Province 3 Chief Minister (CM) Dor Mani Paudel has sacked Physical Infrastructure and Development Minister Keshav Sthapit for using unbecoming language. CM Paudel’s secretariat has said Sthapit has been sacked as per the Article 169 of the constitution.
“Minister Sthapit has been sacked as per the Article 169(2b). CM will take over Sthapit’s ministry from now onward,” CM’s personal secretary Anup Paudel told Setopati.
Article 169(2b) of the constitution states the post will be vacant if CM dismisses minister.
Sthapit used demeaning language and misbehaved with CM Paudel during the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday. CM Paudel came to Kathmandu to consult the Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) leadership about removing Sthapit after the incident. He met Prime Minister (PM) KP Sharma Oli at the hospital on Thursday itself and told the PM that he cannot work with Sthapit in the Cabinet.
PM Oli did not grant an audience with Sthapit who had also reached the hospital to put his version of the incident.
Sthapit told Setopati that he has not been formally informed about his dismissal. “I have been informed by journalists but have not been formally informed,” he said. “I have nothing to comment.”
Former mayor of Kathmandu Sthapit has been widely condemned in recent times after two female journalists accused him of sexual harassment, which he has vehemently denied, after start of the MeToo movement in Nepal.
