After passing through many ups and downs, the 'younger girl from Nayanghar' of Tehrathum Piple, who has entered Kathmandu, has recently created a history. That is the record of the country's first female chief secretary. The Cabinet meeting on Thursday elevated Leeladevi Gadtaula to the highest post of Chief Secretary in the civil administration.

With that decision, Leeladevi's past identity has suddenly changed and has become a history that everyone reads and listens to. Everyone at home and in the village used to call her 'the youngest of the new house'. Now, the fingers holding the sickle of Leeladevi and the udder of the buffalo have started to sign the decision to run the governance and administration of the country. 

His brain, pressed by Namlo while carrying water buckets and manure in Doko, has started thinking of a way to maintain the administrative governance of the country from Singha Darbar. After entering the civil service, it is natural to dream of becoming a secretary, but she did not think that she would become the chief secretary.

'My 'position' has sent the message that women can also reach high positions in the civil administration,' she says with emphasis, 'this is a dynamic example for the future generation and those who want to enter the civil service.' The 'position' of Leeladevi, who became the first woman chief secretary in history, has given a dynamic message that one can reach a high position by passing public service even after studying government school while cutting grass. 

School while cutting grass

Grandfather Indravilas Gadtaula brought a Sanskrit teacher from Dingla, Bhojpur headquarters, and studied three classes in the school opened in Savik Piple gavis-5 (currently Manglung Municipality-4) near home. Ramchandra Gadtaula had 5 daughters out of 9 children. Being the youngest daughter of the family, she got the opportunity to study at Sinha Bahini High School in Manglung, the headquarters, with everyone's love. It took about an hour to walk to school.

Chief Secretary Leeladevi Gattoula . Photos: Prakashchandra Timilsena/Kantipur

When I came home from cutting grass in the morning with my sisters, I was late for school. Since the secondary school was far away, her sisters only had the opportunity to study up to the 5th standard. Leeladevi says, "If the sisters also had the opportunity to study, they would have reached a higher level." Not getting opportunities is also an obstacle to progress.' 

At that time, it was not customary to teach a daughter above 4th grade. Reminiscing about the past, she says, "When I went to school after eating and walking fast, my stomach hurt a lot. Now I remember going to school many times with one hand pressing the aching stomach while the other hand opened the book and when the bell rang. It was not customary to eat lunch at that time. She remembers asking for water in the market and drinking from the stream on the way back home. One day of the week, they would line up in the school square and make them say multiplication.

She used to say Kharakhari without stopping from 2 to 10 times. She spent her life in school planting millet, pruning, gathering firewood, cutting grass, feeding buffaloes in the fields. In the year 2039, on the day SSLI results were declared, she was planting millet in her garden. The result was known but there was no way to see pass/fail.

His father Ramchandra was employed in the court. Liladevi spent the whole day watching her father's way to the headquarters in the hope that his uncle Madhav Gadtaula, who is in Kathmandu, would get the news through his father. There were also millet farmers that day. When Babu Ramchandra came around 6:00 in the evening, someone from the farmers asked on the road, 'Has Kanchi passed SLC or not?' Ramchandra shouted from the road and replied, 'Kanchi has passed in second division.' I had to wait for some time because the college admission was not open. 

admission to law college to teach easy subjects 

Father Ramchandra's idea was to teach science, nursing or technical subjects to his daughter. But her step-son Madhav, who lives in Kathmandu, decided to teach her sister an easy subject after assessing that her English was weak. He admitted his sister to Nepal Law College in Kathmandu in the year 2040 saying that those who have passed SLC from the village school will have poor English.

"Your English is weak, you can't study science, so your brother admitted you to law college," remembers Leeladevi. He was admitted to the law college by choosing an easy subject with the intention of passing with an average rather than going 'back' by teaching English and science. At that time, only two subjects in law had to be studied in English. 

Khisitiuri for teaching his daughter 

According to Leeladevi, she is the first daughter to leave home to study in the village. When he came to Kathmandu to enroll in college, the villagers and neighbors made fun of his parents. Now Ramchandra does not have to marry his daughter. He sent the grown up only daughter to Kathmandu. They have started to cut special things like getting married themselves. In the understanding of the villagers, Leeladevi says that 'Poil will go from there'. Leeladevi says that her parents were under some kind of mental pressure for a long time. She says, "Mama Khurajkumari is most worried about the village. 

Lahailhaima Law Officer 

Leeladevi had heard that it would be very difficult to pass public services. When Saila Dai (retired from joint secretary) was preparing for public service examination, she also stayed with him in the room in Kathmandu. He was very interested to hear that Dai and his friends were preparing for the commission. He felt that he could pass the public service examination after listening to his brothers. She says, "At that time, the geography and science subjects studied in the 9th and 10th classes in the public service examination were similar to the subjects."

Seeing and listening to Dai reading, I felt that public service course is very easy. She used to answer questions after listening to Dai and his friends reading. Even after reading this, he felt that he was not an officer. She used to say to her brother, I will pass this too. Seeing his memory, Dai Madhav used to suggest him to prepare for public service. He passed public service and became an officer. Leeladevi's brothers all became civil servants. 

What happened to Liladevi after her brother got a job? She says, "Even if I went home, it would take 3-4 days. Even if I sent a letter, it would take 15 days to reach home. She prepared for public service. In the year 2049, she failed the public service examination. In the second attempt, she became a law officer in 2052. At that time, he thought that he would become a secretary.

Leeladevi, who was posted in the Ministry of Law, became deputy secretary in 2063 through internal promotion. In the year 2069, she passed the written examination of the joint secretary. But she failed the interview. She says, 'I thought that I would not be able to wait for the promotion. I prepared again thinking that I would pass the exam.

Ministry did not get to run 

She worked at the Election Commission for 20 months after becoming joint secretary. After the promulgation of the constitution in 2072, she was transferred to the Ministry of Law and worked hard to make new laws. She spent about 17 years of her working life in the Ministry of Law. After being promoted to secretary in October 2077, she wanted to become a law secretary. Despite many efforts, the secretary of the Ministry of Law was not given. She says, "The desire to lead the ministry where she worked for a long time was not fulfilled." Chief Secretary Vaikunth Aryal was accused of corruption while he was in the office of the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers. After Aryal was suspended, she got the responsibility of Acting Chief Secretary on 9th of June.

If the Chief Secretary is vacant, there is a provision to get an Acting Chief Secretary from among the senior secretaries in the Prime Minister's Office. With the change in the political equation, he was given the responsibility of Kamu chief secretary by the KP Oli-led government on June 31. She became the Chief Secretary from Thursday's meeting of the Council of Ministers. Due to her age limit of 58 years, she will remain in charge of the Chief Secretary only until the 14th of August. 

There is no such thing as not passing public service 

Leeladevi believes that the attraction of appearing in public service exams is the same. She says that the belief that women could not pass public service has now disappeared. Leeladevi says that passing the public service is not a matter of strength. Believing that women will be more excited by their promotion, she sees that the attractiveness of government jobs may decrease due to lower salaries and benefits.

It is her experience that women spend a lot of time on household work and do not have enough time to prepare for public service. Women should devote more time to housework and childcare. It is difficult to find time to read,” she said. She has a master's degree in law and political science. She says, "When I studied BL, I had friends who studied in a private school in Kathmandu. But in the result, I was among the top five.' He suggests that women should be made comfortable to enter the civil service. 

She is of the opinion that public service is only for men. She says public service should be the first priority for women. She said that in recent times, the presence of women in the legal sector is good and there are examples of women excelling in law colleges. She says, 'If you are determined, the mentality of not being able to pass the public service will disappear by itself.'

It is her experience that if the public service sets the exam date close to the festival, women will not study. She says that this is also an opportunity for the new generation as they can easily get the subjects to study to prepare for public services. It was difficult to get public service preparation books in those days. Had to pay for it. Now all that can be found through the internet,” Leeladevi said.

'Priority to increase employee morale'

Became the first female chief secretary in the history of Nepal. Have you made a plan for administrative reform? 

The chief secretary is a post that acts as a bridge between the government and the employees. My main job is to play a role in making the government's policy program successful. I am aware that there should be no delay in the work of the citizens and that the employees should not work with wrong motives. The morale of the employees has also fallen. It is necessary to take care of that and move forward. As I will only be in this position for a short time, I am not planning any major and policy changes. My priority will be to increase the morale of the employees. 

The personnel transfer system has been made very unstable. There are incidents of people being transferred in 15/15 days choosing employees close to them. How do you organize it?  Don't make

employee transfers a big issue. However, the impact on performance should also be taken into account when transferring in a very short period of time. It seems that some are exaggerated by making more noise than reality. The main thing is that if the transfer is done as per the provisions of the Civil Code, there will be no question. Even now, some believe that when the government changes, the secretary of the ministry changes. But the secretary has not changed since this government came. In the course of implementing the government's policy program, there are sometimes forced transfers, it should not be made a big issue. 

As long as you remain in charge of the chief secretary, will you transfer according to the civil law and regulations? 

I understand that the current Prime Minister's mindset is that employees should not be transferred randomly. August-August is the time to transfer civil service employees. Those who have expired may be transferred. But I don't think that those who have stayed for a short time will be transferred. I also have a role in that. I will say again that the transition should not be exaggerated. Rather than what happened yesterday, we should look at what will happen now.' 

Did you talk about improving governance and employee morale? Some of the files edited by the Chief Minister's office are stopped for months. Decisions about good governance made by the government are not implemented, do they blame other agencies? 

The first thing is that the Chief Minister will not approve the file. Secretaries in the Prime Minister's and Cabinet's offices view the file. Some people have the illusion that the Chief Secretary does all the work. Some of the files are also subject to long study. Subject to financial burden with the consent of the Ministry. You should be aware of making wrong decisions in the name of speed.