KATHMANDU, JULY 13: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on Thursday instructed newly-appointed Chief Secretary Rajendra Kishor Kshetri to bar top bureaucrats and other officials from going abroad to attend 'unnecessary' events.   

Deuba directed the chief secretary to bar the bureaucrats from unnecessary foreign visits immediately after appointing Kshetri to the helm of the bureaucracy. 

A cabinet meeting Thursday morning appointed Kshetri to the post of chief secretary, which had been vacant after outgoing chief secretary Som Lal Subedi quit to become an alternative director of the Asian Development Bank. 

“The prime ninister directed the chief secretary to completely bar foreign trips by government secretaries other than those related to  bilateral relations,” said the prime minister's press advisor, Govinda Pariyar. 

Following the instruction from the prime minister, Chief Secretary Kshetri circulated the instruction to all the government secretaries attending a function later Thursday at which he assumed his new office . “The prime minister has expressed his concern and asked me to prohibit foreign visits by secretaries that have to do with irrelevent matters and that do not concern bilateral issues,” Pariyar quoted Kshatri as instructing the secretaries. 

Chief Secretary Kshetri has also asked the secretaries to instruct other government offices to follow the same direction. 

Press advisor Pariyar said  the government is also planning to probe the uncalled-for foreign visits by secretaries and other civil servants. “The decision has been taken after Nagarik and Republica dailies reported about the foreign junketing by government officials,” he added. 

 
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