Last month, parliament had approved the fourth amendment to the Civil Service Act, barring government employees from holding DV or PR permit from a foreign country.Subsequently, the Ministry of General Administration, on July 12 had given civil servants holding DV or permanent residency in foreign countries 60 days to either choose their job or foreign residency. Information provided by the ministries to the Ministry of General Administration (MoGA) shows that 31 government employees have admitted to holding foreign residency permits. Some of them have already relinquished such permits.
Rup Narayan Bhattarai, joint-secretary at the MoGA, said as many as 10 government employees have already given up their foreign residency permits.
"Likewise, 14 others have also admitted to holding foreign residency permits and they have informed their concerned ministries that they have already applied to the embassy of related countries to cancel their permits. They have been asked to submit a cancellation letter to the ministry within the next two weeks," said he.
Information provided by the MoGA also shows that as many as seven government employees have admitted to holding foreign residency permits but remain undecided.
Joint-secretary Bhattarai said the number of government employees choosing job over DV/PR is surprisingly larger. "As we still have two more weeks for the 60-day deadline to expire, we have yet to get a clear picture. But a larger number of government employees have chosen their jobs over permanent residency permits from foreign countries," said he.
Information provided by MoGA also shows that 10 government employees have chosen permanent residency abroad and tendered their resignations. According to MoGA, section officers Jiwan Kumar Phatak, Basanta Nepal, Harihar Sharma, Kedar Prasad Ghimire; assistant officers Shankar Prasad Neupane and Kumar Giri; account officer Dev Raj Shrestha; engineers Bharat Raj Kharel and Keshab Gyawali; and Chief Divisional Engineer Pawan Bhattarai have tendered their resignations.
"Four other government employees have also tendered their resignations. But they have not disclosed whether they hold foreign residency permits. Revenue Secretary Nabaraj Bhandari is among them," said Bhattarai.
Secretary Bhandari, despite being a special class officer, had left for the United States of America and sent his resignation to the Prime Minister's Office through a friend.
Likewise, seven government officials have admitted that their spouses hold permanent residency permits.
Related story
Bill bars local units from recruiting civil servants
_20230205122050.jpg)
