"Fnally positive" comment about West Seti

April 5, 2012

Ratna Raj Bajracharya
Fellow Chartered Accountant

Ratna Raj jee

I am at a loss as to how to respond to your comment! I am never positive merely because I like to be positive or people like me to be positive. I don’t do anything, either to be positive or negative, to please others. Nor I am negative merely because I like to be negative. I am positive or negative for an important reason. My comments will sound negative if a project isn’t in Nepal’s interest and will be positive if a project is in Nepal’s interest.

Previous incarnation of West Seti, which SMEC was trying to implement, wasn’t in Nepal’s interest. Therefore, I was impelled to not only to make “negative” comments about it but I did my best to scuttle the project (which very few people know). I was part of the team fighting a case in Supreme Court to have this project cancelled (this is in public record).

Moreover, you must have heard/read that the license with SMEC was cancelled because SMEC failed to mobilize investment. That is only half right. ADB had agreed to not only provide debt for this project but also was preparing to invest in equity and also had planned to provide loan to GoN to take equity in the project. Finance ministry of GoN had already got the paperwork completed. But people don’t know that I was lobbying hard with ADB top management to have ADB withdraw from this project as it wasn’t in Nepal’s interest. I am happy that ADB agreed with the likes of us and it decided to withdraw from the project. At that time it wasn’t prudent to make this information public. Now it doesn’t matter that people know that I had lobbied even with ADB for the purpose. As a consequence, SMEC’s efforts failed to bear fruit as it failed to mobilize investment.

Now CTGI has agreed to implement this project in Nepal’s interest and you see that I am now “positive.”

I am kind of sensing that most of the intellectuals (forget other Nepalis who aren’t deemed intellectual) don’t seem to be able to distinguish between projects that are in our national interest from those that aren’t in the interest of our motherland. That is why I am impelled to write, without mincing words, at the risk of being branded “negative” and also work to have such projects “turned around” such that the project gets implemented in our national interest.

If one is to use your “measuring rod” I am still “negative” about projects like Arun III and Upper Karnali as these are not in our national interest. I am determined not to rest (excepting if I drop dead) till such time that I am in a position to make positive comments about these projects. Additionally, I have also understood that people like me need to work hard and more in this respect as we have yet to make people understand why negative comments are being made about a project and when would a particular project attract “positive” comments.

Thanks a lot for following my writings.

With best regards,

Sincerely,



Ratna Sansar Shrestha, FCA
Senior Water Resource Analyst
http://www.ratnasansar.com/
From: Ratna Raj Bajracharya [mailto:ratna_bajracharya@yahoo.co.in
Sent: Friday, March 30, 2012 11:57
To: rsansar@mos.com.np
Subject: Re: FW: West Seti getting dragged into controversy unnecessarily

Thank god! You have become positive at last