Kathmandu, January 5

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has directed the National Planning Commission to deploy master’s degree students to orient newly elected representatives of the local levels.

Addressing a meeting of National Development Action Committee, PM Deuba said many of the local levels did not have the required manpower. Proper orientation can help the employees get up to speed much more quickly, thereby reducing the costs associated with learning the job, he added.

The misunderstanding over each other’s jurisdiction and confusion regarding functions to be carried out by the local representatives have created chaos in nearly five dozen local levels.

According to a high-level source at the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development, nearly five dozen civil servants are in Kathmandu and some of them have sent a letter to the ministry, stating that they do not want to go to the local levels due to adverse situation.

A majority of civil servants, who have returned from the local levels, complained that they were compelled to violate the procurement rules by elected representatives.

The prime minister also said that the government had felt that there was an urgency to deploy necessary manpower to the local levels. “So, to fulfil the immediate needs of local levels, master’s degree students should be sent to the local levels to orient the employees,” he added.