After the State Affairs and Good Governance Committee of the House of Representatives decided to include a two-year cooling-off period for retired employees in the Federal Civil Service Bill, government secretaries led by Chief Secretary Ek Narayan Aryal have been exerting pressure to remove the cooling-off period altogether.
They have already met Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba, House of Representatives Speaker Devraj Ghimire, and National Assembly Chairman Narayan Prasad Dahal, urging them to take the initiative to scrap the cooling-off period.
On Thursday, Chief Secretary Aryal and other secretaries visited the Federal Parliament Secretariat in Singha Durbar and met Speaker Ghimire and National Assembly Chairman Dahal. Journalists took photos and videos of the chief secretary and other secretaries in the Singha Durbar premises at the time.
General Secretary of the Federal Parliament Padma Prasad Pandeya, who is lobbying to remove the two-year cooling-off period, has threatened legal action, claiming that his photo was taken in the Singha Durbar premises.
Pandeya and other secretaries are advocating against the cooling-off period provision, which would require civil servants to wait for two years after retirement before they become eligible for political or constitutional appointments.
The chief secretary and other secretaries did not react when journalists took their photos and videos, but Pandeya covered his face with a notebook he had been holding in his hand.
Taking to social media, Pandeya has objected to his photo being taken citing legal provisions.
"My attention has been drawn to the question of why the general secretary of Parliament covered his face. Article 16 (1) of Nepal’s Constitution guarantees every individual the right to live with dignity. Similarly, Article 28 ensures the right to privacy. According to Section 295 of the National Penal (Code) Act, 2017, taking someone’s photo without their consent is a criminal offense," he said in a Facebook post.
He further noted that any person who commits or causes such an offense can face up to one year in prison, or a fine of up to Rs 10,000, or both.
"I would like to inform that I refused to grant permission to have my photo taken in order to protect my right to live with dignity and to inform those who violated the aforementioned legal provisions of the constitutional and legal provisions," he stated.
Lawmakers on the State Affairs and Good Governance Committee of Parliament had passed the provision of cooling-off period in consensus. But government secretaries including the chief secretary are pushing for its removal, sparking backlash.
