KATHMANDU, SEPTEMBER 10
The government has started providing consular services to the service seekers from local levels today.
In the first phase of the programme, Department of Consular Service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs started providing consular service to service seekers through local levels of Kathmandu valley. Director General of Department of Consular Service Dhan Bahadur Oli said at an interaction with the mayors and deputy mayors of local levels of Kathmandu district that his office would gradually extend the consular services to other local levels across the country.
This means that for those documents that are issued by local levels, the service seekers will just have to go to their respective local levels to get their certified documents. For other documents issued by Nepal Police, the Department of Consular Service, has linked its service with Nepal Police.
The department also has a plan to link health and educational institutions which means that service seekers will have to go to those institutions to get consular services. Department of Consular Service provides attestation of documents, facilitates process of bringing the dead bodies from foreign countries, providing compensation to the families of migrant workers who qualify for such benefits, providing documents to those people who go to foreign countries for medical treatment.
Director General Oli said that his department would provide online log in service to local levels from where the service seekers could avail of consular services.
Service seekers won't be required to go to the Department of Consular Service for certification of documents. Oli also said that service seekers would have all the information about the process for certification at their own local levels. In the second phase, Department of Consular Service will extend the consular services to the local levels of 30 districts after the threat of COVID-19 pandemic subsides.
The new system will benefit over six million Nepalis who are working or studying in foreign countries. Until today, people of far-flung areas have to travel to Kathmandu to get various kinds of documents certified by the Department of Consular Service when their loved ones meet with an accident or link health when they need to claim compensation from the employer companies or insurance money.
Oli said that there were some gaps between the format of various types of letters ward offices in Nepal issued to the beneficiaries and the formats approved by foreign countries, particularly the labour destination countries.
Foreign Secretary Bharat Raj Paudyal said that collaboration and coordination between the Consular Service Department and local levels for consular services was necessary as large number of Nepalis were going abroad these days for the purpose of study and work. Director General of Department of National ID and Civil Registration Jitendra Basnet said that his office was working with a plan to start digitising birth and death registration by the year 2024.
