The government has decided to transfer tourism secretary Maheshwar Neupane to the Public Procurement Monitoring Office after he declined to prepare a proposal to transfer CAAN Director General Sanjeev Gautam.
KATHMANDU, Jan 26: Notwithstanding the warnings issued by the CPN-UML Chairman K P Sharma Oli, the caretaker government led by Sher Bahadur Deuba has continued taking important decisions.
A cabinet meeting held on Thursday decided to transfer Secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MOCTCA) Maheshwar Neupane to the Public Procurement Monitoring Office (PPMC) after he declined to prepare a proposal to transfer Director General of Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) Sanjeev Gautam and appoint Joint Secretary Suresh Acharya in Gautam's place.
UML warns govt against making any key decisions, appointments
The meeting decided to bring Krishna Devkota of PPMC to MOCTCA.
"Minister [Jitendra] Dev had been pressuring me through [ Bijaya ] Gachchhadar to prepare a proposal to remove CAAN DG Gautam and appoint Suresh Acharya in the post since Wednesday. I had declined the request saying I cannot take such a controversial decision. Since then I had kept my mobile switched off. I just came to learn that I have been transferred to the Procurement Office," Neupane told Republica over phone, Thursday evening.
After Secretary Neupane refused to prepare the proposal for submission in the cabinet meeting, Joint Secretary Acharya, who was eyeing the post, had himself drafted the proposal on his own. Chief Secretary Lok Darshan Regmi had turned down the proposal, saying that it did not meet necessary criterion. Deputy Prime Minister Gachchhadar apparently under pressure from a private airline operator has long been trying to remove CAAN DG Gautam to serve his vested interest.
The cabinet meeting on Thursday also decided to apppoint Chhatra Giri as the chairman of Nepal Family Planning Association, removing the entire panel led by Amu Singh Sinjapati. A tea estate owner from Jhapa, Giri has a controversial background, which informed sources said, makes him ineligible even to contest in the Association's election.
In yet another controversial decision, the cabinet meeting decided to declare 37 persons killed in Badarmude incident in Chitwan, nine other killed by Maoists in Kaski and one other Hari Prasad Gurung killed by then Panchayat regime as martyrs.
According to law minister Yagya Bahadur Thapa, the government also decided to provide Rs 5,000 as monthly allowance to all national-level players who have won international medals for the country.
