Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal gave a 30-point directive to the secretaries of the Government of Nepal on January 3. After an interaction with the secretaries on January 2 and 3, he instructed the secretaries to solve the problems in their ministries and identify the problems of the common people and get closer to the reality.
He said that the current situation where there are employees with actually nothing to do in the ministries and departments but there is a shortage of manpower at the municipal level which provides basic services to the people must be put to an end. It is mentioned in the directive issued by PM Dahal that if, even a month after the formation of the new government, people have to stand in long queues for passports, national identity cards, driving licenses, 'no objection certificates' provided by the Ministry of Education, treatment of patients in government hospitals, goods delivery, and pay land revenue tax, the government will have to be merciless in taking action against the officials concerned.
Change of Guard and OBOR
Prime Minister Dahal said that he does not want to punish anyone, but due to limited options, he has instructed government officials to take action to address the issues that are causing sufferings to the people. He emphasized that government officials will be held accountable for their inability to resolve these issues, and cannot excuse their inaction by saying that the queues for certain tasks are at the local level while queues for vehicle licenses are at the provincial level.
The administrators are feeling frustrated after receiving the Prime Minister's instructions. Some employees are expressing their dissatisfaction with the directives on social media. Umesh Mainali, a former chairman of the Public Service Commission and an expert on administration, commented that the sudden issuance of such an order by the government without evaluating the employees and administration will not send a positive message. He suggested that it would be more appropriate to identify and address problems in the administration before issuing these types of instructions.
He said that administrations cannot be run only by the instructions of the Prime Minister without policy changes, so the government should first complete the deficient policies. Former PSC chief Mainali said that there should be friendly behavior between the government and the employees and that there is no alternative to go hand in hand with each other. He said that when a person who has been prime minister twice comes to the leadership, the administration expects a lot, but there is no mature direction in the leadership.
