Our incompetent government has decided to release a billion Rupees from the Prime Minister Disaster Relief Fund to our Home Ministry to help the folks affected by floods and landslides in the country.

It seems that many of our byaparis, NRNs and other thulo mancheys do contribute to the PM’s fund because then they can take pictures with whoever is living in Baluwatar. The picture with the PM will then be hung in their offices to impress, flatter or cheat other potential investors, clients or contractors. That’s how it works in this land of hardworking citizens ruled by corrupt chors!

But ordinary folks would rather donate to social organisations they know or to their friends who are carrying out relief works in the Tarai. I would rather give some money to Dhurmus-Suntali Foundation rather than to our sarkari chors. Dhurmus is already in the Tarai helping the folks there. Dr KC has even postponed his hunger strike for now and will go there to help the folks affected by the floods and landslides.

Where are our political cadres who come to the Valley in thousands to show their strength or get ready to burn taxis at 4 am in the morning during Nepal bandas? It seems that our karyakartas only come out of their houses to burn tyres, vehicles and public property but do not want to collect tyres and make them into some kind of rafts, collect funds and relief materials and go to the affected areas to help those in need. After all, our political cadres only know how to enjoy free fuel and masu bhat during election campaigns. So it is difficult for folks who are used to freebies to instead help others. Our netas and their cadres only know how to misuse the state funds for their own personal interest and they have yet to realise that the reason they are engaged in politics is to help the people not make money off the people!

But our government never does its homework and every year, it’s busy asking for funds from donor agencies and INGOs while preventing its own citizens from carrying out relief works in areas affected by natural disasters. Why is our own government stopping us from helping our brothers and sisters? It’s because, our sarkari hakims don’t want the common folks to help each other. They want to make sure that they can profit from the relief materials provided by common folks and donor agencies. We know that most of the tents donated by bideshis after the earthquake ended up at the homes of our thulo mancheys. Two years later, hundreds of thousands of families are still living in tarps or open spaces. It seems that our chor netas, lazy civil servants and bideshi consultants are happy when we get hit by natural disasters because that’s the time to make the most moolah in the name of helping the people!

This is the same government that spends Rs 7 billion for so-called inspection and monitoring of development projects across the country and our contractors are rewarded for not doing their job while we the people lose our lives due to their shoddy works. But it is always hesitant to spend money to help the people affected by natural disasters across the country. It does not shy away from providing millions of Rupees in compensation to the folks who lead protest programmes and kill security personnel but does not think about the families of those killed by the government or by the protesters. Let us not hope for justice in this land where justices are appointed based on their political affiliation. Here, justices are bought and if they cannot be bribed then they face impeachment or shown the door.

Our corrupt government tells us that affected families will receive Rs 200,000 while our King Deuba and other thulo mancheys spend millions on helicopter rides to vist the areas hit by the floods and landslides. So far, more than hundred folks have lost their lives and millions have been displaced by the natural disasters across the country. A cadre who vandalises public property and then gets killed during protest programmes is declared a martyr and his family is provided a million Rupees as compensation. Therefore, we should all take membership of a political party, especially, the big three because it will come in handy in times of needs.

As usual, our Prime Monster Deuba is busy directing hakim sahebs to help the affected families and make sure that they receive food and shelter. Our politicians are good at giving out directions. Deuba gave our hakim sahebs two weeks to fill our potholes in the valley and repair our roads. Some of it might have been filled but our roads are still muddy and we all know that our concerned agencies have already stopped doing the repair works because our politicians will only give direction once and really don’t care if they are fulfilled or not.

Maybe it’s time our government formed a Civil Defense Force or something similar so that we the people can train and be part of the rescue and relief missions across the country in times of natural disasters. Yes, we understand that our government lacks resources be it manpower or supplies and it needs a helping hand. We the people are ready to help and we would rather want our sarkari hakims to allow us to help the government to help the people instead of only thinking of ways to prevent us from doing our share to help our brothers and sisters.

Guffadi is a grumpy old man who blogs at guffadi.blogspot.com. You may contact him at [email protected]