Rajbiraj, January 7

The sit-in that locals in Saptari’s Chhinamasta Rural Municipality started on Sunday over delay in distribution of social security allowance and many other issues continued into the third day today.

Locals, at the initiative of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) Chhinamasta Village Committee, had formed a struggle committee and declared an agitation from December 31, when they picketed the rural municipality office, putting forth their 14-point demand.

But as their demands drew a blank within the four-day deadline, the locals, irked by the local body’s apathy, started a sit-in at the municipal office from Sunday.

Besides the demand for early release of the overdue social security allowance, the agitators also sought financial transparency at the municipality, guarantee of easy access to seeds and fertiliser for farmers and an all-party probe committee to investigate irregularities.

According to NCP Chhinamasta Village Committee Chairperson Tej Narayan Yadav, the committee will declare further agitation programmes after holding a meeting tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the protest that lasted until 1:00pm in the afternoon in front of the main gate of the municipality office building affected regular services of the municipality today.