Kathmandu, February 15

If a report of the Development Committee of the Parliament is anything to go by, most of the directives it issued to the government with respect to physical infrastructure and other development activities often fell on deaf ears.

According to the evaluation report, the committee convened as many as 104 meetings through January to November 25, 2016 to dwell on development activities and issue directives to the government. “The implementation status of the directives is very disappointing. Therefore, the committee has introduced the tradition of asking concerned authorities to submit progress report on the implementation of the directives,” read the report.

Concerned bodies usually commit to comply with the directives, but they hardly keep their words. “If the government is really serious about implementing the directives, the country could take a leap forward in infrastructure development. The government has done nothing to translate its words into action,” read the report.

Take a case of directives on construction of quake-resistant physical infrastructures. The government worked only on the formulation of Building Code but did nothing to implement it. “The government failed to implement the directives on construction of roads connecting the northern border, development of Rasuwagadi Dry Port, railway, road safety, expansion and upgradation of roads inside the Ring Road, Kathmandu-Nijgadh fast track, use of mass transportation vehicle and identification and reconstruction of perilous bridges, among others,” said the report.

The government is also doing little to make the telecommunications and Internet service more reliable, dependable and effective as per the directives of the committee.