Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Anil Kumar Sinha, who held the responsibility of the maximum number of 5 ministries in the Gen-G government, has revealed that there was no cooperation from the Cabinet Office and the ministry in the decision to make him the Director General of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal.

The post of Director General was vacant after Pradeep Adhikari, the Director General of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, which is the taluk body of 55 airports across the country including Kathmandu, was suspended on 17 Mangsir 2082 on charges of corruption in the construction of Nalinchowk Heliport and Pokhara Regional International Airport. The work there was being carried out by the Acting Director General, first Joint Secretary Mukesh Dangol and then the Deputy Director General of the Authority, Devchandra Lal Karna.

After Pradeep Adhikari's four-year term as Director General ended on 16 Magh 2082, Minister Sinha wanted to appoint Devchandra Lal Karna, who was in the role of Acting Director General, as the Director General. However, despite his many efforts, he could not appoint Devchandra Lal Karna as the Director General of the Authority. ‘He was not allowed to do the work of DG (Director General) in the Authority’, in a brief conversation with Kantipur at the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation before his departure from the ministry on Tuesday, he had said, ‘When and where does it stop? When and where does it stop?’ For one, the Ministry of Tourism was late in sending the proposal. After sending the proposal from Tourism, it was not submitted to the cabinet. There was non-cooperation in the cabinet too. In the ministry too, it was late in the interest of some.’

He has experience that there are many vested interests in Nepal Civil Aviation. ‘Interest groups were very involved in the Authority. Karna was not allowed to be appointed as the Director General on the basis of seniority,’ Sinha said, ‘The most difficult thing is that.’ When he was about to do something, two or three online people would write such bad words. Then the employees would say, "Don't do it, sir." Currently, only three Deputy Directors General (Prem Nath Thakur and Jagannath Niraula) are working in the Authority at the 12th level, including Karna. Another Deputy Director General, Pratav Babu Tiwari and Hansraj Pandey, along with Pradeep Adhikari, are also under suspension after the Pokhara Airport corruption case was registered in the Special Court.

Prem Nath Thakur has been claiming the post of Director General on the basis of seniority, who will be taking compulsory retirement in the next 7 months. After him, Karna will go on compulsory retirement in the coming Jestha, while Jagannath Niraula, who is currently the head of Pokhara Airport, will take retirement after three years. Anil Kumar Sinha could not appoint the Director General of the Authority in the competition of these three. After Pradeep Adhikari, Thakur claimed the post of acting director. But when Sinha did not give him the post, he boycotted most of the programs in which the minister would participate. After the suspension of high-level employees of the NEA on charges of corruption, Niraula, the chief deputy director general of Pokhara Airport, had sought a transfer to Kathmandu Airport or NEA. But none of the acting director generals, secretaries and ministers showed interest in transferring him for three months.

According to a joint secretary of the ministry, it was almost certain that Karna would be made the director general. But the Election Commission sent the first letter expressing disagreement, citing the code of conduct. 'After the disagreement of the commission, both acting director general Karna and Minister Sinha had brought a second letter of agreement from the acting commissioner after much effort,' the joint secretary told Kantipur on Friday. 'Even then, the three joint secretaries in the ministry told Minister Sinha that this was a long-term decision. They did not raise the file to send the proposal because it would have an impact.' The file was raised from the tourism department only after Tourism Secretary Mukund Niraula asked to raise the file due to pressure from many quarters. But a high-ranking source in the Ministry of Tourism said that it was stalled again in the cabinet.

'After Minister Sinha insisted a lot, we sent the proposal but did not name Devchandra Lalkarna as the Director General,' said a source close to the decision-making process. 'Later, the Prime Minister himself asked to bring other names besides Karna. But the minister did not have an alternative. He had taken the stand in the Council of Ministers that there was no one as capable as Karna.

Before Devchandra Lal Karna was made the Director General in 2008, the file for lifting the suspension of the license of the Saurya Airlines aircraft that crashed in Kathmandu in August had created controversy. The ministry employees had backed down on the decision to make Acting Director General Karna the Director General after the insurance was not handed over to the families of the deceased in the accident, the accountability postholder was not completed in Saurya, the basic number of aircraft required as per the rules and other rules were not completed. Prakash Khatiwada of Saptari, who lost three family members in the accident, had filed a case in the Supreme Court against the ministry, the authority, Saurya Airlines and 14 individuals/organizations. The case is currently under consideration.

Minister Sinha revealed to Kantipur that the Acting Director General had renewed Saurya Airlines' air operator certificate without informing him. 'I never received Saurya's file,' he said, 'I had also asked about Saurya.' The answer has not been clear. That file never came to my table. I didn't go into that much detail about why I was wasting time on the issue of granting permission to Saurya since it would not be operational immediately.'

Minister Sinha, when asked by Acting Director General Karna about the suspension of Saurya's flight permit, had said that the permission was issued after completing the process. 'I also came to know after granting permission. This issue was never discussed in the board of the NEA. Other board members did not tell me either,' said Minister Sinha, who is also the chairman of the NEA's board of directors. Before his departure, Sinha was the minister of 5 ministries including Law and Parliamentary Affairs, Industry, Commerce and Supplies and Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation, in addition to Tourism and Energy.

Before joining the cabinet of the Gen-G government, the then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli had appointed him as the coordinator of the ‘High-Level Study and Suggestion Committee for Reforming the Civil Aviation Sector of Nepal’. The cabinet meeting on Kartik 2, 2081 had previously formed a large committee based on the Saurya Airlines accident that occurred in Shrawan. The Gen-G rebellion broke out when Sinha’s committee was completing its study. After he became the Minister of Industry under the leadership of Sushila Karki, the committee member Rajendra Bahadur Singh submitted the report to the Karki government.

Prime Minister Karki also gave Sinha, who is also a former Supreme Court judge, the responsibility of the Ministry of Tourism on Mangsir 28. After Sinha came to the ministry, he instructed the implementation of the report under his own leadership. However, by the time he left, almost none of the recommendations given in the report had been implemented. ‘There was lack of cooperation in tourism.’ "One thing is that the time is short," he said, "The employees appear to be working but there is no work. There is a lot of non-cooperation in tourism. There is so much non-cooperation in tourism." Regarding the report, he shared his experience that it is not even possible for the minister to follow up on where the file has reached on each table. "Tourism could not be changed for the better. The worst thing is that politicization is going on there. Negative things happen. It is necessary to look at it from a different perspective.