Agriculture Minister Beduram Bhusal has transferred two scientists who opposed his decision to appoint a 40th-ranked employee as the acting executive director of Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) using his discretionary power.
Bhusal, who is also the ex officio chairman of NARC, had appointed the 40th-ranked Dhruba Raj Bhattarai as the Council’s acting executive director on June 16.
The Society of Agricultural Scientists (SAS) Nepal had issued a statement against the minister’s decision and urged him to rectify his mistake. Scientists at NARC are also affiliated to SAS.
Senior scientist and SAS President Dr Ram Prasad Ghimire and SAS Vice-President Yuba Raj Bhusal have been handed transfer letters for disagreeing with the minister’s decision.
Ghimire, who is the coordinator of National Fodder and Pasture Research Program, has been transferred to the Directorate of Agricultural Research, Gandaki Province, Lumle.
Yuba Raj Bhusal, who is the head of the National Agricultural Technology Information Center, has been transferred to the National Horticulture Research Center without assigning him any responsibility, Ghimire told Setopati.
Bhattarai handed Ghimire’s transfer letter on July 11 and Bhusal’s on July 12.
“We had raised our voice to not break NARC’s system, we had not tried to become the executive director ourselves,” Ghimire said. “But we received the gift of transfer for raising our voice against the minister’s wrong move.”
