Vice-Chairman of the National Planning Commission (NPC) Rabindra Kumar Shakya has resigned. 

Shakya had been appointed by the previous administration led by Khil Raj Regmi, and keeping with the tradition of quitting the post with every change of government, he informed the NPC staff on Wednesday that he was bowing out.

According to officials at the planning commission, Shakya called his staff to his office soon after arriving on Wednesday and announced that he was leaving. He also thanked the employees for their “cooperation” during his tenure.

Shakya refused to comment on his resignation. According to a source at the Prime Minister’s Office, Prime Minister Koirala had been asking Shakya to step down for quite some time.

An official said that the prime minister had asked him not to delay resigning during a meeting on Tuesday.

One of the highlights of Shakya’s tenure is that the 13th plan has been largely finalized. 

His 11-month-long stay at the planning body was not all smooth sailing due to bad blood between him and senior NPC officials including Secretary Yubaraj Bhusal. 

Those dissatisfied with Shakya’s working style complained that he engaged in petty issues like giving 

leave passes, sought to visit foreign countries himself whenever opportunities 

came and favoured certain NPC officials. 

However, those supporting  Shakya said that it was the secretariat’s job to implement the board’s decisions and that some officials were dissatisfied with Shakya because he intervened when the secretariat took certain actions to benefit some people.

Meanwhile, Secretary Bhusal said that he had initiated the process of preparing the budget for the next fiscal year in his capacity as the acting vice-chairman until a new one is appointed.

“We have scheduled discussions with the Finance Ministry for Thursday, and we have invited the secretaries from different ministries on Friday to discuss the new budget,” he added.