Kathmandu, June 8
Radhika Tamang was the Minister of State for Agricultural Development till Tuesday. She would go to Singhadarbar on her vehicle and discharge her duties from a sophisticated office room.
The country elected a new Prime Minister on Tuesday and he formed a new Cabinet on Wednesday.
With this development, Tamang’s daily routine has significantly changed. She has been back to her tomato farm in Manamainju of Kathmandu.
“I did not have much time for farming while I was in the government,” Tamang says, “My whole family depends on this professions. Therefore, I am thinking of taking more land on lease and expand my farm.”
Currently, Tamang is cultivating tomatoes on a five-ropani land. Her husband, DB, does most of the farm works.
It has been five years since the couple started farming. After she was offered to look after the portfolio related to her profession, Tamang accepted the proposal and entered Singhadarbar with a mission to give a facelift to Nepal’s agricultural sector.
However, 10 months down the line, Tamang feels she could not do as much as she had expected.
She now feels that a state minister can do nothing in a jumbo Cabinet. Further, she says staff at the Ministry did not cooperate with her.
Around the time she was made the minister, the Ministry was preparing for a decision to purchase chemical fertilisers. Tamang checked the proposed deal and found that the purchase could incur a huge loss to the state.
“But, I was alone at the Ministry to fight against the decision,” she recollects, adding that she had to fight against the Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, also the chief of her CPN-Maoist Centre party, for clarification about roles and responsibilities of a state minister.
Tamang shares that she had thought of calling it quits once after differences with the Minister, Gauri Shankar Chaudhary who also belongs to the same party, but had withdrawn after the Prime Minister assured that he would make an environment for her to carry out duties.
Now, she is relieved of her responsibilities and planning to continue with farming as well as obeying the party responsibilities.
“I have been a farmer before I was a lawmaker,” she says, “I will make my profession more respectable as I will continue with my job.”
