<figure><img width="800" height="1200" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110814110/636a53759c7e80680e052351jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Photos: BIKRAM RAI</figcaption></figure>If this is the state of the streets in the capital, imagine what it is like in the rest of the country.Exactly a year ago this week, Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa assured Parliament’s Good Governance Committee that the government would “coordinate with stakeholders” to fix <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Sinkhole-politics-in-Nepal,3837" target="_blank" rel="noopener">roads in the capital</a>. “Due to the negligence of contractors, development projects have not moved ahead and efforts have been made to get them going in coordination with concerned ministries to improve the conditions of roads in Kathmandu,” Thapa was quoted as saying by state news agency RSS on 14 August 2018.A year has passed. And like most government promises, it was never kept. Kathmandu’s roads this monsoon are in an even worse state than <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/political-quagmire/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">last year</a>. Streets dug up for laying water mains or sewers are abandoned like booby traps, like this pit in Sanepa (above). After locals along the Boudha-Jorpati stretch blocked the street earlier this year in protest, the government hurriedly started repairs. But the monsoon turned the road into a quagmire again.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110814110/636a53779c7e80680e052352jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="1500"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110814110/636a537a9c7e80680e052353jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="1500"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110814110/636a537d9c7e80680e052354jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110814110/636a53819c7e80680e052355jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"> <figure><img width="1400" height="933" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110814110/636a53849c7e80680e052356jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>A scene at Teku bridge this week.</figcaption></figure><figure><img width="2000" height="1500" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110814110/636a53899c7e80680e052357jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>A landslide this week on Sanfe-Martadi road is preventing big four wheel vehicles from travelling in and out of Martadi. The road is the main connection to the remote mountain district of Bajura. Photos: MONIKA DEUPALA</figcaption></figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110814110/636a538c9c7e80680e052358jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2000" height="1500"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110814110/636a53909c7e80680e052359jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2000" height="1500"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110814110/636a53949c7e80680e05235ajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2000" height="1500"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110814110/636a53989c7e80680e05235bjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2000" height="1500">It is worse in the hinterland, where not only are the roads never repaired but new ones are being dug through the mountains <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/nepals-fatalistic-ke-garne-culture/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">just to spend budgets</a>, unleashing rockfalls on farms and settlements below.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=31532&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Driving Nepal deeper into debt</a>, Ramesh KumarGovernment SUVs drive along roads that are in poor shape because the budgets to repair them have been spent on expensive cars. Our investigation shows that in the past three years, federal and provincial governments spent a massive Rs250 million on buying SUVs. This may be an absolute majority government, but it has been an <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/own-worst-enemy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">absolute failure in service delivery</a>. Meanwhile, the federal government this fiscal year spent 2.45% of its total budget on buying vehicles even though most infrastructure is abandoned or half complete after private contractors with political protection absconded with money.

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Disrepair

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110814110/636a539b9c7e80680e05235cjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="933"/><figcaption>Photo: BIKRAM RAI</figcaption></figure>In the past three years, federal and provincial governments spent a massive Rs216.5 million on vehicles. If we add the budget allocated to vehicles this fiscal year, it adds up to more than Rs250 million, not including the budgets for cars of local governments and projects.All three spheres of government are ignoring their own declaration to minimise expenses, and are wasting money on frivolous items. And the irony of it all is that the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/SUV-nada-auto-show-2015,2586" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SUVs are driving along roads that are in advanced stages of disrepair</a> because the money has all gone for expensive cars.Read also: <a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=31531&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Disrepair</a>Though the government has been <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/dangerous-driving/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">slow to provide development and service delivery</a>, vehicle-related expenses have grown six-fold since 2013. The federal government is the biggest spender: provincial governments accounted for just Rs20 million spent on cars in the past three years.This fiscal year the federal government spent 2.45% of its development budget on vehicles. While it is perennially unable to fully disburse that budget, it spent four times more on vehicles than the amount allocated, even transferring money from other budget lines to do so.“Using <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/nepals-fatalistic-ke-garne-culture/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unspent development budget</a> to buy vehicles is just an unnecessary expense,” says former government secretary Purna Chandra Bhatttarai. Other experts say that it is not just elected representatives, bureaucrats are also draining state resources.According to the 56th report of the auditor-general, among the 800 vehicles in the 22 Singha Darbar-based ministries, only 622 are operational. Some are not being used even though they are in running condition — new vehicles are being bought before old ones are phased out. After an order from the PM’s office, 201 vehicles were handed over to various organisations this year, including many that were still in working order.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/no-shame/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">No shame</a>“Buying new vehicles involves kickbacks, so the tendency to buy new vehicles is increasing,” says former finance secretary Rameshwar Khanal.Four new Scorpios were bought for deputy attorney-generals last July, not because they were necessary but because the existing five-year-old vehicles were considered too old. At the end of the last fiscal year, 16 Scorpios were purchased for the chiefs of the House of Representatives and National Assembly, displacing 10-year-old vehicles.The National Inclusion Commission bought five vehicles costing at least Rs4 million for its chief and 4 members. But to date the commission has only one member — the others have not yet been appointed. The vehicles are covered and stored on the office premises. Many other new commissions have already bought vehicles for their yet-to-be appointed members.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/a-klepto-republic/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A klepto republic</a>, Editorial<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110814110/636a539c9c7e80680e05235djpeg.jpg" alt="" width="809" height="442">According to the auditor-general’s report, there are 1,323 officer-level officials in the Ministry of Agriculture, and 1,577 vehicles in operation. There are 174 vehicles for 90 officers in the Finance Ministry and 151 vehicles for 94 officials in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). Many senior officials are accused of having separate vehicles for home and office use.According to a guideline issued by the Finance Ministry, new vehicles should be bought only for newly-established organisations. Other offices should buy new vehicles only every 15 years. This guideline is considered legally binding, so ministries and other bodies are actually breaking the law. Only officials at joint secretary level and above are supposed to get vehicles, but today deputy secretaries and even junior officers are riding in government vehicles. Some officials have even acquired the habit of buying a new vehicle immediately after they are promoted or transferred.Joint Secretary Binod Kunwar of the PMO says the office has made efforts to have an inventory of vehicles in working order, but hasn’t succeeded because of lack of cooperation from government entities.Read also:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-business-of-politics-undermines-nepals-democracy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The business of politics undermines Nepal's democracy</a>, Ramesh Kumar<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-has-to-curb-corruption-before-wooing-investors/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nepal has to curb corruption before wooing investors</a>, Ramesh KumarThe Ministry of Finance does have guidelines on the capacity of vehicles that can be bought, but they are routinely ignored. Even money allocated to build public infrastructure is being spent on vehicles.Repair and maintenance of vehicles is another area full of irregularities, including money being allocated for the upkeep of vehicles that have been in storage for years. Kunwar says the vehicles have become a long-term burden on the state.The Ministry of Finance continues to dole out huge sums of money to keep officers happy, and the government has taken no steps to regulate it, despite the fact that the Finance Ministry has issued guidelines to reduce operating costs. This includes a rule that government vehicles should not have private license plates, but this is also ignored.The government also has a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/20-electric-by-2020/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">policy of going electric</a>, but continues to buy fossil fuel vehicles. Former Finance Secretary Rameswhor Khanal, who himself drives an <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/electri-city-cars/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">electric Kia Soul</a>, explains:  “There are fewer dealers of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-electric-transport-future-is-here/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">electric vehicles</a> in the market, so there are less kickbacks in their purchase. Besides, you cannot make up fake bills of repair and maintenance of electric cars, which is why they are less popular.”

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Driving Nepal deeper into debt

Samsung Nepal has opened pre-orders for the Galaxy A57 5G and A37 5G. Both phones run Samsung’s One UI 8.5, featuring AI capabilities like voice transcription, Circle to Search, and photo editing. They feature a 50MP triple-camera system, a Super AMOLED display, and six years of OS and security updates.

Galaxy A series

Know your Ministers

Prime Minister Balendra Shah on Wednesday broke tradition and met with 17 foreign envoys collectively, a move that was a notable departure from how his predecessors operated.&nbsp;
Shah had already set himself apart by talking less, listening more, and delegating to trusted friends. But by meeting all ambassadors at one go in the presence of the Foreign Ministry, he signalled a paradigm shift in how he wants Nepal to be seen: no longer just balancing India and China, but as a country confident about its <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/guest-editorial/tripolar-contestation-over-nepal">strategic importance and place in the world</a>.
In just two weeks, the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/rsp-dos-and-don-ts">RSP has sprung into action </a>on multiple fronts to implement its ambitious 100-point, 100-days action plan. It has taken short-term measures to mitigate the impact of the Gulf war, as well as medium- and long- term measures to streamline the bureaucracy. A few high-profile figures have been made examples of to drive the message home.
Earlier this week, the government recalled six politically appointed ambassadors, the most notable being long-serving Shankar Sharma from New Delhi. The Kathmandu District Court issued arrest warrants against former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and his former foreign minister wife Arzu Rana on charges of money laundering and corruption.
Each ministry has been trying to clean up the accumulated rot from the past three decades: regulatory overhaul of microfinance, education, health and service delivery.&nbsp;
These actions widely disseminated campaign-style on YouTube and TikTok have made most Nepalis hopeful that the party they installed in power means business.
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BACKLASH
But such attempts to overhaul a long-entrenched political culture were bound to face backlash. In their impatience and enthusiasm to get things done, some of Prime Minister Shah’s ministers have over-reached.
It was common knowledge that government-paid advertising in the mainstream press was kickback-driven, but the PMO’s directive that official notices be published or broadcast only on state-run media has been denounced — especially as the media industry struggles to stay afloat.
More serious are some recent appointments by ministers of relatives and figures closely associated with the RSP to key positions. This has rankled because this party built its political plank on ending nepotism and graft.&nbsp;
News that Home Minister Sudan Gurung allegedly had not paid rent on leased land, which illegally encroached on the lake in Pokhara did not help. &nbsp;
Prime Minister Shah himself has come under scrutiny for appointing a kitchen cabinet full of male buddies from his time as Kathmandu mayor. To douse criticism he brought in as adviser investigative journalist Deepa Dahal, who has exposed corruption in high places of the previous coalitions.&nbsp;
Shah’s appointment of another political adviser Asim Shah to the head Constitution Amendment Task Force, is also seen as problematic. He is a filmmaker and former lawmaker, but does not have a background in constitutional law.&nbsp;
Even more controversial is the Cabinet’s decision to appoint RSP Chair Rabi Lamichhane’s legal counsel, Narayan Kandel, as Attorney General. Kandel used to be a UK permanent resident, and does not have as much experience practicing law in Nepal.&nbsp;
Kandel’s appointment drew flak and raised eyebrows, and with the pending legal cases against Lamichhane this appointment represents a flagrant conflict of interest.
Health Minister Nisha Mehta was also accused of favouritism after reappointing Junu Shrestha, wife of Labour Minister Dipak Kumar Shah, as member of the Health Insurance Board which had earlier suspended her. The Labour Minister’s rambling rant at the Board’s meeting on Tuesday has not helped the RSP’s image.&nbsp;
(UPDATE: On Thursday, Prime Minister Shah sacked the Labour Minister after the RSP found him in breach of the party's code of conduct and discipline. He served 14 days in the Cabinet, one of the shortest tenures for a minister in Nepal )
It is hard to know what <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/ball-in-balen-s-court">Balendra Shah is thinking</a>, and how Rabi Lamichhane is going to justify some of these moves. After all, making politics, governance, and bureaucracy a meritocracy has been the core tenet of the RSP, and it risks alienating its mainly youth base if these missteps persist.
But at least for now, most RSP supporters seem to be giving the party the benefit of doubt.

Nepal’s new government springs into action

In a classic arc of political sociology, a revolutionary figure takes several decades to complete their cycle: mobilisation, institutionalisation, and finally governance. 
However, the timeline of this trajectory has been telescoped in the case of Home Minister Sudan Gurung, who in 2025 described himself as a social activist and volunteer, has gone from the barricades of the GenZ protests to the mahogany desk of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Gurung is a personal pick of Prime Minister Balendra Shah, and played a pivotal role in getting him to join the RSP by mediating with Rabi Lamichhane. His journey serves as a real test bed for the ‘Outsider-to-Insider Transition’, raising a fundamental question about someone who now leads the very apparatus that he once fought against: the police, intelligence service, and the bureaucracy.
Social capital can indeed be built during a crisis exacerbated by state failure, and that is where we first see Sudan Gurung — expediting relief delayed by systemic corruption and red tape. Gurung’s delivery aid through a social-media-driven volunteer network bypassed the government. 
Whether or not he really rushed a dying child to hospital after the 2015 earthquake does not matter, it has become an urban legend. 
His work evolved into the non-profit Hami Nepal in 2020, serving as a ‘parallel state’ mechanism that would later become central to his public identity. Later, his group sprang into action during the Covid crisis, organising oxygen cylinders and beds . He was there after flood disasters in Manang and Sidhupalchok, and even organised Rs15m worth of aid to Turkey after the 2023 earthquake. 
Moral Legitimacy became his primary source of power, and he strategically positioned himself as an alternative emergency response system. But the real rupture happened on 8 September 2025 when years of frustration, corruption scandals, lack of transparency and state accountability culminated in a rally that the next day descended into anarchy. 
There was no single leader. The movement was fully decentralised, but as elsewhere such upheavals produces a recognisable face. Among them was Sudan Gurung. Who despite being a millennial himself, became the most visible interlocutor of the GenZ movement. 
He negotiated with the state’s key actors, including the president and the Chief of Army staff, during the period of uncertainty When the country was on the brink. This led to the dissolution of parliament and the formation of the interim government under Sushila Karki, paving the way for the election on 5 March.
Since then, Sudan Gurung’s role has become contradictory. Within days of touching Prime Minister Karki’s feet after her swearing in, he was at the gates of Baluwatar spearheading midnight demonstrations calling for her resignation. He accused her and Home Minister Om Prakash Aryal of not consulting the youth over Cabinet appointments and not arresting the previous government officials.
This oscillation became a hallmark of Gurung’s own version of the ‘Radical Flank Effect’ — erratic behaviour to force the establishment to make concessions. 
On 18 January Gurung formally joined the RSP, and started campaigning from his home constituency of Gorkha-1. He won decisively and was appointed home minister by Balendra Shah. The transition was complete. 
As minister his role spans core security areas: overseeing internal security through the Nepal Police, Armed Police Force and the intelligence bureau. The man who took part in anti-government rallies is now in charge of the riot police that aresupposed control anti-government protests.
His portfolio also handles state administration matters such as citizenship, immigration, and border security, coordinates with the judicial system on prisons, detention, and policies related to punishment and clemency. For example will be overseeing the fraud case against his own party’s chair, Lamichhane.
In his book Power in Movement, political scientist Sidney Tarrow observes that social movement leaders encounter ‘institutional capture’ upon entering government. In a sociological paradox, the man who previously denounced the police for killing youth protesters is now the person who issues directives to those same forces.
Preventive detention, surveillance, and the control of public festivals are the same instruments that the former old guard employed to stifle his movement. The activist who demanded transparency at the B P Koirala Institute now manages the state’s most secretive security apparatus.
In this arc, Gurung is not alone, there are parallels around the world for leaders emerging from the ashes of revolt. It is not so much a prediction, but for Gurung the challenge is even more acute because youth expectations are so high.
The bar for performance has been raised by citizens demanding change and quicker, more efficient service delivery. He is under constant public scrutiny, which is why he has to take YouTubers every time he goes on inspections of the airport, the BP Highway, police stations, picking trash on the sidewalks or meeting the Swiss ambassador to ask about repatriating the ill-gotten wealth of politicians.
Sudan Gurung is facing intense public glare. There have been calls to reveal the truth behind Hami Nepal’s finances, the alleged links to Free Tibet, and lately not paying five years of rent for an illegal lakefront property in Pokhara. 
As minister, he will find that moral legitimacy alone is no longer sufficient, it must be reinforced by transparent and consistent institutional accountability. Sudan Gurung’s ascent is evidence that the public mostly trusts ‘outsiders’ during times of crisis. However, history also cautions us that the state only permits ‘insiders’ to operate. 
Gurung will have to organise systemic reform to inject the transparency of his volunteer days to the Home Ministry’s traditionally secretive disbursements. If he fails, he runs the risk of validating Michels’ Iron Law of Oligarchy, which would serve as a warning about how revolutionary energy is dissipated by the very structures it was intended to overthrow.
Nepal is watching the man who said he once held a dying child in his arms after an earthquake. The volunteer has become the Warden.
Nischal Raj Gautam is a student of Media Studies and Mass Communication at St. Xavier's College, Maitighar. He is a member of the EU Delegation's Youth Sounding Board (YSB), and a journalist for TheirWorld's The Education Issue 2026.

suvs

Disrepair

Driving Nepal deeper into debt

Galaxy A series

Know your Ministers

Nepal’s new government springs into action

He said no to politics. Now he runs it.