KATHMANDU, Feb 11: A meeting of the cabinet on Wednesday made important appointments, inter alia, deciding to promote Additional Inspector General of Nepal Police Ramesh Chand Thakuri to Inspector General, government spokesperson Krishna Bahadur Mahara told journalists. [break]The cabinet meeting also named ambassadors to three countries – the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany. However, the government hasn’t named envoys to India and France.
Thakuri will replace Inspector General of Police (IGP) Hem Bahadur Gurung with effect from February 16, breaking all past precedents in terms of seniority. Nepali media was awash with speculations about who would be Gurung´s successor as there were two candidates competing neck to neck – Thakuri and AIG Rabindra Pratap Shah.
On February 16, IGP Gurung and four other incumbent AIGs – Shyam Singh Thapa, Ramesh Kumar Shrestha, Dipendra Bahadur Bista and Krishna Prasad Shrestha – are also retiring from the service.
Both Thakuri and Shah had started their police career as Inspector in 1982 and were in neck to neck competition to succeed IGP Gurung. Shah ranked ahead of Thakuri at the time of becoming Inspector and Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), while Thakuri had ranked ahead of Shah at the time of becoming Superintendent of Police (SP) and Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP). Again, Shah was in the first rank during his service as Deputy Inspector General and AIG.
Shah was considered more experienced in terms of field experience and organizational skills than the newly-appointed police chief Thakuri.
A senior police official told myrepublica.com that this is the first time in the history of Nepal Police that a "junior" AIG (in terms of seniority) has been appointed to the topmost police post. “This is again a break with tradition,” said the officer, asking to be unnamed.
Meanwhile, the cabinet meeting named Prof Dr Sukhadev Sah (a scholar living in the US) for Nepal´s ambassador to the US, Prof Dr Ram Swarat Raya (a physics professor) to the UK and Foreign Ministry Spokesperson (Joint Secretary) Suresh Pradhan to Germany, according to Foreign Minister Upendra Yadav. Sah, Raya and Pradhan replace Dr Suresh Raj Chalise, Murari Raj Sharma and Dr Madan Bhattarai respectively. However, the government did not make two other appointments to Nepali missions in India and France.
Minister Mahara told journalists that the cabinet also decided to appoint Narayan Prasad Chaulagain as the Executive Director of the Alternative Energy Department of the Ministry of Science and Technology. He said the government is going to provide some assistance to set up a Tharu Museum.
Minister Mahara also said the government decided to form a taskforce to expedite implementation of the long overdue 750-MW West Seti Hydroelectricity Project.
NPC gets full shape
Minister Mahara said the government decided to appoint two more members – Ratneshwar Lal Kayastha and Dr RD Singh – in the National Planning Commission (NPC), which is chaired by the prime minister.
With the fresh appointments, the main planning body of the country gets full shape. Earlier, government had appointed Guna Nidhi Sharma as NPC Vice-chair and five other members: Ram Mani Pokharel, Dr Dinesh Devkota, Prem Bahadur Kunwor, Dr Laxmi Prasad Devkota, Dr Sunil Babu Shrestha.
Ex-officio members of the Commission are chief secretary (Bhoj Raj Ghimire), Finance Secretary (Rameshwar Khanal), and its member secretary is the NPC secretary (Janak Raj Joshi)
´Stringent actions against willful defaulters´
The cabinet meeting has endorsed a proposal by Ministry of Finance to take stringent action against 242 willful bank defaulters who have less than Rs 50 million in principal to repay.
As per the decision, a set of actions that were approved by the government include nullifying passports and freezing asset transactions owned by the defaulters or their close relatives and barring them from assuming public posts. Nepal Rastra Bank has reckoned that the defaulters altogether owe various financial institutions Rs 4 billion worth of principal loans.
Last year too, the government had taken a number of stringent actions against willful bank defaulters who had a principal payment due of over Rs 50 million such as passport seizure and freezing of ownership transfer of property.
Wednesday´s meeting of the cabinet has also formed a five-member committee headed by Maoist-nominated Constituent Assembly member Hari Roka. Other members in the committee are deputy governor of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), joint secretary of the Finance Ministry, chairman of the Bankers´ Association (Radhesh Pant) and NRB´s chief of the Department of Supervision (Rabindra Pandey).
tilak@myrepublica.com
(Kosh Raj Koirala and Prem Khanal contributed to this report.)
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