The Foreign Ministry has appointed Lok Deep Thapa, the chief editor of The Rising Nepal to the post of the cultural attaché in the Royal Nepali embassy in New Delhi.

The government has called back Jyoti Prasad Adhikari before the completion of his tenure. Talking to Nepalnews on Thursday, officials at the Foreign Ministry confirmed the appointment of Thapa but refused to elaborate why Adhikari was called back before his tenure expired.

Assistant secretary Adhikari who had been sent for four years as cultural attaché has just completed one-and-half years of his allotted tenure.

According to the Civil Service Act of 1998, a 2nd class Gazetted officer should be appointed as a cultural attaché.

Meanwhile, Kantipur daily quoted a source as saying that preparations are underway to instate Saubhgya Jung Shah for the post that will be vacant in The Rising Nepal. Shah is a former journalist of the newspaper and is an assistant professor of sociology in Tribhuvan University (TU).