The Managing Director of the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) Kulman Ghising, who is largely credited with ending Nepal’s ruinous daily power cuts that lasted more than a decade, is likely to get his four-year term extended.
Ghising was due to step down on 14 September, but after widespread public outrage on social and mainstream media, the Energy Ministry has prepared an endorsement for another four-year term.
Sources said Energy Minister Barsha Man Pun has proposed that Ghising be allowed to continue to Prime Minister Oli as well as brought it up with NCP co-chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal.
“The prime minister is ready to extend Kulman Ghising’s term,” a source at the Energy Ministry said on Sunday. “But the has said Ghising will henceforth have to behave like he is a part of the government, and not an independent entity.”
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If true, the remark appears to reflect the prime minister’s unease with Ghising’s popularity for having ended the crippling 12-18 hour power cuts for which his predecessors at the NEA are held responsible.