Will NSC get new member secretary today?

KATHMANDU: NOV. 29 – The race for member secretary of the National Sports Council (NSC) has intensified. One and a half months after the dismissal of the then Member Secretary Ramesh Silwal, the government is making final preparations to appoint a new Member Secretary.

A source close to the Sports Ministry said that the cabinet meeting to be held on Monday is likely to take a decision in this regard. According to a ministry source, the sports minister has already sent the names of three of the 18 people who have submitted applications and submitted action plans for the post of member secretary. According to news sources in the ministry, Tankalal Ghising is most likely to be the new member secretary.

Ghising, who is also the chairperson of the Nepal Rugby Association, is also a leader of the CPN-Maoist center. He is a member of the Maoist center’s Bagmati state. Ghising also served as Hit Bahadur Tamang’s personal secretary when he was sports minister. He is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Asian Rugby Federation.

In the application demanded by the ministry, 18 people had submitted the form. The recommendation committee has already sent the names of Tankalal Ghising, Mamata Shrestha and Achyutam Lamichhane to the cabinet.

According to those close to him, Tanklal Ghising is now the main claimant as the member secretary of the National Sports Council is a political appointee. Ghising has been a member of the Maoist party since the beginning of the armed insurgency.

According to Maoist leaders, he was introduced by the Maoists as he was a close acquaintance of Prachanda and a person of the highest rank among those who understood sports within the Maoists.

Despite the government’s decision to dismiss the then member secretary Keshav Kumar Silwal on Oct. 18, the process of appointing a new member secretary has started late. The process of appointing a new member secretary could not start for about a month as there was no secretary in the ministry. As soon as Damodar Regmi became the secretary, the ministry started the process of appointing the member secretary of the council.