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Storm rages as minister savages foreign secy
KATHMANDU, MAY 09 -
Reacting to the May 6 incident when Minister for Labour and Transport Management Md Aftab Alam manhandled Foreign Secretary Madan Bhattarai and senior Joint Secretary Durga Bhattarai, civil servants at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) on Sunday called for action against him.
They submitted a memo to Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal on the day. In a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Alam used derogatory language against Secretary Bhattarai and his junior colleague before manhandling them over the appointment of labour attachés in six countries. While accepting the memo, Nepal had advised the officials that “it would be bad to tomtom the incident when the political situation was fluid.”
“Much as we are appalled at Alam’s act, we are more pained by the prime minister’s reluctance to assure us that he would do something about it,” an undersecretary at the MoFA told the Post. “He instead urged us to brush things under the carpet.”
They also bemoaned that no Cabinet member intervened when the country’s seniormost diplomat was subjected to a volley of abuses. “This is ministerial adventurism against us,” said an official. MoFA officials also met Foreign Minister Sujata Koirala and asked her to take action against Alam. On April 28, Alam had forwarded a proposal to appoint labour attachés in six Nepali labour-destination countries. “He recommended appointing labour attachés in Japan, Oman, Korea, Hong Kong, Kuwait, and Israel in violation of requirements for the positions,” said an official. Neither Minister Alam nor Bhattarai were available for comment.
Koirala will hold talks with the Chief Secretary and Foreign and Labour Secretaries on Tuesday “to resolve the dispute.
Posted on: 2010-05-10 07:20
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