Instead of amending the Civil Service Rules, it would be better for the government to provide ex gratia payment to the affected families

A Cabinet meeting held on Monday decided to amend the Civil Service Rules, enabling the families of civil servants, who die while serving the government, to claim the entire pension amount. This will have a retrospective effect, and the families of those civil servants, who had died earlier while in service before the Civil Service Rules were amended, will also be able to claim full pension. According to the existing law, a civil servant, who retires at the age of 58 or has completed 20 years of service, is entitled to full pension amount. After the retired civil servant passes away, his/her spouse is eligible for 50 per cent of the pension. This facility is also available to those who die while in service. However, the new provision is being introduced to benefit the spouse of Yubraj Dahal, under-secretary at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, who died in a chopper crash on February 27 in Taplejung. Dahal had not completed 20 years of service. Dahal was accompanying the aviation minister, who also died in the crash.

It is apparent that the government is looking for options to support Dahal’s family, whose financial status is weak. A Cabinet minister said the government was trying to support Dahal’s family on humanitarian grounds. The Cabinet decision will pave the way for the Ministry of General Administration and Federal Affairs to amend the rules, which will have a retrospective effect. The new rules will be equally applicable to all government employees, including the personnel of the Nepal Police and Nepal Army. Once the rules are changed, the spouses of all government employees will be entitled to full pension when their better-half dies while in service. However, such a decision will incur a huge financial liability to the government coffers. In order to lessen the pension burden on the national exchequer, the government had recently come up with a contributory pension scheme. If the Civil Service Rules are amended as per the Cabinet decision, it will contradict the idea of the contributory pension scheme.

The government has allocated Rs 46.86 billion for pension management alone for the current fiscal.  This amount is 34 per cent more than for the last fiscal. Enacting a law with retrospective effect is against the principle of law though the constitution allows it. The government may bring a law with retrospective effect, but it must give justification for doing so. A similar law was enacted to deal with terrorist activities after Ram Raja Prasad Singh launched a series of bomb explosions in the Capital and outside in 2042 BS. What should be borne in mind is that no law or rule should be made or amended simply to provide monetary benefits to someone who is close to the corridors of power. Such a practice will set a wrong precedent in the future. Instead of amending the Civil Service Rules, which is certain to increase additional liability to the government, ex gratia payment can be made to the affected families. If the government deems it necessary, it should table a bill in Parliament to deal with such cases. No law or rules should be introduced without the consent of the Parliament, which holds the right to make laws or rules.

Ensure quality control

One explosion of a cooking gas cylinder would have been enough to shut down a bottling plant in many countries. Unfortunately, even after quite a number of such ghastly incidents in the country, often involving deaths of family members and destruction to property, the consumers are seeing little action from the government against the bottlers of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). You actually don’t need a probe to see that the LPG bottlers are compromising on the quality of the cylinders. The market is flooded with old cylinders whose coat of paint has largely peeled off.

It is not that there are no laws to ensure the quality of cylinders. A cylinder must undergo hydraulic testing to measure its capacity to withstand pressure after 10 years of use, and every five years thereafter. So why are the bottling plants flouting the regulations and posing a threat to the consumers with their risky cylinders? The concerned authorities can no longer take their responsibility lightly. Neither can the consumer forum and the LPG bottlers. But it would be in the interest of the consumers themselves to refrain from using a poor quality cooking gas cylinder when they see one.