Let Us Use less Power Rather Than Darkness

Last week, I met an Australian lady. A discussion about power –cut followed up. She told about the drought in her country. She further said they had to save the water: by not using flush in the restrooms, by not washing clothes etc. She proudly said they did that voluntarily. The local government appeals to the citizens to mitigate the problems and the citizens regard it for their sake. Similarly last year Bangladesh government appealed its citizens to eat potatoes to fight the food crisis. The above two examples are representatives. The welfare countries bring new measures to mitigate the challenges. Does not this government come up with similar plans to minimize the present power shedding which has crippled our lives?
Today we have power cut. This is the largest power crisis in its history. The government must calculate the impact of power cut after six months and bring strategic plan to reduce it. Possibly industries will cut the employment very soon or the working hour would be cut as a result the salaries would be minimized. The next year the situation would be horrible. Can YCL and other Trade Unions keep on protesting for reappointing those people who are out of the job in that time? It is high time these trade unions and YCL, the sister organization of Maoist party have to awake the government that the workers have to go through very difficult time in absence of power in the industries. What about the gross domestic production by the end of this fiscal year? Surely the proposed budget is prone to be affected by the lack of enough revenue collection. The situation of today many industries has already halved the productions due to power shedding. After few months the industries would be locked if no alternatives are explored.
Realizing the above situation, government should discover the measures to provide power to the industries, hospitals, and households, etc. Along with efficient crisis management, Stepping ahead foreseeing the situation after two years for making middle and large scale hydro power projects, and identifying alternative source of energy for the future are urgent.
First and foremost the electricity theft must be fully controlled by taking help of communities. Statistics say 6% load shedding would be minimized by abolishing theft. The mostly government offices are the places where power is consumed irresponsibly. We can visit the government offices and know how it is consumed. The heaters are on all the time, lights are on in the enough day lights, computers are not closed for hours even though they are not in use. In many communities, the street lamps are alight during the whole day.
Subsidy the power efficient CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Lamps) and appeal every households to use them. This subsidy should be logical to make the industries being operated to continue so that there won’t be any domino effect like unemployment increment, loss of revenue, multiplication of crimes, etc. Affluent and well off families should be appealed to volunteer by not using electrical gadgets which consumes high power and requesting them to use power-efficient appliances. For effective application strategic communication plans should be developed and applied. Communities can be taken for scrutiny.
Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has been recently suggested by a committee to increase the rate of the electricity price. Such increment must be used to deal the power emergency. The increment policy must be made to use power efficient electric appliances. The less consumption and get reward in payment. High consumption and pay high charges. This policy will help automatically to consume less power. This must be differently to the large industries. This pricing policy must be for only emergency period.
BY Rudra Pangeni
Rudra.pangeni@gmail.com
Sanothimi Bhaktapur
Student of Master’s Degree in Mass Communication and Journalism

Nominate democratically

This letter refers to the editorial titled ‘Sacred agents’ published on 1st Jan 2009. The topic chosen for editorial is relevant. The protests against government’s decision to fire the priest of Pashupatinath are going on. I agree with the editorial view the intervention in the selection of the priests; other necessary reforms are urgent making the Pashupatinath temple an institution inclusive and universal. But few other points are also need to be considered. Financial irregularities should be raised to reform the religious institution. I disagree with the view that this decision violates the deep rooted tradition. The government to reform like allowing non-Brahmins to be priest, opening the entry for all, etc. But presenting an editorial viewpoint of defending the nontransparent priestly tendencies does not sound logical. If the editorial view is for revoking the situation that existed before the April uprising of 2006, there is nothing to say. Otherwise, sustaining those priests for corruption and irregularities must not be voiced anyway.
The editorial sounds logical in the matter of making appointment at the will of the people who are engaged in the religious institution. I strongly support the view of appointment of the priests should be passed through others involved in Pashupatinath temple. But the doubt of financial irregularities must be made transparent. The priests must be kept at the house and passed as other heads of the institutions are done. Social audits and hearing are essential to further democratize the current decision-making process of the government.
By Rudra Pangeni
Rudra.pangeni@gmail.com