Kathmandu, November 30:

Terming the proposed Civil Service Bill 2063 unscientific, officials of the Public Service Commission today told the parliamentary State Affairs Committee that the Bill will weaken the bureaucracy if it is endorsed without making amendments.

“Rather than passing the Bill in its present form, it will be better to revive the Civil Service Act 1992,” the chairman and members of the PSC said during an SAC meeting.

“The Public Service Commission will have no work to do if the Bill is endorsed without amendments,” they said, adding that the PSC should be shut down if the Bill is endorsed.

“The Bill has proposed a faulty hierarchical system, which will affect the bureaucracy,” the PSC chairman, Tirtha Man Shakya, said.

Shakya and members had attended an SAC meeting to present their suggestions on the proposed Bill.

Shakya said the proposed Bill was in contravention of bureaucratic norms.

Instead of endorsing the Bill, the Civil Service Act 1992 should be revived, he said. Shakya also stressed the need to extend the retirement age of civil servants by two years.

According to the existing provision, civil servants must take mandatory retirement at the age of 58.

Shakya also flayed the proposed provision to automatically promote section officers, saying the provision would give rise to ‘inequality’ in the bureaucratic system.

He said the provision of automatic promotion should be applicable to every rank and not the section officers alone. “The state cannot discriminate against anyone.”

Another member of the PSC, Ganesh Gurung, termed the proposed Bill a conspiracy to weaken the bureaucracy and render the PSC useless. “The Bill should not be endorsed at any cost,” he said.

Bhim Dev Bhatta, another PSC member, demanded that the PSC should be shut down if the Bill is endorsed. “The proposed Bill has adopted an unscientific promotion system in the bureaucracy.”

A source at the State Affairs Committee alleged that a group of ‘Maoist sympathiser civil servants’ met SAC members and pressed them not to endorse the proposed Bill.