Five ministries in Province 7 sans secretaries

Dhangadi, September 14

As the provinces across the country are grappling with manpower crunch, daily work at some five ministries in Province 7 has been affected for want  of secretaries.

Five of the total seven ministries, including the Office of Chief Minister and Council of Ministers, are without secretaries after two secretaries each went to the capital and abroad.

While Secretary Rajeshwor Gyawali at the Financial Affairs and Planning Ministry headed to China a few days ago, Secretary Sudhir Koirala at the Ministry of Industry, Tourism, Forest and Environment is also in Europe. Similarly, secretaries at the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure Development and Ministry of Social Development are in Kathmandu.

The federal government has yet to send a secretary to the Ministry of Land Management, Agriculture and Cooperatives after Secretary Harihar Adhikari was transferred one-and-a-half months ago.

In absence of a secretary, under-secretary Yagyaraj Joshi is working in capacity of acting secretary.

Province 7 Principal Secretary Narayan Prasad Bidari bemoaned the difficulties the absence of secretaries had created.

Meanwhile, around eight months after formation of the provincial government, the central government has sent only 46 per cent of the required employees to the province. This has severely affected functioning of the provincial government.

What’s worse, even all of those sent to the province by the central government have not reported to work. There are a total posts for 2,613 government employees in the province.