Mr. Sanjiv Gautam, Director General of Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has submitted all his clarification to the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoTCA) for illumination of all the condemnation applied to him.
According to Mr. Ghanshyam Upadhyaya, Joint Secretary and Spokesperson for Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Mr. Gautam has submitted around 22 pages of clarification along with 1700 supporting documents to Ministry within the 72-hours of the ultimatum from Ministry to revoke all the 11 charges applied to him.
Presently, none of the decision has been made by the Ministry for Mr. Gautam as Honorable Minister Jitendra Narayan Dev is under the leave for the election at Terai. Hon. Minister will take action only after arriving from Terai which could take 2 to 3 days.
Honorable Minister Jitendra Narayan Dev, following the sub-section of Section 19 of the Nepal Civil Aviation Authority Act, has bequeathed the charges memo including-11 points on September 13 to Mr. Gautam with the number of regulatory and operational issues. As per the ministry, Mr. Gautam has been blamed for not using the airport development fee for up-gradating Tribhuvan International Airport which now is passing through lot of clumsy problems including the runway crack, parking congestion, etc.
According to the sub-section of Section 19 states that notwithstanding anything mentioned in Sub-section 2, the Government of Nepal may, if it so desires, remove the director general from his post even before his/her term expires. Sub-section 2 reads that the tenure of the director general shall be of four years, and s/he may be eligible for reappointment if the Government of Nepal so desires.
Mr. Sanjiv Gautam was allotted in the seat of Director General of CAAN in May 2015. During the tenure, Gautam is attributed by the country’s aviation sector removed from International Civil Aviation Organization’s list of significant safety concerns, an airlines representative recounted.
