INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
KATHMANDU, JANUARY 3Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has issued 30-point instructions to government secretaries
telling them to make service delivery faster to bring an end to long queues seen in offices issuing passports and licences, land revenue
offices, and survey offices within a month
The PM said if responsible officers failed to address service seekers' woes, they would be penalised.
of confidence on January 10
PM Dahal to make 'directive statement'
tomorrow
In a meeting with government
secretaries, the PM instructed high-level bureaucrats on issues related to service delivery, good governance, and people's livelihood.
"After Nepal adopted federalism, people expected government agencies to deliver services at their doorsteps, but agencies'
performance in the past five years had not been up to the mark," the PM said.Highlighting the state of services, he said, "People reach
passport office at 2:00am to stand in queue to get passports
They face hassles to get national identity cards and we don't even know why we need NID
The pace at which NIDs were being distributed to people, it would take decades to deliver NIDs to the entire population
One has to wait for years to even get a driver's licence
Even at government hospitals, people have to wait for three-four months to undergo minor surgeries
All this has to improve," the PM added.Stating that the quality of health and community education services has also deteriorated, the PM
said a lot can be achieved in the education sector with the resources Nepal has."If the long queues seen today at offices responsible for
issuing passports, driving licences, NIDs, no objection letters, as well as land revenue and survey offices, are there even after one month
of the formation of this government, action will have to be taken against officers responsible for the same," the PM said.The PM said
although the government had planned to provide health insurance and free treatment worth Rs 100,000 for indigent people, they had not been
able to benefit from the scheme due to cumbersome processes.Stating that a third of vacancies in local and provincial governments were yet
to be filled, he said staff shortage was adversely impacting development work and service delivery
The PM instructed the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration to address the issue.The PM also told government secretaries to
register federal civil service bill in the next session of Parliament.A version of this article appears in the print on January 4, 2023, of
This article first appeared/also appeared in https://thehimalayantimes.com