to attack the media, nor he will be the last. Not so long ago, it was on the cross-hairs of an up-and-coming politician. Before him too, many politicians have spared no opportunity to target the media.    Whenever such attacks come from vantage points, the independent media faces increased hostilities on social media and much beyond, putting media houses and journalists associated with them at heightened risks. The media has seen it all, in Nepal and beyond.    While the Speaker should have been more specific instead of coming up with a generalized remark against the entire fraternity, his remarks should prompt some soul-searching.  How effective has the FNJ been when it comes to playing the role of the umbrella organization of journalists? What can it do to raise genuine concerns of journalists related to their safety, security and livelihoods more powerfully? Have its office-bearers indeed been playing apolitical roles, snapping their umbilical cords with political parties of different hues and shades? Introspection makes more sense at a time when the free press is facing increased threats in the region and much beyond, from the state and non-state actors enjoying the support of the government, in many cases.  Soul-searching should not end there, though. High officials like the Speaker have it in their powers to make the state more accountable to the public. As the permanent opposition, the free media can play a crucial role in this, especially in times of soaring inflation and plummeting faith in the state.  Some management Guru has rightly said: If you are not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem. 

What is the main task of a parliament? Here, we are not talking about an assembly of some nocturnal creatures. We are talking about an organ of the state consisting of elected representatives of the people. We are talking about a sovereign body that represents the will of the people expressed through adult franchise. Worldwide, parliaments worth their names do one major thing. They make laws. But Nepal’s parliament is emerging as an exception. For years, a chronic disease has been ailing the parliament, preventing it from functioning properly. Crucial Bills getting nowhere attest to this sorry state of affairs. The Truth and Reconciliation Bill is a case in point and so is the Anti-money Laundering Bill. The failure to get the TRC Bill through the parliament is tantamount to denying justice for the victims of the decade-long insurgency. It does not enhance Nepal’s image in international fora like the United Nations. There is another cause for alarm also. Recent reports suggest that Nepal faces graylisting for failing to introduce and enforce laws against money-laundering. At a time when the national economy is not in the pink of health, the government should have presented this crucial Bill without further delay as graylisting will hit Nepal’s domestic and international business transactions hard. The presidential election, the upcoming vice-presidential vote, the vote of confidence and the ongoing dispute over the opposition party have consumed much of our lawmakers’ energies. It is the responsibility of a government to give business to the parliament. The government should wake up to this responsibility and work in close coordination with political parties across the aisle for the passage of crucial Bills and a smooth functioning of the parliament. Otherwise, there are chances of a relapse into the Ordinance Raaj where governments used to rule through ordinances after failing to have their way in the parliament. This time, chances are that such a rule may not be a smooth sailing, given the international outcry against TRC Bill and Anti-Money Laundering Bill. The government and the parliament should wake up and act before it’s too late.