KATHMANDU, Sept 4: A cabinet meeting on Sunday could not finalize a name for the vacant position of chairman of Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA), amid controversies surrounding the nomination of Digambar Jha for the post. Jha is former chief of NTA. 

Besides Jha, the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology had nominated former government secretary Sushil Ghimire and senior director of NTA Purushottam Khanal as possible candidates for the post. 

According to a source, Minister for Communication and Information Technology Gokul Prasad Baskota is trying to reappoint Jha, who was removed from the post due to unsatisfactory performance. 

Despite having three names in hand, Baskota had recommended the cabinet to appoint Jha for the position of NTA chief, on Sunday. 

Some of the ministers in the cabinet meeting objected to reappoint Jha as NTA chief. The decision has been pending until the next meeting of the cabinet. 

A cabinet meeting had removed Jha from the post of NTA chief on July 4, 2018. 

To fill in the vacant post, the ministry had earlier published a vacancy notice, to which 15 candidates had applied, including: Digambar Jha, Buddhi Prashad Acharya, Anil Jha, Chudamani Chaulagain, Devnarayan Yadav, Rabindra Jha, Shivabhushan Lal, Ujjwal Pradhanang, Rohit Rauniyar, Bhupendra Bhandari, Madhusudhan Karmacharya, and Khadga Basnet.

A cabinet meeting had removed Jha from the post of NTA chief on July 4, 2018. 

To fill in the vacant post, the ministry had earlier published a vacancy notice, to which 15 candidates had applied: Digambar Jha, Buddhi Prasad Acharya, Anil Jha, Chudamani Chaulagain, Devnarayan Yadav, Rabindra Jha, Shivabhushan Lal, Ujjwal Pradhanang, Rohit Rauniyar, Bhupendra Bhandari, Madhusudhan Karmacharya, and Khadga Basnet.

 
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• Nepal_Telecommunications_Authority
 
• Digambar_Jha
 
• Sushil_Ghimire
 
• Purushottam_Khanal