Nepal

Kathmandu, July 18

Pampha Bhusal of the ruling Nepal Communist party (NCP) in the parliamentary State Affairs and Good Governance Committee today accused the Federal Public Service Commission of not following the new constitution while issuing advertisement to hire 9,161 employees at 515 local bodies.

&It is not the fault of the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration as its responsibility is to forward the required number employees to the FPSC. The FPSC had to ensure that the standards of social inclusion were met during employees recruitment process,& she said. Referring to the Chief Commissioner Umesh Mainali and other four commissioners of the FPSC, Bhusal said that people with regressive mindset were reluctant to act to fulfil the expectations of people brought about by political revolution in the country.

Another NCP Lawmaker Janardan Sharma said it was wrong not to hold training programmes for civil servants immediately after the promulgation of the new constitution. &There should have been training programmes for all government employees including secretaries. Due to lack of trainings the employees are not familiar with the spirit of the new constitution,& he said. &If we raise our voice for social inclusion, it appears that we are against the FPSC.&

The post NCP lawmakers criticise FPSC members appeared first on The Himalayan Times.

Kathmandu, July 18

Future of the countryonly Nepali Folk Musical Instrument Museum hangs in the balance as the museum is now obliged to vacate its premises. A small sattal (religious rest house) on the premises of Tripureshwor Mahadev Temple in Tripureshwor has been serving as the museum for the past five years, following an agreement with Guthi Sansthan. As the agreement expired recently, Ram Prasad Kandel, who established the museum at his own initiative by collecting musical instruments, is running from pillar to post requesting authorities concerned to provide him with a new space for the museum. The museum showcases some 650 different traditional folk musical instruments.

Kandel had been operating the museum as a social organisation for the past 30 years. About six years ago, the government had finally allowed the organisation to function as a museum. In May 2014, he had signed a five-year contract with the Guthi Sansthan to run the museum from the sattal. At that time Ministry of Culture and the Department of Archaeology had extended financial support to Kandel to establish the museum.

According to Kandel, the museum has a collection of thousands of traditional musical notations, books and audio/visual archives. &If the contract does not get renewed or an appropriate place for the museum is not found, I will have no options than to put them on display under open sky,& he said, adding that the authorities had given him verbal commitments to find a place for the museum but, no concrete decision has been made.

Roof of the sattal housing the museum is being removed for reconstruction. The sattal had endured damage in the 2015 earthquakes. The museum looked damp when THT visited it yesterday. Traditional musical instruments and other collections were covered in dust and were in a sorry state of disrepair.

Guthi Sansthan, which has jurisdiction over Tripureswor temple and the sattal has made it clear that the museum should vacate the place as the contract had expired. Saroj Thapalia, spokesperson for Guthi Sansthan said, &We will act as per the law which requires the museum to be vacated.&

Guthi Sansthan has entered into an agreement with Kathmandu University to run the varsityDepartment of Music on the temple premises spreading over 9,157.32 square metres. The lease agreement was signed at Rs 15,000 in rent per month, for 35 years. The income was meant for covering daily expenses of the temple, according to a source at Guthi Sansthan.

Kandel, however, said Guthi Sansthan was merely looking for profit while turning a blind eye to cultural and religious aspects of the temple. &How could daily rituals of the temple be performed while the whole premises would be used as a college?& he asked.

KU said daily rituals of the temple would not be disturbed. Lochan Rijal, who heads the Department of Music at KU said, &We will work for maintaining the objects of archaeological value in the temple and won&t disturb anyone visiting the temple.& KU has agreed to invest Rs 20 million for the reconstruction of the temple. The National Reconstruction Authority is also investing Rs 170 million for the same project.

Rijal said they were positive in supporting the museum authorities to find a new place if they came up with a proposal.

The post Folk Musical Instrument Museum faces closure threat appeared first on The Himalayan Times.

Kathmandu, July 18

The Ministry of Home Affairs has decided to continue the signing of performance contract with all chief district officers of the country in the current fiscal as well.

A performance contract includes goals of the office, human and non-human resource and means required to achieve the goals, time-frame to achieve the goals, budget, results to be achieved or expected achievements, indicators of the work performance evaluation, conditions for cancellation of work performance agreement and authority required for the implementation of the performance contract.

Home Secretary Perm Kumar Rai had entered into the performance contract with the CDOs last fiscal, for the first time. Joint Secretary Ram Krishna Subedi, MoHA spokesperson said the performance contract with the CDOs would be concluded within a few days for the current fiscal, in accordance with Section 15.1 of the Civil Service Act and Rule 34 b of the Civil Service Rules.

As per the performance contract, the MoHA will evaluate the overall performance of the CDOs in six areas — peace and security, good governance and service delivery, social reforms and transformation, disaster management, coordination and facilitation, and integrity and financial discipline.

According to the rules, the concerned ministry and department shall monitor regularly whether tasks mentioned in the performance contract have been carried out or not.

There will be a committee under the concerned ministry, consisting representatives of the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration and the National Planning Commission for annual appraisal of the work mentioned in the performance contract. In an event of failure to perform in accordance with the performance contract, except owing to circumstances beyond control, the concerned CDOs will be barred from carrying out special responsibility for two years, the rules stated.

The MoHA said the performance contract aimed to make its subordinate agencies more competent, strong, service-oriented and responsible by developing effective service delivery mechanism. Home Secretary had concluded the performance contract with director generals of the Department of Immigration, Department of Prison Management, Department of National ID and Civil Registration yesterday for the current fiscal year to instil sense of responsibility and accountability in employees, thereby strengthening good governance system, said Joint Secretary Subedi.

The post MoHA to continue performance contract appeared first on The Himalayan Times.