Kathmandu, January 6

The government has appointed Dilli Ram Adhikari as the managing director (MD) of Nepal Telecom (NT) through open competition. Adhikari, who is 44 years old, is the youngest candidate to be appointed as the managing director in NT’s history.

Among the three people who had been recommended by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MoCIT) to the Cabinet for NT’s top post, Adhikari scored the highest point. Hence, the Cabinet made a decision to appoint Adhikari as NT’s managing director based on the concept of open competition.

According to a high-level source at MoCIT who did not want to be named, the Cabinet meeting on Thursday had decided to appoint Adhikari as managing director of NT. Meanwhile, Adhikari told the The Himalayan Times that he has been notified by MoCIT of his appointment though he is yet to receive an official letter of

appointment.

The government had published a notice seeking applications from interested candidates for the post of managing director of NT on December 15. A total of 10 candidates had applied for the post and the selection committee had shortlisted eight names as per their commercial work plan.

On January 4, the selection committee led by MoCIT Secretary Mahendra Man Gurung, had submitted a list of three candidates to the Cabinet that included the names of Adhikari, Sangita Pahadi Aryal and Buddhi Prasad Acharya.

Prior to his appointment as managing director Adhikari was working as an adviser at Managing Director’s Office at NT’s head office. After the government removed Kamini Rajbhandari from post of MD at NT on August 14 the top post had been lying vacant.