Kathmandu, December 5

The government has overlooked all directives of the Parliament’s Development Committee and has not been implementing them properly.

The committee’s evaluation report 2016, which was made public today, has shown that 41 directives have not been implemented yet by the concerned ministries and subordinate authorities.

According to the committee, none of the 17 directives issued to the Ministry for Physical Infrastructure and Transport have been implemented satisfactorily.

“As far as the ministry’s directive on railway expansion and the Kathmandu-Nijgadh fast track are concerned, they have not even begun. Even with regard to projects that have begun, their developments are not satisfactory, and many of the projects are moving at a snail’s pace,” The committee report 2016 reads.

The committee’s directive regarding earthquake-friendly infrastructures has also not been implemented by the ministry.

Similarly, seven instructions to the ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development have not been implemented. Strategic road network and local road network construction have also not begun despite various discussion programmes being organised.

Likewise, nine instructions to the Ministry of Information and Communications have not been implemented.

“The committee had instructed the ministry to improve the quality on telecom and internet services, but both the service are of poor quality though the government is planning to launch 4G services,” the report reads.

“Instructions to implement minimum salary for journalists, enhance the news quality of government owned media institutions, among others, are still unimplemented,” it further says.

Instructions related to other authorities such as development of Melamchi drinking water project and reconstruction after the April earthquake of 2015 have also not picked up pace.

The committee had directed the government to complete upgrading road sections in Kathmandu Valley by the end of the current fiscal.

Parliamentarians had expressed their dissatisfaction with the snail-paced upgrading and black-topping work on the roads of Kathmandu, though the budget speech for the current fiscal had said that all the road sections of Kathmandu Valley would be black-topped by the end of the current fiscal.

The committee had directed the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transportation, Urban Development Ministry, Kathmandu Metropolitan City, Kathmandu Valley Development Commissioner and Dhobikhola Corridor Project to black-top the corridor roads along Bagmati River and to make flyovers wherever needed.

Similarly, Committee had also directed the government to begin supply of water from the Melamchi Drinking Water Project by a year at any cost. However, meeting this target, it appears, will prove a tall order for the government.