KATHMANDU: A statue of Chandra Bahadur Thapa, the first Chief Secretary who also served as the first Auditor General of the civil service, has been unveiled in the Civil Service Park area in Gokarna.

On May 25, 2007, a Cabinet meeting decided to construct the National Martyrs and Peace Monument as well as the Civil Service Park in the Jagdol Community Forest area of Gokarna.

The statue of the first Chief Secretary was unveiled in the park 19 years after the Cabinet’s executive decision.

While most of the work on the Martyrs Monument has commenced, it remains incomplete, leaving many under-construction structures in limbo. Unveiling the statue of the first Chief Secretary Thapa in the Civil Service Park area, current Chief Secretary Suman Raj Aryal stated that the park will be developed as a learning and study center for civil servants.

Aryal committed that the Civil Service Park will be developed as a heritage site for civil servants. He pledged that the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers will formulate guidelines to manage and transform the site into a venue where newly appointed Chief Secretaries will visit to take their oaths and offer garlands.

During the program, Mayor of Gokarneshwor Municipality Deepak Risal, democracy fighter Narayan Bahadur Shrestha, grandson of the first Chief Secretary Thapa, Vijay Thapa, and Sudarshan Sigdel Chairman of the Park Management Committee, among others, emphasized that all three tiers of government must work in coordination to complete the construction of the National Martyrs and Peace Monument and the Civil Service Park as soon as possible.