As Ghising Comes Charging, Will the Government Do Some Explaining?

Eleven days after his rather unceremonious dismissal as the managing director of the Nepal Electricity Authority, Kulman Ghising has publicly accused the government of conspiring together with powerful business interests to sack him when he was gearing up to settle the dedicated and trunk line tariff dispute by making the defaulters pay and expand electricity trade beyond borders, up to the shores of Bangladesh. 

Here’s a summary of what Ghising said at a press conference on April 4: 

On Chaitra 11, 2081 BS (March 24, 2025), even when preparations were afoot to hold conduct a Cabinet meeting to remove me, I was at a remote region of Makwanpur, working to get electricity in a settlement of marginalized Chepang communities.

Many individuals, interest groups or forces are perhaps feeling that they have become successful in removing a government employee working honestly with the main objective of supplying reliable, sufficient and quality electricity in a safe manner. But the blessings and love from the Nepali people have not let me lose this battle.

I am out only as the executive director of the NEA. My duties and responsibilities as a responsible citizen will never diminish.

The state used all its powers against a government employee while he was discharging his duties as per the law. The Nepali people know why and on whose interest was the state operating.  

You all have witnessed how people in positions of power used and abused the sovereign parliament in this case, he pointed out.

But all this has not deterred me, it has not provoked me. This is because I have not done anything remorseful during my tenure as a government employee. 

And I have not squandered any opportunity to make good use of opportunities and my authority.

The Tariff 

The NEA had not sought to recoup dedicated and trunk line tariffs on the basis of whims and fancies.

The Supreme Court and district courts had given us permission to collect the arrears. While I was trying to collect the tariffs (trunk line and dedicated), efforts were on to keep me busy in insignificant chores by seeking repeated clarifications on the tariff issue (six times and) and telling me to collect and submit thousands of pages of documents.  

While the NEA tried to recoup the arrears by severing power supply four times, higher authorities created obstructions repeatedly. All this is public knowledge now. 

On March 21, I wrote to the Electricity Regulation Commission, seeking an understanding for recouping the arrears by severing power supply. 

Righat after that move, the Cabinet decided to sack me. 

My efforts to recoup the dues became the main reason behind my dismissal as the NEA chief. Is my bid to recoup the arrears of a public corporation a crime against the state? 

In the coming days, the Nepali people and history will surely seek an answer to this question. 

The entire country is witness to the fact that the government that came to power in mid-July last year and the new minister for energy, water resources and irrigation that came with it started exerting unnecessary, illegal and immoral pressure on me while I was working to expand electricity trade to India and Bangladesh.  
 

The government leadership resorted to a premeditated attack on me instead of providing mature advice and guidance for the prosperity of the power utility (NEA).  

Note: Ghising has raised some difficult questions, levelled some serious charges.

Will the government respond or opt for its reactive best (or worst), once again?