The use of fake certificates has been rampant in Nepal, including in the health sector, where doctors and their organizations make substantial money

The International Relations and Labour Committee of Parliament at its meeting on Sunday has done the right thing by directing the authorities to take action against health institutions if the migrant workers going abroad with the health certificates issued by them in Nepal fail the medical test in the destination country. The committee has also told the Ministry of Labour and Employment to make arrangements for compensating those migrant Nepali workers who return to Nepal after having failed their medical test there despite passing it in Nepal. In rare cases only the happening of this kind of opposite thing -- fit and unfit – can be understood. But the increasing occurrences of this mismatch lead to the conclusion that our health institutions have been indulging in such unethical and illegal practices just for more money. The government should have started to take stern action against such health institutions long ago. Nevertheless, the parliamentary committee’s directive has sought to correct the situation.

The use of fake certificates has been rampant in Nepal, including in the health sector, where doctors and their organizations make substantial money by issuing health certificates that tell a different story from the actual state of the health of people. The committee has also told the concerned authorities to provide it, within seven days, with reasons for authorizing only two health institutions to conduct medical examination on migrant Nepali workers going to Israel. In the foreign employment sector, various malpractices have been flourishing, but the government has been able to control them only to a limited extent. Along the entire chain of sending Nepal workers abroad, malpractices continue in many cases.

As for the question at issue, the government had, not long ago, tried to control malpractices and save Nepali migrant workers trouble abroad by requiring such medical examinations to be done in government hospitals. But the medical practitioners staged strong protests, demanding that they should be authorized to conduct the medical examinations too. And the government relented. The main point is not whether the private institutions should be allowed to do such tests, but the tests done should be accurate and the tendency to give a clean bill of health even to those who may be suffering from one or more ailments, such as heart disease and asthma should be curbed. Nepali manual workers often have to do very hard labour and work long hours under high temperatures abroad. Those in poor health cannot withstand the strain and their health condition gets worse, or they may even die. Such occurrences are reported to have increased. There is yet much to be done in the foreign employment sector to ensure the safety of the workers’ health, their person and their other legitimate interests. Healthy practices should be promoted in this sector, with a crackdown on unscrupulous actors by ensuring proper monitoring. Talking of foreign employment, the reported decision of the Malaysian government by which Nepali workers will not get a job there also shows the uncertainty of foreign jobs. The government should get all the facts about what is happening there and take proper measures required to protect Nepali interests.

No more excuses

Even after the opening of all trade routes with India consumers have to stay in long queues in order to purchase fuel. This has caused much anguish amongst the vehicle owners. Oil is entering Nepal as during normal times yet there is severe shortage of petrol and diesel. As such, the Commission for the Investigation of Authority has instructed the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) to facilitate the supply of fuel as it has already been receiving fuel from the Indian Oil Corporation. This calls for the NOC to immediately supply all the petrol pumps with fuel. All the petrol pumps should receive the same amount of fuel. Thus, petrol pumps in the outskirts of the capital valley also receive the same amount of fuel as those in the city centre.

It would be proper to provide more fuel to the petrol pumps in the capital itself so that the supply of fuel would be smoother. The NOC is therefore asked to reduce the supply fuel in the outskirts of the capital and also government owned petrol pumps and to increase their supply to private pumps as during normal times. This should end the black marketing of fuel taking place rampantly.