The commission has become leaderless due to the failure to agree on a division of power between the ruling Congress and the UML.
What you should know
The Karnali Provincial Public Service Commission has been without a chairman since December 3 last year. The commission has been without a leader for more than a year due to the failure to agree on a division of power between the ruling Congress and the UML.
The Commission has not issued any advertisement since the end of the current fiscal year. The Commission had issued its last advertisement on Ashad 23.
There has been no advertisement since the advertisement for promotion through seniority and performance evaluation, internal inter-service competition, and open and inclusive competitive examination of the Provincial Civil Service and Local Service Assistant Level 4 (non-technical and technical) at the end of the last fiscal year, said the Commission's Information Officer Chandrabir Shahi. According to him, the Commission became leaderless after the then Chairman Ram Prasad Upadhyay took compulsory retirement due to the age limit of 65.
The Commission's Information Officer Shahi said that the post of Chairman has been vacant for a long time and has been facing policy problems. 'The posts have not been filled as per the annual work plan,' he said, 'There has also been a problem in making various policy decisions.'
On February 20, 2077, Basanti Kumari Singh (Shahi) and Bhakta Bahadur Khadka were appointed as members along with Chairman Upadhyay. Although the term of office of the Commission Chairman is 6 years, Upadhyay retired after four years due to age limit, while Khadka, who was appointed with him, has also been granted leave. Currently, Member Singh Shahi is holding the responsibility of the acting Chairman. She is the wife of Congress Parliamentary Party leader and former Chief Minister Jeevan Bahadur Shahi. Bhakta Bahadur Dhakal is a member of the Commission.
The Commission has the legal authority to select candidates for the posts of Provincial Civil Service, Provincial Police Service, Provincial Assembly Service, Provincial Other Government Service, Provincial Organization Service and Local Service. The Commission and the Karnali Provincial Sports Council are currently without leadership.
‘As both parties are claiming in both cases, there is a delay in the appointment, the leaders of both parties want both appointments to be made from their quota,’ said civic leader Narendra KC, ‘Here, the situation of appointing cadres rather than experts has become a problem, which is also causing problems in the performance and service delivery of the provincial government.’
Karnali province still has a shortage of 28 percent employees. But the provincial government has not sent the details of the demand form to the Public Service Commission for filling new employee posts in the current fiscal year, said Prem Prasad Acharya, deputy secretary of the commission. "We have been issuing circulars to send demand forms for various levels of posts at different times," he said, "but the Office of the Chief Minister and Council of Ministers has not sent any demand form for any level, due to which the filling of posts has stalled."
According to him, the commission had requested the Chief Minister's Office to fill and send demand forms for the ninth, seventh, fifth and fourth levels. He said that the local level education has been stalled since last year as even the details of the ninth level have not been sent.
Laxmi Kumar BK, Secretary of the Office of the Chief Minister and Council of Ministers, said that no demand forms have been sent in the current fiscal year as the meeting of the Council of Ministers held on Chaitra 19 last year decided not to send any details for filling posts until the new Organization and Management Survey (ONM) is approved. ‘A new ONM has not been formed, for which we have requested details from the local levels,’ he said, ‘The number of new ONM employee positions will increase, we will recommend for advertisement accordingly.’
Currently, 2,900 employee positions have been established in Karnali. Of which, about 2,000 employees are working. The Karnali government has merged the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Law with the Office of the Chief Minister and Council of Ministers from November 1, citing increased financial burden. With the merger of the ministry with the Chief Minister’s Office, the positions of 25 employees, including ministers and secretaries, have been cut.
