KATHMANDU, Dec 27: The government forced controversial Digambar Jha, the chairman of Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA), out of the post on Wednesday. 

Minister for Information and Communication Gokul Baskota forced Jha to resign after receiving huge pressure within the party to remove the former bureaucrat. Baskota confirmed that he has received the resignation of Jha, who was reappointed to the post again in September after a gap of 64 days. 

As many as 43 central members of the Nepal Communist Party had prepared a memorandum and submitted it to chairmen KP Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal earlier this week, demanding Jha’s removal in order to render the government corruption-free. 

Jha, who was appointed by the previous government for a second stint as the telecom regulator chairman last year, had been sacked in a group by the current government along with several other key officials appointed by previous governments. 

Jha is a retired civil engineer from the Ministry of Energy and has already served as general manager of Nepal Oil Corporation. 

In September, a plan to appoint him at a previous cabinet meeting had been put on hold as some ministers opposed this, but PM Oli himself then tabled the proposal to appoint him.

During Jha’s tenure at NTA, he was criticized for not taking any initiative to retrieve the profit tax during the ownership transfer of Ncell. Questions were also raised about irregularities during 4G technology licensing and optical fiber expansion. 

A few months after assuming office, Information Minister Baskota, acting on a report on Jha’s performance at the NTA helm, had restricted him to administrative duties. Later, Jha along with other political appointees of the Deuba government was removed by a cabinet decision on July 4. 

Jha moved the Supreme Court against the government decision and the apex court stayed the decision. But everyone was taken by surprise when he withdrew the case before a full verdict was handed down.

 
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