SC issues interim order allowing NMA to provide climbing permits

KATHMANDU, Dec 9: Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) has received interim order from the Supreme Court (SC) to continue providing climbing permits for 33 peaks until further decision is made. This means that climbers will now be getting permits again from the NMA instead of the government's Department of Tourism (DoT).

Ang Tshering Sherpa, president of the NMA, said that they received an interim order from the SC on Tuesday asking them to resume their works on Wednesday. “Now, we will be issuing permits for 33 peaks we had been operating,” said Sherpa.

The DoT had started providing permits for the NMA-operated peaks from mid October after the cabinet decided that the NMA will no longer be allowed to issue permits it has been providing since more than four decades. The NMA had been handling the peaks since 1977.

The NMA had filed a writ petition against the government's decision a week ago.

Earlier, the government had been handling peaks above 7,000 meters while the NMA had been handling peaks below 7,000 meters.

According to the court letter received by the NMA, it has been allowed to continue providing permits until the next decision is made on December 15.

“The SC has told us not to implement the government's decision of October 9, allowing the NMA to issue permits till December 15, unless further decisions are made,” said Jinesh Sindurakar, a representative of the NMA.

The cabinet meeting on October 9 had decided not to allow the NMA to issue permits. The NMA had received a letter in this regard on October 15 that stated it was no more eligible to provide permits to climb the peaks.

Meanwhile, the Director General of DoT Govinda Bahadur Karki said that they are yet to receive the letter from the SC.

“Once we receive the letter, we will stop issuing permits,” said Karki, adding that they had not received any letter till Wednesday evening.

According to the DoT, nobody applied for permit on Wednesday. Since mid October, around 1,000 individuals from different countries had applied for climbing permits for the 33 peaks under the NMA.

NMA had been collecting around Rs 70 million per year on an average from the permits it issues. Tourism entrepreneurs say that it is easy getting permits from the NMA rather than from the DoT due to lack of required human resource at the DoT.

Related story

Tourism department issues 128 climbing permits for spring