The estimate of the Home Ministry is that more than 150 million can be spent to make the jewels that were determined last time
The government has revised the criteria for giving jewels to former presidents as well. The government has changed the criteria to give jewels to former special officials including the former president.
By revising the previous criteria that only ex-vice presidents can be given bibhushan, the former president is also included in the list of recipients of bibhushan. Along with this, the criteria for awarding Maha Ujjwal Rashtradeep (first class) to two people from among the former President, former Vice President, former Prime Minister, former Chief Justice, former Speaker of the House of Representatives and former Speaker of the National Assembly, who are former extraordinary officials, has been made. Arrangements have been made to recommend jewels to two people from among the pre-specialized jewelers from the jewelery committee.
Umesh Mainali, the former secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs, says that the provision regarding the awarding of jewels by specifying the position of the former president and others is wrong. "It's not that former presidents should not be given jewels, but it is a kind of syndicate to determine the quota of jewels by assigning the position," says Mainali, "The jewels are to be given to those who are acceptable to the people, who have worked for the country and the people in an undisputed way." According to Vibhushan Samiti sources, the list of those who have been recommended this year has come from all over the country and it is being 'screened'. Bibhushan has not been distributed since 2079 due to the disagreement between the ruling parties.
During the time of the then Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the Maoist-Congress coalition government made final preparations to give jewels to about 600 people. According to Ministry of Home Affairs sources, the government postponed the nomination process itself after pressure came to include three times more names than estimated before the recommendation committee. When names were being selected to give jewels to around 400 people that year, the process was blocked when the recommendation committee came under pressure to include more than 1,000 names.
Three years after that, the current government has revised the criteria for distributing jewels on the occasion of Constitution Day. In which it is mentioned that the 'Maha Ujjwal Rashtradeep' (First Class) level decoration will be given to two people from among the former President, former Vice President, former Prime Minister, former Chief Justice, former Speaker and former Speaker of the National Assembly. This list is said to include other individuals who have made outstanding contributions.
The government had formed a Bibhushan recommendation committee under the chairmanship of Deputy Prime Minister and Urban Development Minister Prakashman Singh last November. Under the chairmanship of Deputy Prime Minister Singh, the Vibhushan Recommendation Committee was formed with Home Minister Ramesh Akhtar and six other experts as members, including Lavdev Awasthi, Gopinath Mainali, Sharmila Karki, Umeshraj Joshi, Surendra Jha and Yogendra Bahadur Gurung, and Home Secretary Gokarnamani Dwadi as member secretary.
The Council of Ministers issued a new standard 2081 in January after revising the 'Jewelry Recommendation Procedures and Provisions 2075' issued 6 years ago. After that, by amending the criteria again in 2081, the former president has also been included in the list of recipients of high-level decorations. In which the quota of jewels has been fixed at 201. An official of the Ministry of Home Affairs says that more than 150 million can be spent to make the jewels that were determined last time.
According to the revised criteria, Nepal Ratna can be given to one person at a time and Rashtra Gaurav to two people at a time. Similarly, towards the Rashtradeep, there has been an amendment to award the Maha Ujjjwal Rashtradeep to the first two people, the Ujjwal Kirtimaya Rashtradeep to two people and the Sukirtima Rashtradeep to the third maximum to five people. In 2075, the criteria was to give the first five people, bright record to five people and good record to 10 people.
Quotas have been fixed in other jewelries too. As the chief district officer has been making capricious recommendations, the revised standard has included a provision that states and local governments can also recommend bibhushan by curtailing the rights of Prajaya. According to which, 25 quotas have been determined for the Nepali Army, 20 for the Police, 12 for the Armed Police and 4 for the National Investigation Department. Each ministry/department including civil service has been allocated one bibhushan for up to 300 employees, two for up to 500 employees, three for up to 1000 employees, four for up to 5000 employees and five bibhushans for more than that. Similarly, from all 77 districts, the Chief District Officer can recommend up to 4 names to the Ministry of Home Affairs, two from the employees under the district and two from the general public/profession/business/social work.
Arrangements have been made to recommend the names of two persons from the subordinate municipality, three persons from the municipality head, four persons from the sub-metropolis and six persons from the metropolis for the award. Likewise, the quota has been set so that each state government can select names from the various mechanisms of the state and recommend names of 20 to 30 people and send them. Earlier, there was no arrangement to send names from the local and state governments to the union government for jewels, this time it has been added.
There is a legal arrangement to award Bibhushan to people who have made significant contributions to national life in various fields. According to which, the criteria for recommending jewelery from political, social, economic, peace and security and administration, education and health, information, communication, science and technology, exploration and research, language, art, literature and culture, sports and other important areas of national life was mentioned in 2075. In the revised standard 2081, the fields of sports and information communication, science and technology exploration and research have been revised and the field of health and medical science and the field of language, literature, art and culture have also been covered.
