E-Kantipur

On his website, Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai has quite succinctly summed up the difference between responsibilities in his political party and the government. “It used to be more of ideological and political issues within the party whereas in the government it is mostly about dealing with practical works,” he said.

Dealing with such practical works, particularly issues related to infrastructure should not have been so tough a nut to crack. After all, he holds a PhD in regional development planning and his masters’ degree is on town and country planning as well.

And yet, as reported by newspapers, Bhattarai was “surprised to learn that building transmission lines to import power from India takes painfully long.”

According to reports, during an interaction with some editors, the Prime Minister shared his astonishment when he came to know how wrong he was to assume that the infrastructure could be built in no time.

He definitely deserves to be commended for his honest admittance. But it also comes as a deep disappointment for those who have pinned high hopes on him.  

To address the acute power crisis during dry seasons, successive governments have talked about importing around two hundred additional mega watts of electricity from India.

So, PM Bhattarai saying the same thing now is no surprise. But the planning engineer not knowing its technicalities is.

Generation, transmission and distribution are the basics of electricity supply—the fundamental of development. So, how did someone with a PhD in regional development planning miss the pivotal point?

Instead, he should have been fast-tracking the stuck cross-border transmission line project between Nepal and India.

It has been ages since talks began between the two sides and now files have begun to gather dust. Not a single spade has hit the ground in all these years.

A source with the Indian officialdom had told this journalist that “Nepal’s non-confidence in dealing with India directly on the issue and thus bringing in the World Bank to prepare for the project led to the delay.”

The source said, “Had it just been an India-Nepal affair, things would have long moved ahead.”

An official with the Nepal Electricity Authority however said that things were indeed moving quite fast and that “it was all possible because of the help from the World Bank.”

Amid conflicting versions like these, the “technocrat” in Bhattarai should have already been seeking answers from both the sides why things were not moving yet.

Last April, India’s minister of state for power, KC Venugopal had said, “Although the issue of cross border trading [of electricity] is a complex one involving market, technology, finance, and most importantly geo-political issues, there has been some success

as well.”  

Instead of homing in on such a claim, here is the “promising” prime minister who reportedly revealed how he was not in the know of the things—an admittance that sits awkwardly with his academic credentials.

Not that he does not talk about development at all. In a Q and A posted on his website, Bhattarai has stressed on rapid industrialisation for productive employment to stop youth force from going for foreign employment.

 “Productive employment, the basis for new Nepal,’ will be the main slogan and essence of the upcoming budget,” he has said.

The rapid industrialisation for productive employment he talks about is impossible without a smooth supply of electricity.

Had Bhattarai honestly planned for what he says is his development mantra, he would have certainly factored in the challenges faced by the power sector.

Now it has been laid bare; he had done no homework.

Just like his party hadn’t while announcing generation of 10 thousand megawatts of hydropower in 10 years when it first came to power in 2008.

Back then, Bhattarai himself had made the announcement as the finance minister. Even then, the issue of the cross-border transmission line was where it is today.

Were Nepal to export to India some of the 10,000 MW power the Maoists had planned, it would still need the transmission infrastructure.

Forget cross border lines, the country does not even have adequate internal transmission networks to utilise all the power from the Middle Marshyangdi hydroelectric plant.

This was the same hydro project whose construction was severely delayed, and one of the reasons was the threats and obstructions by the Maoists during the conflict.

But never did the insurgents then oppose the project on the ground that there was no transmission line to fully evacuate its power.

Bhattarai’s academic background of development planning was of no use to them then.

Nor is it to himself and his administration now. 

Khadka is a BBC journalist based in London

navin.khadka@gmail.com

Post Your Comment

Please note that all the fields marked * are mandatory.
* Full Name
* Address
* Email Address
* Comment
* Captcha	Get another CAPTCHA code
Note:	Comments containing abusive words or slander shall not be published.