Re: Jain opponents of program to mitigate energy crisis

April 6, 2011

Basanta Nepal

Subject: RE: FW: An article on energy crisis

Basanta jee

Thanks a lot for reverting back with your well thought through comments.

I am particularly enthused by the clarity as to what Nepal needs, what she needs to do and how to do in your email below. I think you should be publishing your thoughts so that more people could be “educated”.

I have no difficulty in saying that the person I was referring to in the opening paragraph is Ms Arju Deuba. I didn’t name names thinking that it will be difficult for Kantipur to publish my article with her name in it. However, I am shocked that Kantipur has even deleted the very paragraph of my article which referred to her without naming names. I wonder if it is slavishness towards the likes of her on the part of Kantipur!

With best regards,

Sincerely,



Ratna Sansar Shrestha, FCA
Senior Water Resource Analyst
www.RatnaSansar.com



From: Basanta [mailto:basantaraj@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, April 4, 2011 19:43
To: Ratna Sansar Shrestha
Subject: Re: FW: An article on energy crisis

Dear Ratna sir,
Its very nice to read your article as always. But I would like to say to you that in this particular article, you have put some hidden names or arguments, which does not seems easy to me. (The opening paragraph in blog.)



Concerning the jail term for persons causing hindrance for new hydro-power projects, its not the jail terms that will enable the new projects I think. Its the sincerity that government puts forward while implementing the proposed emergency plan measures. In Nepal there is not dearth of good plans but what lacks is the consistent policy and honest execution of those plans and policies. The person who designs the law, is the first who tries to break it or dishonour it. From other countries in world we can see the example that fear of death penalty has not reduced serious crimes in those countries. So, fear of punishment may not prevent this, but good policy and work may be the good solution.



If we see the local support for the project, due to the lack of good investment opportunities we have seen large public who queue up to buy small shares (in Agriculture development bank, Nepal Telecom with premium, etc). Even local people are fighting to put their money for shares on Upper Tamakoshi and Chilime. So, if honest execution of policies can be convinced then even big investors may move to hydro-sector deserting investing further on bank. But big investors in Nepal seems to want quick money, which is not possible by investing in hydro-sector owing to its huge investment sum and long pay-back period. Also, frequent change of policy and dishonest execution adds to the problem for others.



Regarding scrapping export oriented projects and generating power for domestic consumption, there is no a question of debate. If we see the figures of money spent annually on energy import, the policy makers should have understood this. If more electricity is available, this money going out of country can be prevented apart from removing the loadshedding problem. There could be electric vehicles, electric cooking which will drastically reduce our dependency on imported energy and getting more poor. But in times of 14 hours dark each day, this argument may seem to be a joke.



Again, thank you very much for your effort on advocating this agenda sir. Lets hope leaders will not speak about exporting energy and getting rich by keeping Nepalese people in dark and making them consume expensive imported energy.



Best Regards,

Basanta Nepal


On 4 April 2011 06:08, Ratna Sansar Shrestha wrote:

Dear colleague
Kantipur has published an article of mine today