The Development and Technology Committee of the Parliament has changed its decision for a third time under pressure from Minister for Communications and Information Technology Gokul Prasad Baskota.

During a meeting of the committee on Thursday, Chairperson KalyaniKhadka issued a directive to appoint managing director of Nepal Telecom through open competition.

Minister Baskotastopped Chairperson Khadka while she was reading out the directive, and said he has objection over the directive.

“Wait a minute Chairperson Khadka, discussions were held on topic, and the directive was another, who wrote this decision?” he wondered. He said, “We will appoint managing director through open competition.”

After Minister Baskot’s interference, Chairperson Khadkaput aside the earlier decision and started reading out another decision.

However, the decision prepared earlier was also corrected after Minister Baskota left the meeting.

In the first decision, Khadka had directed the Nepal government and Ministry of Communications and Information Technology to improve technical and administrative sections of the Nepal Telecom to deliver quality service, to appoint managing director of Nepal Telecom through open competition and to choose strategic partnership for the improvement of Nepal Telecom.

Khadka is a lawmaker of ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP).

After the Minister emerged from the meeting, another draft of the decision was prepared. The decision stated that the managing director should be appointed at the earliest.

According to a source, the decision was changed for the third time after the Minister telephoned Chairperson Khadka.

In the last decision, the provision related to the appointment of managing direction of the Nepal Telecom was removed. The third decision stated that technical and administrative departments should improve their service, to operate the BTS tower at the earliest for expanding and enhancingthe quality of Nepal Telecom’s service.