When Nepal stops

Government service delivery comes to a halt during elections. The cost is evident all around.

Of late, the whole country seems to have come to a halt to accomplish one single task: Conduct the elections. For weeks, officials have been missing from their posts at government offices and public utilities. Even those who are available appear to be in holiday mode. If there is something you want done, you will be met by a common refrain: Come after the elections (that is, when the vote counting ends, perhaps after a couple of weeks). Postponing even basic tasks citing impending festivals or occasions is an old problem of Nepal's bureaucracy. Elections are just another excuse. The cost of such inaction is evident all around. With most traffic police officers in Kathmandu Valley deployed for poll security, the number of traffic deaths in the valley doubled in the second week of this month. The Traffic Police admit that incidents of traffic violations rocketed as people didn’t see police officers on the road.