Nepal, Aug. 12 -- Over a dozen commissions and committees have been formed in Nepal in the span of three decades, and largely none of their recommendations has been implemented. This tells the story of how successive governments over the decades constituted high-level panels to probe corruption, atrocities committed during different movements, the grabbing of public land and smuggling, among other issues, only to shelve their reports after they are submitted. In several instances, governments have not even received the reports from these panels.

The unresponsive attitude of successive governments has remained largely unchanged since the 1990s. In May 1990, the interim government led by Krishna Prasad Bhattarai formed a commission under t...