News - Facebook Out Of Bounds In Singha Durbar

 

With a view to curbing civil servants’ “undue  and excessive” use of social networking sites during office hours, the government has blocked Facebook inside the country’s administrative hub Singha Durbar.
The Ministry of Finance, which provides internet facility to all the ministries and agencies inside Singha Durbar, has blocked the site from 10 am to 3 pm every day for the last two weeks. A spokesperson defended the decision, saying it was intended to avoid a ‘jam’ in the internet connectivity.
“The connection had slowed down because of the overuse of Facebook. We have blocked it in offices as an experiment,” said Finance Ministry Spokesperson Rajan Khanal. He said there was no ministerial or Cabinet level decision on the move.
However, officials at the Ministry of Information were not ‘aware’ of the development until Monday night. “We are not aware of the issue,” said Spokesperson of the Ministry of Information Sushil Ojha.
Facebook has been blocked in key institutions like the Prime Minister’s Office, the Parliament Secretariat and over two dozen
ministries. Singha Durbar houses over 50 percent of the around 20,000 civil servants stationed in the Capital.
Facebook has also been blocked from 10 am to 5 pm at the Army Headquarters in Bhadrakali.
Blogger and Social Media Enthusiast Ujjwal Acharya said such a move is not a solution to the problem and urged authorities to bring in social media guidelines to encourage its proper use.
“In this age of technology, the government should use the social media to interact with citizens rather than block them arbitrarily,” he said. “If any official wastes his/her time on Facebook by breaching the guidelines, they can be punished,” he said.