07 Sep, 2020
Kathmandu, Sept. 7: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has extended best wishes and congratulated all civil servants of the country on the occasion of Civil Service Day being marked on Monday.
Issuing a message on Sunday evening, Prime Minister Oli said the direct and indirect contribution made by the civil servants to achieving political changes in different dates was praiseworthy.
Prime Minister Oli stated, “Today, we have democracy in the country, democratic constitution and the Federal Democratic Republic system where all people are sovereign.” “Now, wherever we are, all should contribute to making this system a success from our respective place and position,” Prime Minister Oli said.
“On this special Civil Service Day today, all civil servants should develop a feeling of unity and pave the way for ensuring good governance and development by demonstrating high morale and dignity and transparency,” PM Oli said.
By developing professionalism, the civil servant employees need to dedicate their service to the public and the development of the country, he said. “Our civil servant employees, despite facing the risk of global coronavirus, have been relentlessly delivering service to the public by keeping their own life at high risk and they are always subject to honour and pride,” he said.
The role of civil service in a democratic political system of the country is extensive and important, the Prime Minister said.
Civil Service sector can always play a crucial role in promoting and winning the trust of the general public in the State and such roles played by the civil servants help to achieve economic-social development through which the nation’s aspiration for Prosperous Nepal, Happy Nepali can be realised ultimately, Prime Minister Oli said.
Meanwhile, the 17th Civil Service Day is being marked by organising various programmes assuring minimal presence of civil servants across the country on Monday with the theme ‘Healthy and Able Civil Service Administration: Prosperity and Good Governance.’
According to Joint Secretary and spokesperson at the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration Basanta Adhikari, the government will not organise the main event of the Civil Sservice Day at Singha Durbar on Monday owing to increasing cases of COVID-19.
There will, however, be a programme to announce the 10 winners of the Best Civil Service Employee titles based on their performance from across the country and Civil Service Prizes to 30 employees from across the country, according to Joint Secretary Adhikari.
However, all the ministries, commissions, secretariats and district-based offices were instructed to celebrate the day ensuring low presence of employees in their respective offices.
The slogan of last year’s Civil Service Day was ‘Able Public Service Administration: Development, Prosperity and Good Governance.’
According to a notice issued by the Ministry on September 4, the meeting of the Civil Service Day Main Organizing Committee held on July 15, had decided not to host the main event but to organise other prorammes within the offices and ministries abiding by the health protocols on COVID-19 issued by Ministry of Health and Population.
In normal times, the Ministry of Federal Affair and General Administration used to mark the day by publishing a week-long programme across the country.
Laxmi Niraula, Joint Secretary and one of the focal persons of the Civil Service Day Management Committee, said the government had issued directive to the three-tier of government agencies to observe this year’s Civil Service Day by
organising programmes or events that are possible in the current situation. The titles and civil servant prizes to the best employees would be provided later by fixing suitable date and time, Niraula said.
Also, during the day, the respective ministries, commissions, offices, from the ward level to federal level can separately announce their best employee of the year.
Joint Secretary Niraual said that despite the threat of COVID-19 in all sectors, they had not stopped delivering service to the people which fall under the definition of essential services. “From ward level to the federal level, we too are affected by the COVID-19, but have been delivering the services which are essential,” he said.
The Civil Service Day Main Organizing Committee was formed under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Lok Darshan Regmi. As per the decision of the Main Organizing Committee, an 11-member Civil Service Day Management Committee was also formed led by Secretary at the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration Surya Prasad Gautam.
Nepal has been marking the Civil Service Day since 2004.
As in most countries, the civil servants play an important role in keeping the wheels of government turning smoothly. Nepal gives the civil servants their own special holiday. The Civil Service in Nepal was constituted in 1956 and today there are about 83,000 civil servants working in Nepal, according to Joint Secretary Niraula Senior Advocate and President of the Forum for Women, Law and Development (FWLD) Meera Dhungana, said the recently endorsed citizenship legislation also failed to address the right to citizenship for orphaned children, street children and children staying in shelters. She said that they had been working on the issue for a long time but failed to implement it due to lack of a proper action plan of the government.
Lawyer Punyashila Duwadi said that the rights to birth and citizenship certificate have been secured by the Constitution of Nepal but other laws regarding citizenship rights are undermining the constitutional provisions. The Constitution has given rights of citizenship to mothers but it has not been implemented yet.
The State Affairs and Good Governance Committee under the federal parliament just endorsed an amendment bill on the Citizenship Act 2063 which had been under discussion for two years, but it still failed to address such issues.
Besides, the endorsement of the bill has been postponed due to the sudden decision of the government to end the parliament session. Because of this, many people who are eligible to obtain the Nepali citizenship certificate and many children of citizens by birth who are entitled to obtain citizenship by descent are being denied their right.
Biso Bajracharya, Executive Director of SathSath, an organisation working for the street and orphaned children, said that they had been lobbying for birth and citizenship certificates for such orphaned and street children since last year. Some 30 children have received birth certificates so far and 50 others are in process to receive them.
“Due to the lockdown amid coronavirus fear, we are unable to work right now as we need to go to their respective birthplaces. As soon as the situation gets better we will start working on it,” Bajracharya said. He said that they have been working on registering the parents’ marriage before the children’s birth registration so that they would not face any problem while getting a certificate in the future.
According to a research done by FWLD last year, more than 35 per cent people eligible for citizenship were issued the document. Even though more than 600,000 people become eligible for citizenship every year, the government issues the citizenship to only about 400,000 people. Rising Nepal
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