Three board members of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) have been laid off by the Ministry of Energy for their non-cooperation to the campaign to reduce power cut.

According to Assistant Spokesperson to the Ministry, Gokarna Raj Pantha, board members Suraj Lamichhane, Manoj Mishra and Laxman Agrawal were sacked by a ministerial-level decision on December 15.

He said that the Ministry has already submitted the dismissal and the appointment letters to the sacked and the newly-appointed board members. He further added to inform that Bhakta Bahadur Pun, Chet Raj Joshi and Umesh Prasad Dhani have been appointed as the new NEA board members.

The sacked board members were said to have opposed several key agenda items presented by Managing Director Kulman Ghising at a board meeting.

They had written separate minutes of the baord meeting held on November 25 and asked Ghising to implement it. They had also forwarded the minutes to the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA). The NEA board has seven members.

In the minutes, the three had not agreed with the MD’s decisions on employee transfers and the signing of power purchase agreements, among other things, claiming that only the board can decide such issues.