Can Restructuring of State Define the Role of Private and Public Sectors of Nepal?
Prakash Bom
September 03, 2008
The current public transport of Nepal is based on syndicate system of private sectors. The question is – "how does such a syndicate system has been running under a semi-feudal business organization level?" Basically, it is a business organization which is run under the sweepstake rule of selections of members of the group or association of business partners. Practically, it is a system dominated by the group of gangsters – meaning the dominant members of the group benefit the most and other members profit the least at the expense of public.
Public transport that needs the most restricted rules and regulations for the public safety that Nepal´s public transport syndicate system has long been devoid of. For example, drivers driving public buses under the influence of alcohol have been the major cause of road accidents and death all over Nepal. All past governments have failed in legislating the regulation with the international standards. It is a crime to drive under the influence of alcohol that in most democratic countries drivers who drunk drive are restricted to drive for their rest of life after even serving jail terms and paying heavy fines.
Virtually, there is no legislation how to regulate Nepal´s public transport syndicate system for public safety and for the proportional benefit of all business partners. It has become the most unprotected and unregulated private business that is basically run by the group of mighty gangsters. There is no limitation how and where public bus should be serving public, for example, a bus from east Nepal might be serving far-west Nepal regions.
It is a time to reregulate the system by restructuring of the stated under the federal government system. This means states basically regulate and manage the public transport system because under the federal government system state and local governments manage all services and resources of their state.
Therefore, centrally controlled government system must be abolished in order to form self-sustainable state and local governments – meaning state and local governments can regulate and manage their services and resources under the federal constitutional provision of the nation.
If such a constitutional provision is set clearly the model for public transport can be establish in state level with the joint venture of private and public funds that can guarantee public safety and generate profits for all partners in a long term basis for generations to rely on. This means each state can independently regulate its public transport system for its local and interstate services. For example, the local public transport services of Kathmandu is regulated and managed by the city government of Kathmandu.
This means centrally controlled public transport system or corporation must be merged into the local and state transport management system. It is because services are better managed in a local level than in centrally controlled system. Therefore, each state ought to be responsible for regulating its own public transport system for local and intrastate services, such as connecting its major cities to other major cities of the nation.
Basically, Kathmandu´s local public services cannot be run with the public transport system of Biratnagar or Janakpur or central government run corporation. Similarly, one state´s public transport cannot be run with other state´s public transport system.
It is very important to set these guidelines from the beginning while scraping current syndicate system that can well fit in the federal government system. It is time for Prime Minister of Nepal to give directives to newly appointed minister to scrap the syndicate system but with the clear guidelines of public transport system that can pave the way for restructuring the state.
First of all, Nepal has to comply with the international traffic rules and regulations in every aspect of transportation – from implementing traffic regulations for driving, ticketing for traffic violations and processing justice. For example, the traffic police must be brought to justice if he or she takes cash direct from the violator on the street without issuing ticket. A traffic ticketing system has to be implemented for fining alleged offenders with different provisions – cash, service and prison. These regulations must fulfill international standard because Nepal cannot run a democratic nation at its own will as feudal bureaucrats have done so far in the past administration of the nation.
The democratic nation cannot be run by the state alone but it must run with the partnership of private and public sectors. It is clear to all of us about the private sector but the public sector in democracy is different from settings of semi-government corporation system that poor nations like Nepal has been succumbed to. That is to say if the semi-government corporation or solely owned private company becomes public it sells its entire shares to public. The shareholders become the electoral body of such a business institution. The vote of the electorates appoints the executive body of the institution.
There are sectors such as news media, which have to be completely independent of government to comply with the international standard and regulation for delivering impartial news to public. It is a question of free competition that the news media which can deliver the authentic news to public will take over the larger portion of the market. It is up to the news media to target their own market.
But in a democratic nation the government owned media, for example, must be turned into public meaning it should be run with the private (individuals) and public (business and institutions) contributions and government subsidies. For example, semi-government Gorkhapatra Corporation, Nepal Radio and Nepal TV to serve public better they all must become public independent of being a mouthpiece of government.
Basically, in democracy the greater the role of private and public sectors the higher the national GNP, the community forest of Nepal is the living example. This means the semi-government corporations must be made public. However, the role of private and public sectors must be regulated and democratically processed with the most doable electoral procedures.
First of all, the government must be represented by the people´s elected representatives of the Parliament to secure the trust of the public. This means the feudal hierarchical tradition and outdated semi-government syndicated corporation system must be abolished with the people´s elected representatives to establish democratic culture without which a prosperous new democratic Nepal cannot be established.
Public transport that needs the most restricted rules and regulations for the public safety that Nepal´s public transport syndicate system has long been devoid of. For example, drivers driving public buses under the influence of alcohol have been the major cause of road accidents and death all over Nepal. All past governments have failed in legislating the regulation with the international standards. It is a crime to drive under the influence of alcohol that in most democratic countries drivers who drunk drive are restricted to drive for their rest of life after even serving jail terms and paying heavy fines.
Virtually, there is no legislation how to regulate Nepal´s public transport syndicate system for public safety and for the proportional benefit of all business partners. It has become the most unprotected and unregulated private business that is basically run by the group of mighty gangsters. There is no limitation how and where public bus should be serving public, for example, a bus from east Nepal might be serving far-west Nepal regions.
It is a time to reregulate the system by restructuring of the stated under the federal government system. This means states basically regulate and manage the public transport system because under the federal government system state and local governments manage all services and resources of their state.
Therefore, centrally controlled government system must be abolished in order to form self-sustainable state and local governments – meaning state and local governments can regulate and manage their services and resources under the federal constitutional provision of the nation.
If such a constitutional provision is set clearly the model for public transport can be establish in state level with the joint venture of private and public funds that can guarantee public safety and generate profits for all partners in a long term basis for generations to rely on. This means each state can independently regulate its public transport system for its local and interstate services. For example, the local public transport services of Kathmandu is regulated and managed by the city government of Kathmandu.
This means centrally controlled public transport system or corporation must be merged into the local and state transport management system. It is because services are better managed in a local level than in centrally controlled system. Therefore, each state ought to be responsible for regulating its own public transport system for local and intrastate services, such as connecting its major cities to other major cities of the nation.
Basically, Kathmandu´s local public services cannot be run with the public transport system of Biratnagar or Janakpur or central government run corporation. Similarly, one state´s public transport cannot be run with other state´s public transport system.
It is very important to set these guidelines from the beginning while scraping current syndicate system that can well fit in the federal government system. It is time for Prime Minister of Nepal to give directives to newly appointed minister to scrap the syndicate system but with the clear guidelines of public transport system that can pave the way for restructuring the state.
First of all, Nepal has to comply with the international traffic rules and regulations in every aspect of transportation – from implementing traffic regulations for driving, ticketing for traffic violations and processing justice. For example, the traffic police must be brought to justice if he or she takes cash direct from the violator on the street without issuing ticket. A traffic ticketing system has to be implemented for fining alleged offenders with different provisions – cash, service and prison. These regulations must fulfill international standard because Nepal cannot run a democratic nation at its own will as feudal bureaucrats have done so far in the past administration of the nation.
The democratic nation cannot be run by the state alone but it must run with the partnership of private and public sectors. It is clear to all of us about the private sector but the public sector in democracy is different from settings of semi-government corporation system that poor nations like Nepal has been succumbed to. That is to say if the semi-government corporation or solely owned private company becomes public it sells its entire shares to public. The shareholders become the electoral body of such a business institution. The vote of the electorates appoints the executive body of the institution.
There are sectors such as news media, which have to be completely independent of government to comply with the international standard and regulation for delivering impartial news to public. It is a question of free competition that the news media which can deliver the authentic news to public will take over the larger portion of the market. It is up to the news media to target their own market.
But in a democratic nation the government owned media, for example, must be turned into public meaning it should be run with the private (individuals) and public (business and institutions) contributions and government subsidies. For example, semi-government Gorkhapatra Corporation, Nepal Radio and Nepal TV to serve public better they all must become public independent of being a mouthpiece of government.
Basically, in democracy the greater the role of private and public sectors the higher the national GNP, the community forest of Nepal is the living example. This means the semi-government corporations must be made public. However, the role of private and public sectors must be regulated and democratically processed with the most doable electoral procedures.
First of all, the government must be represented by the people´s elected representatives of the Parliament to secure the trust of the public. This means the feudal hierarchical tradition and outdated semi-government syndicated corporation system must be abolished with the people´s elected representatives to establish democratic culture without which a prosperous new democratic Nepal cannot be established.
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