KATHMANDU: Amid controversy over deletion of a verified Facebook page of the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers after wrong information was posted on Thursday, the prime minister’s secretariat has ruled out existence of any such page. The controversy ensued after a post on the OPMCM page stating that the high-level committee for prevention and control of the novel coronavirus decided to allow people to go outside the valley for two days.

However, after a while the government said no such decision was taken.

Eventually the post was deleted from Facebook. Later, the page was also deactivated. Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s Press Adviser Surya Thapa said no such official page operated by the OPMCM existed and the government was not answerable to who posted what on which Facebook page.

“The high-level committee has never posted its decisions on that page. The government, too, had not asked the people to follow the page for official decisions.

There’s a website of the OPMCM where the committee updates its decisions,” said Thapa. “I urge all not to drag the government into controversy.” Thapa said the OP- MCM would probe the matter.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on April 11, 2020 of The Himalayan Times.