Aashish Mishra

They say only two things in life are certain: death and taxes. However, in Nepal, there was a third certain thing and that was load-shedding. Power cuts, day in and day out, had become an integral and seemingly interminable aspect of our society. People scheduled their life around the load-shedding timing, which, at its peak, was 18 hours a day. A day is 24 hours and Nepalis were forced to spend 18 hours of that without electricity. From industry and tourism to education and health, no sector was spared from the wrath of electricity blackouts. Our national morale was very low.
More than four years ago when Kulman Ghising was appointed as the Managing Director of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), he brought about a drastic change. Load shedding, something that had been a certainty of Nepali life for more than a decade at that point, ended. Nepalis finally received their implied right to 24-hour power.
The country finally received brightness. And in that brightness, we saw the nasty reality. The load-shedding was never a compulsion. It is not a necessity but rather a product of corruption, mismanagement and ill intentions. Some top-tier people maliciously forced us to endure hardships for years for their own profits.
This should have sparked outrage and a demand for accountability. Yet, everyone looked at Kulman and they forgave his predecessors. In Ghising’s face, they saw hope and the strength to forgive everyone that needlessly inflicted darkness on the country. But some months ago, Kulman’s term expired. The government did not extend his term. As a result, Kulman succeeded by Hitendra Dev Shakya.
Since Kulman’s departure, power cuts have become a thing again. Citizens’ homes have again started going dark. These cuts started as short 10 to 15-minute blackouts but have now become 60 to 90-minute daily power outages. People have dubbed this “undeclared load-shedding” but the NEA insists that these are just technical failures.
But why are such technical failures every day? Also, does NEA experience rolling technical failures because the power outages seem to happen in groups (just like the erstwhile load-shedding)? There is a one-hour power cut in Pulchowk and once that ends, there is a power cut in Lagankhel.
Moreover, the Acting Managing Director of NEA Shakya said, in an interview, that the current electrical disruptions were a “load management method” being implemented because the consumption is more than the supply. What is this defining if not load-shedding?
There may very well be technical problems, but the bigger issue seems to be at the management levels. Otherwise, how is it that the technical difficulties never led to widespread electricity disruptions under Kulman but suddenly became too difficult to handle under his successor? In fact, who is his successor? The government has still not appointed a full-capacity head at the NEA and an acting head faces some real working constraints. The government should choose a capable and experienced person who is able to win the confidence of the public and assign him to the electricity authority without delay.
Electricity is not a service; it is a business. The people pay for it and hence, are entitled to an uninterrupted supply. It is the duty of the NEA, as the business operator, to ensure this. Some problems sometimes are understandable but not the same problem every time. The citizens will not tolerate a return to the “dark days” and might resort to drastic and unpleasant methods to prevent that from happening. The NEA must get its act together and get back to the competency it had under Kulman because everything else just seems like excuses.