Kathmandu, September 20
The government will train all liaison officers before sending them to their respective mountain bases.
This comes after the government faced criticism after reports emerged in various media that liaison officers had not reached their respective mountain bases during the spring climbing season.
This is the first time that the government has planned to train liaison officers. The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation on September 1 decided to make training mandatory for liaison officers wanting to go to mountain bases. The training will be administered by the Nepal Academy of Tourism and Hotel Management (NATHM) and Nepal Mountain Academy from September 22 this year.
According to NATHM, both gazetted and non-gazetted officers will have to take the training. NATHM on September 3 and asked interested candidates to apply for the course which can also be taken by officials from the Nepal Army, Nepal Police, and Armed Police.
NATHM has also asked people who have climbed Mount Everest to apply for the training. According to Mountaineering Regulation 2059, a liaison officer has to pass an intermediate mountaineering exam, has to hold a bachelors degree and understand and speak English. However, this regulation is not followed by the government while deploying liaison officers.
