Department of Transport Management (DoTM) Director General Rup Narayan Bhattarai has been called to the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport.

A meeting presided over by Minister for Transport Raghubir Mahaseth on May 14 had decided to call Bhattarai to the ministry. He was accused of not cooperating with the ministry. He was present at the office on April 5, 2018.

According to an official at the DoTM, Bhattarai had played an instrumental role to bring an end to the syndicate practice in the transportation sector.

The official said that Bhattarai was called at the ministry under the pressure of transport entrepreneurs.

Federation of Nepalese National Transport Entrepreneurs (FNNTE) Chairman Yogendra Karmacharya has claimed that they have not played any role to remove Bhattarai from his post.

“We have not met Minister Mahaseth yet,” he said, adding, “We are just waiting for the government’s next step after removing the syndicate system.”

Bhattarai was transferred under the pressure of transport entrepreneurs earlier also.

Then Transport Minister Bir Bahadur Balayar had kept him at the department by giving importance to some of the important decisions made by him.

It has been learnt that Madhusudhan Adhikari, Secretary of Transport Ministry, had made preparations to call him to the ministry on Thursday itself.

The Cabinet had scrapped all the transport bodies a month ago under the initiative of Bhattarai. DoTM under the leadership of Bhattarai had opened new vehicle route permits that were controlled by transport bodies. Earlier, transport committee used to take Rs 1 to 1.5 million to register a bus.

 Bhattarai was preparing to put an end to syndicates in the taxi sector as well.