OPENING SESSION

Welcome remarks by Ananda Srestha

Dev Raj Dahal: The roles of the state, market and civil society are confusing for many. Each of the components in the society creates their own sphere of knowledge. The role of policymaker here is to avoid conflict among these actors. The political crisis in Nepal is basically the manifestation of the structural conflicts, aggravated by these forces, which the policymaker failed to reign in. Seminars like these are crucial in helping us understand and resolve the crises.

When the state gets embedded in the market, it cannot work for social welfare. Politics embedded in the market erodes public interest articulation. The market provides goods to the society, the civil society does so on a smaller scale and the state helps do so in a justiceable manner.

Civil society is supposed to act as a buffer between the market and the state but that has not happened in Nepal. This is the major challenge for governance in Nepal today.

Security is the primary responsibility in governance. Law and order comes after that, but it has to be wrapped around the need to impart social justice. The third basic governance task is the smooth supply of goods and services to the people. This is the topic of discussion today.

In Nepal, one school of thought believes that we have not yet reached the state of a humanitarian crisis. But pessimists argue that a perpetuation of the conflict could lead to one. The media has reported food crisis in remote areas; so it does have its role in making the supply smooth. But the media too is divided with little reach in the remote areas where the supply crunch is most severe.

There needs to be a polycentric service delivery mechanism. If the state cannot reach a particular area, the market must take on the challenge. And where the two cannot, the civil society should take up the responsibility. But for this, coordination, communication and action are necessary. The market must be de-linked from partisan politics, particularly to reach the needy.

SESSION I
Presentation I
Chair: Mohan Man Sainju
Author: Guna Nidhi Sharma
Presentation: State vs. Market in Social Supply Nets

FLOOR DISCUSSION

Ram Kumar Dahal: You need to make some corrections in the references.

Bisnhu Upreti: The recommendations that the supply commission, that you headed, made in the past will not work in the present context.

Gopal Pokharel: Guna Nidhi Sharma provides the theoretical knowledge, but it would be better to look at how Nepal is practising them to find out the problems and their solutions. Are we reaching the needy? Can the state do so? Do we need a re-orientation?
On Page 5, you talk of exploitation of the needy people and natural resources. Please clarify.

Sadmukh Thapa: You talk of three models. Also we have the western model, the Chinese model and the Indian model. Which one should Nepal follow?

Bharat Pokhrel: You talk of private markets. Does it mean that government markets also exist elsewhere?
How has our political economy emerged and what kind does the paper uphold?
You say the Marxism influence took over in 20th century, while Marx's Das Kapital came long before that.
There is a difference between neo-classical and new-classical. The former is the old while the latter is a recent phenomenon.
The essence of the title, delivery in remote areas, is not dwelt upon.

Uma Shanker: Do you think that the market is not properly working after the conflict started? If so, is not today's liberal policy a contradictory policy?
We have not identified the poor in Nepal. First, we need to identify them before devising a PDS.

Keshav Raj Acharya: I do not subscribe to the public vs. private debate in countries like ours. If we can utilize our resources fully, employment problems would disappear. Hence, arguments of crowding-out or crowding-in of resources do not hold much water.
Liberalization is taken as a utopia, but in fact, in our case, this is not so. Regulation becomes more and more complex as liberalization progresses and the challenge grows. For example, the rise in petroleum prices had more than its share of impact because of syndication among transporters. Here, regulation clearly did not work to suit the interest of the market.
Supply disruption has been aggravating, insurance premium since 9/11 gone up and the life of Nepalese getting harder.

Chuda B. Shrestha: The problem of supply in a conflict situation is difficult. This is aggravated by the economically displaced who shift to urban areas, thus challenging urban supply systems as well.
Militants and robbers disrupt supply lines. This needs to be taken care of.
Micro-financing for backward communities for self-employment would be a good pilot project to start with.

Reply by Guna Nidhi Sharma
On Ram Kumar Dahal's suggestion on references, I thank him.
I agree that my paper is just conceptual. Is that not our job as academicians? To provide concepts? I have provided three conceptual models.
On Bharat Pokhrel's query, today we take even Milton Friedman as a neo-classicist. Today's literature is not confined to yesterday's definitions.
On Sadmukh Thapa's question, I have called for a growth and distribution oriented system. We cannot sustain any lopsided system because Nepal is a diverse country. Imbalances in one area will bring about imbalances in other sectors, even social sectors. This is not anything new but something that has been emphasized by academics of even the past. The state's upper hand always exists. We cannot therefore allow the market to have a free hand in our case.
Chuda Shrestha's dichotomy of the supply system, between urban and rural supply, will I hope be dealt with by later presenters.

Paper II
Presenter: Vidya Nath Nepal
Genesis of Nepal's Distribution System

FLOOR DISCUSSION

Prem Sharma: The paper provides empirical knowledge and covers a lot. But the author talks about problems of godowns which is not the actual case. Consumers have had to return home because of stock and management problems of the supply system, not because of godwon problems.
I do not believe that road networks are an answer to strengthening the supply system, but I do agree that local production needs to be enhanced. If people do not have food, awareness, education or road networks do not help at all.
In this age of globalization, there cannot be investment in areas where it is not profitable. Infrastructure alone does not help investment. I have seen villages developed in every sense but people fleeing the area.

Sadmukh B. Thapa: The United Nations millennium development goals are rumoured to possibly remain unmet. What are the reasons?

Bharat Pokhrel: The data used by the author appears wrong. What is the number of semi-remote areas?
You have missed out on millet. The food deficit ended in 1999 and we have a food balance at the moment. Food reached 75 per cent of the population until the King took over and only 45 per cent of the people are reachable today. Also only 44 per cent of the population is accessible by road. How will you carry out your SWOT under such circumstances?

Keshav P. Acharya: Is the Agriculture Input Corporation included in the supply system? Do all of the PEs receive subsidies?
Is the distribution of petroleum products part of the basic supplies system? Seeking subsidies in petroleum does injustice as only urban areas consume most of it. Also, Indian consumers benefit from subsidized petrol prices as they cross the border to fill.

Lal Babu Yadav: Saying that rice was exported before but not today, does not give an accurate picture of the food deficit scenario. Much of the exportable rice goes to the hills today.

Uma Shanker: What is the share of PDS in total consumption? PDS is related with poverty, and we only talk of the mountains when we talk of PDS. There are poor people in other areas. We need to reform the PDS.

Ram Kumar Dahal: On the one hand we are talking of minimizing the role of the state and initiating privatization. How should the state behave regarding the three products?

Gopal Pokhrel: What is the present state of political economy in Nepal? What are the necessary components needed to uphold it? Only then can we devise a system based on that.
Even Kathmanduites are deprived of basic commodities like water.
Also there needs to be coordination between academicians and policymakers.
Mere saying that we need to balance the private and public sectors is not enough. What is the right balance?

Chuda B. Shrestha: Growth rate came down to 0.8 per cent in 2002. Other economic statistics declined as well. In India, they were working comprehensively on the PDS in their northern belt during that time.
How do we devise the PDS during conflict, during migration and natural disasters? These are all problems that we are facing.

Khelbar Shrestha [Nepal Food Corporation]: NFC has its networks even in remote districts. Please amend the language in your paper regarding that. The paper also says there is no storage facility in remote areas. It would have been better if you say that they are inadequate.
NFC provides subsidy only for transportation of foodstuff. This year 230 million rupees have been made available for the purpose. During times of natural calamities we keep buffer stocks. The government policy is to let the private sector take over the PDS. Only where the private sector does not go, does the government have to go. As soon as a road network is built, the government will pull out from those remote areas.

Bihari Krishna Shrestha: Only those with access to power are taken care of by the supply system. But supplies should reach the poor and should be affordable. Is our PDS fulfilling those conditions? This leads us to the governance system.
Looking at the handing over of the community forestry and the resultant success it achieved both in the governance of the forestry and the distribution of forest products, we can say that delegation of authority will ultimately improve the system.
Roads have not always proved to be better in enhancing food production as people have found cheaper alternatives at their doorsteps.
The author recommends on what to do 'as soon as possible'. We all know that that will never happen.

Shanta Pokhrel: The paper does not deal with the conflict situation adequately, and instead only appears to perpetuate the government viewpoint. Local production does not guarantee local consumption, for example the Mustang apple. We need access to transport infrastructure. It is the government that is responsible for that, and not the private sector or the civil society that only looks after its own self-interest.
The supply bottlenecks were there even before the conflict was there. The conflict has only proved to be a convenient veil to justify the actual supply weaknesses.
Also the government is talking about transferring people away from areas where production is not sustainable. Why not work on making them sustainable by opening up income generating opportunities.

Reply by Vidya Nath Nepal
The two questions I was given to write on are: the genesis of the PDS and its compatibility with the 21st century thinking on the supply system. It is natural that I did not answer a lot of your concerns.
Let me tell you that I am not part of the government at the moment.
Transport alone is not enough, but it does have its impact on production, consumption and the society.
The 2005 MDG progress report says that reaching the goal of a hunger free society is 'potentially possible' and reduction of poverty 'possible'.
Regarding data, in Nepal, unless one verifies the available data, one would easily be misled.
I did not include the Agriculture Input Corporation as I was more concerned with the PDS and food supply.
The percentage of PDS in the total consumption is 56,000 quintals of rice and that is very very negligible.
I am not saying that the poor in the Tarai should not be addressed. The problem is that we have a bigger challenge in the mountains. Still, we need to take care of the Tarai poverty problems as well.
The mandate I was given did not particularly focus on the conflict, but generally for all situations.
I am not trying to marginalize the Food Corporation. I was only saying that the Salt Trading Corporation is doing better.
I also think that, apart from subsidies, the purchasing power of the consumer also needs to be increased.
When I talk of SWOT analysis, it is with the aim to get rid of the redundant agencies. It would dissolve PEs like the National Trading Limited.

Mohan Man Sainju's remarks from the chair
How have we looked at the service delivery and how do we change it to suit the conflict context. This is a good question and the authors have tried to answer them well.
Conceptually, Guna Nidhi Sharma's has changed the state versus market argument into a complementarity perspective. Neither is the supply system a social justice issue alone.
The subsidies provided to food supply amount to billions spent over the years. But the government also needs to be more efficient using its resources. The state has to pull out as the market makes inroads. Regulation is needed to make the market socially responsible. This is catching on. Even FNCCI has come out with its code accepting social responsibility.
We have seen that liberalization has not been coupled with meeting the regulatory challenges. The petroleum price hike was seen to result in a higher price rise than it should have. Existing regulation was not able to take care of all the impacts that petroleum prices might have had. Lack of proper regulations can distort such effects either way.
Development is not only a growth and income issue, but also on concerning human development and human rights. This is the paradigm shift regarding the target population. The Tenth Plan talks about a broad based growth, not just growth. This means that the growth needs to touch the poor and the marginalized as well. Just because we have good nursing hospitals and private boarding schools because of liberalization does not mean that the poor have access to them. Also important is local participation.
Today, we have the conflict as an added complexity in development. The conflict has demolished even the inadequate infrastructure--health posts, schools, hydel, telecommunications and suspension bridges. Secondly, the state incapacity to increase the development spending became stark because even the already allocated amount could not be spent because of the conflict. Third, people are being displaced from remote areas and villages, robbing the productive force from where it is most necessary. Fourth, the delivery mechanism which was already inefficient now faces the challenge of becoming even more efficient in the added context of conflict.
In Nepal, the stakeholder's role in decision making has to be enhanced, like is happening in community forestry. The 260 case studies done recently covering most public infrastructure have shown that wherever community initiated projects have come up, they have become most successful. The studies also showed that such projects were the most cost-effective. Such projects were also more sustainable than others.
Regarding the Poverty Alleviation Fund, it had three objectives with respect to the target population. We tried to include the most needy as the target. We saw that caste, ethnicity and gender are significant factors in development. We therefore began targetting the Dalit, ethnic janjatis and women.
We also involved the stakeholders in the programmes.
The fund flow mechanism was also revised to allow 85 per cent of the funds reach the target.
These three points show us that there has to be a drastic change of track on the service delivery mechanism that we have.

SESSION II
Presentation 3
Chair: Govinda Dhakal
Paper: Vidya Bir Singh Kansakar

FLOOR DISCUSSION

Guna Nidhi Sharma: The financial infrastructure aspect has not been discussed by the paper.

Prem Sharma: Who was bringing in arms to Nepal? And how was Toni Hagen involved?
You also talk of using Tibet for supplies to Nepal just like we used to do through India in the past.
Would it be possible to snatch rice away from mountain people at this stage?

Ram Kumar Dahal: What would be the sectors that we could learn from Tibet?

Sadmukh B. Thapa: According to the Chinese master plan, Tibet is undergoing infrastructure development. By 2030 there will be additional railway and road networks in Tibet. But, we will have only three roads to Tibet, in spite of the fact that nine such routes are possible. There are plans also about a Silk Road or the Asian Highway. You are a geographer; how feasible would be the nine proposed highways to Tibet from Nepal?

Keshav P. Acharya: Infrastructure is one of the pre-conditions for development. If we can develop clusters in the sparsely populated areas, development would be easier. Is it possible?

Uma Shanker: The budget structure of the government shows that the mountainous area gets the highest share in per capita allocation. I think it is corruption that has led to this situation.

Sushma Acharya: The mountainous areas are rich in resources, so rich that it is hard to imagine. But we see the differences in the ability to exploit the resources between China and us, if we just travel to Tibet and compare. Why have we not realized these potentials so far?

Habibullah: The paper includes Nepal's political history. What is it that we should have done to realize our potential? How do we resolve the insurgency where even international forces are involved?

Keshav Khadka: Yes, the remote areas are not a liability but an asset. But still, this paper also avoids discussing the conflict that the seminar promises. Which model do we need to adopt to allow these resources to be exploited for the needy by depending on Tibet? So far we have been depending on India.
We have a lot of displaced people in then urban areas as well. It is not just the people of remote areas who are needy. How do we fulfill their needs?

Jagannath Ojha: What were the bases of declaring 'remote areas'? If socio-economic indicators and other indicators were included to do so, supplementary budgets would help development. Mustang is prosperous and does not need to be called 'remote'.

Chuda B. Shrestha: I do not know whether the new demarcation of remote areas are done by including communities as well. If we can facilitate local participation in schools, civil service and other sectors, apart from saving on government allocation, the local people would benefit.
Secondly, do you see potential in horticulture?

Bhola Pokhrel: Remote area people are not included in development. Needs are assessed by the elite in Kathmandu. How we include them in the development process should be the most important question that needs to be answered.
Talking of using the Chinese routes to replace the Indian one is simply looking at the same 60s concept in a different manner. They should be allowed to assess their own needs.

Pancha N. Maharjen: Implicating America in the Maoist issue by generalizing the Rapti project and Toni Hagen's case appears too hypothetical. Did you observe actual indicators or are you just making generalizations?
We will have to look at the genesis of the communist movement in Nepal. It was formed in India. It was the political rivalry with BP Koirala that made Pushpa Lal open the Communist Party and not ideological belief. The Jhapa movement was a purely Naxalite influence.

Reply by Vidya Bir Kansakar
The Maoist movement began because of the failure of development programmes then. The Rapti programme was a huge failure. We do not see any plan setting goals like employment of a certain number of people.
If the National Assembly can be turned into a political institution to represent the marginalized people and ethnic groups, their voice can be heard.
More than corruption, it is the costs involved in working in remote areas- for example transport costs and employee pay- are too high sending the costs skyward.
Resource mapping has not been carried out for their proper exploitation. This is necessary. If we focus just on present demand patterns and merely work to meet them, it may not be possible. More needs to be done.
State facilities are being enjoyed only by the well-off, and not the really needy.
Also political leaders have played a major role in discouraging the youth from involving themselves in nation-building. Even Tribhuvan University students doing the National Development Service work were stopped, robbing them from the opportunity to do so.
We have not been able to use the existing roads and passes to Tibet, forget about the potential to develop nine of them.
We have not heard anyone dying from hunger in Nepal, but in India there are many doing so. Businessmen have capitalized on this difference.
There are records proving the infiltration of arms during the Khampa uprising. Toni Hagen's persona non grata case too is well known.
We need to increase employment opportunities. No country can develop by exporting its manpower.

Chairman Govinda Dhakal's remarks
The paper describes the challenges in the development of Nepal and proposes using Tibetan routes to counter them. Such remote are our areas that we did not even know arms air-drops during the Khampa uprising when it happened. Others had to inform us about those activities.
We are applying the dependency theory on remote societies. We should have focussed on sovereignty by tying them up with the local resources.
If you relate the present situation with the conflict, the paper would have been even better.
In Rapti, the local youth were very highly paid. But once the Rapti Valley project went, frustration mounted and may have contributed to the conflict. But that alone may not be the factor.

DAY II
SESSION I
Paper 4
Chair: Yub Raj Pandey
Presenter Jagannath Ojha
Paper: Institutional Arrangement for Distribution of Basic Goods and Services in Conflict Areas

FLOOR DISCUSSION

Ram Kumar Dahal: What could the advantage to the supply side brought on by the conflict?
How do we manage the basic goods suppliers [govt.corp] in the conflict situation?

Prem Sharma: Are political parties still feudal as during the feudal lords' times?
You talk of monitoring and evaluation. But we do not have adequate legal provisions to check irregularities and corruption in local level development programmes.
The models you provide on Page 9 should also provide one for programme execution.

M. Habibullah: You talk of failure of the old leadership and say that the new leadership has not matured. You also talk of ethnic separatism and sub-nationalism. How do we resolve this, as it is a vital factor of conflict?

Vidya Bir Kansakar: Decentralization should include all sectors, not just government. More importantly, authority, accountability and less interference should be delegated by the centre to the local level.
You talk of National Trading Ltd. But the genesis of the agency was that it was created to take care of the grant aid from Russia and China.
Salt Trading Corp. works well because the government does not interfere too much with it.
The buffer zone that you talk about should instead be a relocation of the district headquarters, from the perspective of service delivery. The headquarters that we have today are handed down from the Rana times. Also the number of district headquarters must be revised. Why have three headquarters in the Kathmandu Valley?
The government should make laws and rules that make NGO services sustainable, instead of the one-time service they are championing these days. Whether it is the land reform programme, the Rapti project or the New Education Plan, none of them were sustained for long and became a major contributor to the conflict. The Americans also specialized in getting into sectors that we did not have. However, the farm research centres are an example of need-based projects that they brought for Nepal.
My question is: What is the situation of law and order in areas where there is government or in areas where there are government agencies?

Uma Shanker: Could you provide data on the share of contribution of the various organizations, from the local level right up to the centre, in service delivery?

Raghav Raj Regmi: The paper does institutional mapping well, but the analytical part is weak. It would have been better to sort out the issues for analysis rather than taking up individual institutions to do so.
It also appears to give an impression that service delivery was good before the conflict started.
You talk of food deficit, but do not provide the trend of the deficit over time.
You talk of public-private partnership which is possible only when their core competencies have been identified and addressed.
You have not talked of donors who are the major actors today.
We should also talk of sectoral weaknesses otherwise such silence too becomes hypocrisy or dishonesty.
How is the doling out of money by donors contributing to the conflict? This too needs to be answered for a resolution.
It is not that the government has not done anything. Public hearing, citizen's charter and other initiatives have also been institutionalized. Talking only of the weaknesses of the government and the strengths of the NGOs is not fair.

Guna Nidhi Sharma: I feel the paper does not meet the theme of the seminar. It focuses more on development rather than the institutions. The theme is to do with distribution-bias but your paper shows development-bias. You do not talk of PDS in the paper. Starvation, public health crisis like cholera and flu, and the like issues should have been focussed more.
Your paper concentrates on organized institutions but does not talk of unorganized ones like the Guthi which need to be formalized. Such informal social networks and agencies include even the Maoists.
We only talk of physical and social infrastructure while discussing development, but ignore the financial infrastructure. Absence of banks in an area robs the salarymen of their pay in a timely manner. Also micro-credit institutions should be devised in 'remote areas that lie at the heart of urban centres'.

Lal Babu Yadav: You talk of conflict between the state and the Maoists, but there is another party that is out in the streets. Which side have you lumped them with?
You talk of traditional social workers as feudal, but there are those who are sheer volunteers.
Karnali Zone still suffers from neglect.
You do not appear to mention the zonal institutions while talking about regional, district and village institutions.
The Local Government Act only envisages delegation of authority to local institutions, not devolution, as it can be dissolved by the centre.
How can one make the local bodies more effective in service delivery?

Chetana Lokshum: How do we provide basic needs and services to conflict victims? Access must be made easy for them. We have seen that administrative neglect have pushed many of them towards seeking Maoist services rather than state services, at least in Rolpa. In other countries we see youngsters divert their attention to crime. This makes orientation programmes for the young victims a must.
The most obvious problems in the conflict situation are not addressed and they are to do with the psychological trauma.

Rabindra Khanal: You talk of buffer zones to be set up and dismantling of existing district boundaries. Kansakar talks about relocation. Wouldn't mobile services be a better idea, as we know that relocation will ultimately lead to the same problem over time.
As long as local development ministry handles local government, it is going to have development bias. The units should rather work as local parliaments. For this, local government has to be under the parliament.
How do you widen the tax net? Why increase grants if they cannot be spent?
Regarding donors, I also agree that their role in intensifying the conflict must be put under the spotlight. They spent too much when there was no capacity, thus increasing the gulf between the haves and have-nots, e.g. disparities in lifestyles and the like.
It is better for the centre to keep its hands off local issues, but there are areas where the centre does have a role.

Chuda B. Shrestha: You may have to replace the 'government institutions' terminology with 'state institutions'.
Mobile courts would help execute justice in conflict areas. In fact, the Maoists have been able to attract a lot of local people to their Jana Adalat for speedy justice, while the government is lax in that regard. Similarly, elections should be held as quickly as possible to have the people represented. Community policing can help improve law and order. Demarcation of local government in developed countries includes socio-political factors, social service delivery and other dimensions as well. In Nepal, the 205 constituencies have been demarcated in such a manner as to force people to travel through another constituency to reach their own local institutions. In some parts conflict arose because of demarcation of constituencies or villages.
We may need to restructure the PDS to meet the needs of conflict victims.

Govinda Dhakal: What were the functions that should have been carried out by the institutions and how has the conflict affected those functions? Only answers to those questions can address the weaknesses and strengths of the institutions. For this a case study must be carried out in conflict areas.
The citations and references that you provide do not appear to be related to the text that you provide.

Maheswarman Shrestha: The paper does not appear to justify the theme. In fact, the issues that you provide have little to do with a conflict situation, although they may be relevant for a post-conflict or pre-conflict situation.
Also the paper does not talk about service delivery by the insurgents. Although the state makes deliveries as well, those caught in the conflict have not received services from any quarter. In fact they have been attacked by both security forces and Maoists.
We should be talking only of basic goods and services in the supply system at the moment. The other goods and services are of less priority.

Keshav Khadka: In Cambodia, a model of service deliverers was developed linking UN organizations with the needs on the ground, like health with WHO.
The figures need correcting.
Your approach should address the needs of the people.

Khilanath Dahal: You try to portray that political openness promoted conflict in Nepal. But, this does not happen anywhere in the world.
Comparing the conflict with the earlier situation, we see that there is conflict that also involves political parties. How acceptable is service delivery when mayors are boycotted. Maybe we need to include the political parties in service delivery.

Khel Bahadur Shrestha: Food delivery has become more costly with the conflict as it has had to be airlifted in many areas. This has not be addressed by the paper. What could be the role of NGOs in minimizing the conflict and facilitating supply?

Ujjwal Baral: The private sector is taken as an effective vehicle, but in Sindhuli, the CDO must endorse the supply of even minor items like instant noodles. I feel that such passes by CDOs should not be made mandatory.
Who gives authority to the civil society? Who are they accountable to and how do they provide the services? I feel it is the community that is the civil society.

Dev Raj Dahal: The western civil society organizations are charity based. Ours too were charity based in the olden days. But the urban, rights based and post-modern variety are more linked with the state. If they are involved in addressing the people's needs and rights they are civil, if not they are evil.
Conflict transforms social actors. For example, ethnicity is a subsidiary actor, not an actor in itself. They have merged with the classes in the class conflict.
Nepal's conflict is getting entrenched because the civil society is not trying to mediate it, they are rather aggravating it. The media does not try to provide communication between actors but instead fuelling it.
Donors do have the charity motive in many instances, but they face the problem of space.

Rudra Upadhya: The process of privatization should have been discussed by the paper.

Reply by Jagannath Ojha
I will try to orient the paper to give an institutional perspective from its present development bias. I thank you for the contributions you have made in enriching the paper.

Presentation 5
Presenter: Ram Kumar Dahal
The Supply of Wage Goods to the Remote Himalayan and Mountain Districts of Nepal

FLOOR DISCUSSION

Bharat Pokhrel: The title includes terms like Himalayan and Mountain Regions. How have you demarcated them?
You talk of salt, food and kerosene. What about other basic goods?
There is local production and we hear that even a bank has opened in Rolpa with Maoist initiation. On the other hand, the government screens goods going to remote areas. This is the state of basic goods supply. Hence, conflict resolution becomes the first priority. How will your recommendations help?

Khel Bahadur Shrestha: Food for Work is not run by Food Corporation. It is run by the Local Development Ministry.
It is the DDC chairman who heads the committee, not the LDO.
You also mention corruption in the supply system. But speculation does not do justice to an academic paper. Also, the loans statistics are not correct. Please verify your facts.

Guna Nidhi Sharma: Presentation should be more rational than emotional. The title demands focus on wage goods. Single-use and durable-use goods are a classification that I do not understand. Classifications should be done along standards already set and not haphazardly as it creates confusion. In fact you need not develop or go into such concepts as they are redundant in the context.

Raghav Raj Regmi: The Food Work Programme of the ICIW and the Food Corp's food supply has worked to ease the supply situation. There is a lot of corruption and cartelling in the food supply. Please, do not hide the fact of corruption.
If you differentiate pharmaceutical supplies along public and private lines it would be better.
The supplies need to be accessible, affordable, available, of acceptable quality and adequate-- or the 5 As must be adhered to. There is also a lot of diversion in the use of the food supplied- like used by officials and security personnel, or used to make raksi and the like- instead of being used for the intended purpose.
Also, there is local import and export. If this local trade is managed well, a lot of the supply situation would ease.

Uma Shanker: It is widely accepted that there is huge corruption in the government and public sector. In some places they do not even want to part with the data they have.

Prem Sharma: The definition regarding 'wage goods' or Himalayan and Mountain Regions must be addressed.
Is the supply regime solely a government domain or also involves the private sector?

Reply by Ram Kumar Dahal
I have talked about 'corruption in the past' while I was working at the Food Corporation. I do not know what is happening today. I know that there are bad things happening there, but not all are so.
The data I used were based on the information given to me by an employee of the NFC.

Rermarks by chairman Yub Raj Pandey
Thank you all

Vote of thanks by Anand Srestha