KATHMANDU: Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) lawmaker Gyanendra Shahi has accused the government of failing to take the search and rescue of people trapped inside hydropower project tunnels in Rasuwa and Nuwakot seriously following the Bhotekoshi floods.
Speaking during a special session of the House of Representatives on Thursday, Shahi said only two of the seven hydropower project tunnels affected by the floods had been opened, while search and rescue operations had yet to begin effectively in the remaining five.
“Not all the tunnel entrances have been blocked by the floods. Some entrances are still open,” he said. “If the tunnels were completely blocked, how did Lalbir Budha and Ramesh Budha from Jumla come out alive? No one has even entered those tunnels to search.”
Shahi urged the government to immediately enter the five tunnels and begin search operations. He also accused the government of failing to hold adequate discussions with experts and engineers about the affected tunnels.
He said the government had also failed to consult former Energy Minister and then-Nepal Electricity Authority Executive Director Kulman Ghising in time.
Shahi said Ghising had worked for a long time with the affected hydropower projects and claimed that Prime Minister Balendra Shah was scheduled to meet him only on Thursday, eight days after the floods.
According to Shahi, 101 people from Jumla were still inside various tunnels in Rasuwa and Nuwakot.
He questioned the government’s preparedness after the prime minister reportedly said there were no machines available to remove mud from inside the tunnels.
“We have a scientist like Mahabir Pun as a minister. The machine brought to remove the mud has been stuck on the road for three days,” Shahi said. “A mud-removal machine has been stranded in Naukunda Rural Municipality of Rasuwa. Why couldn’t it be transported by helicopter?”
Shahi said demanding that the government rescue citizens in distress was not a crime and vowed to continue raising the issue despite criticism.
“If asking the government to rescue citizens is a crime, I am ready to commit that crime a thousand times for the country and its people,” he said. “I am not begging anyone. I am asking the government to rescue citizens who are in distress.”
He said lawmakers did not have the authority to mobilise the army or control large government budgets and that the responsibility for rescue operations rested with the government.
Shahi also said RSP Chair Rabi Lamichhane did not have the authority to independently mobilise the necessary resources for rescue operations.
He claimed that RSP lawmaker Bablu Gupta was himself inside one of the tunnels in Rasuwa and that effective rescue efforts had yet to begin in the other five tunnels.
“There has been virtually no work in five of the tunnels. Our demand is directed at the government,” Shahi said.
He also criticised what he described as political attacks against people calling for rescue efforts, referring to incidents during previous disasters and alleging that RSP supporters had recently abused a woman who was seeking help to locate her husband trapped inside a tunnel.
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