KATHMANDU, Sept 2: The government has backed down from its stance regarding the age limit provision in the Civil Service Bill.
The Bill, already endorsed by the House of Representatives, proposes that civil servants retire at 60. But the provision comes with a phased rollout: employees turning 58 would retire in the first year of enactment, those turning 59 in the following year and the 60-year benchmark would only be enforced from the third year.
Despite this already agreed provision, a dispute had arisen at the Legislative Management Committee of the National Assembly after Minister for General Administration, Bhagawati Neupane, and other leaders from the ruling coalition, proposed allowing civil servants to serve until they turn 59 from the very first year of the enactment of the law.
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Amid strong opposition from the opposition parties, Minister for Federal Affairs and General Administration Neupane decided to step back from her previous stance during the meeting on Tuesday.
During the meeting, Minister Neupane said that she decided to step down as she had no personal interest or benefit in the matter. She had earlier stood firm on the age limit issue during the committee meeting, putting the fate of the bill into limbo.
“Let us not break the trend of passing decisions unanimously in the National Assembly. I had asked for time until today. The prime minister is also not in the country. Let us not divide ourselves into majority and minority,” she said.
With this development, the provision on the age limit will remain as passed by the House of Representatives in the new Civil Service Bill. This means many civil servants including Chief Secretary Ek Narayan Aryal, who is believed to be behind this raucous act, will have to retire at the age of 58 this year.
Meanwhile, the draft of the bill has been tabled now at the Legislative Management Committee which must be endorsed by the Upper House and sent back to the Lower House again. The bill will come into action only after the President authenticates it.
