At a time when the coalition is in crisis, the government is tight on the appointment of telecom director

The ministry has invited 16 candidates whose applications have been accepted for the post of managing director of Nepal Telecom for the presentation of the work plan and interview. The ministry informed through public notice to attend the ministry at different times on 20th, 21st and 22nd of June and join the process. The candidates will have to give a presentation and interview before the selection committee formed in the ministry.

Under the coordination of Ministry Secretary Ramakrishna Subedi, the selection committee consisting of former secretary of the ministry Hari Basyal and joint secretary of the ministry Baburam Bhandari as experts in the field of telecommunications had previously studied the applications and selected the eligible candidates. The committee rejected the application of Subas Sah, an engineer working in Nepal Telecom, as he did not meet the qualifications. According to the Ministry, a total of 17 people had submitted applications for the post of Managing Director (MD).

According to the information published on June 17, Anant Prakash Mallik, Anil Kumar Jha and Kamal Lamichhane will join this Thursday, Krishna Prasad Bhandari, Kedarnath Koirala, Chintamani Baral, Nagendra Kumar Das, Prem Prasad Silwal and Buddhi Prasad Acharya on Friday for the presentation and interview.

On Saturday, the ministry has issued notices to Ramesh Prasad Joshi, Rajesh Joshi, Laxman Maharjan, Bimal Acharya, Shalikram Subedi, Shaligram Parajuli and Sangeeta Pahadi Aryal to appear in alphabetical order. The ministry opened the application on May 22 and has recently started the appointment process.

'The bargaining went on for a long time, the aspirants are still running,' said an official of the ministry, 'It seems that the Minister of Communications wants to appoint the person he wants after keeping the process the same for so long.' Sharma wants to make Bimal Acharya from his own village, Pyuthan, MD of Telem.

Acharya is a 10th level employee of Telecom. Along with Acharya, the managing director of Janak Education Content Center, Anil Kumar Jha, is also a major contender in the ministry. Experts have been saying that the ministry has revised the guidelines regarding the appointment of Nepal Telecom's managing director and service facilities before asking for applications for the post of MD so that Acharya, Jha and Pahadi can qualify. .

"The guidelines were amended to bring in Goji people in Telecom," says a Telecom official, "A deal was made in Mumbai between Sangeeta Pahari, Bimal Acharya and Krishnadhwaj Khadka, the minister's husband." It has not been revealed what kind of deal was made with the Tata company regarding the bandwidth purchase of Nepal Telecom.''The former managing director of Telecom, Buddhi Prasad Acharya, who did not seem to be willing to apply, has submitted the application at the last moment, according to the telecom employees.

After the then MD of Nepal Telecom, Sunil Paudel, was arrested for the crime of illegal acquisition of wealth, Telecom has been under arrest since last January. After he was convicted in a corruption case in the National Payment Gateway of the National Information Technology Center, the ministry had started an initiative for new appointments by revising the MD guidelines. In the revised guidelines, the government changed the age limit and educational qualification and added provisions for dismissal.

The selection committee should now recommend the names of 3 persons for the post of Managing Director to the Council of Ministers after completing the action plan presentation and interview process. It is mentioned in the guidelines that 60 points for business plan, 20 points for analysis of rare and strong and opportunities and challenges, 3 points for educational qualification, and 22 points for interview should be selected. One of the people recommended by the committee will be appointed MD by the Council of Ministers.

'Maoist is in the minority after the UML withdrew its support to the government, but the current government has one more month as the Prime Minister said,' said Bheshraj Kandel, an expert in the telecommunications sector, 'until then, the appointment process can be completed.' According to the experts, it is understandable that the UML felt comfortable to move forward with the current communication leadership after leaving the current government and forming a new alliance.