KATHMANDU: The Home Ministry today issued a notice directing service providers in essential services to refrain from staging any kind of protest. The directive comes in the wake of concerns surrounding COVID-19.   As per the Essential Services Operation Act, 2014, clause 3 and sub-clause 1, the Government of Nepal has urged the service providers to refrain from staging bandh and strike in the following sectors.

• Postal and telecommunication service
• Water, road and air service involved in the transport business
• Services involved in the maintenance and repair of the aviation industry
• Services involved in transporting, storing goods in a railway station, government stores and hangers
• Services related to print and public printing
• Any government agencies involved in the production and transporting arms and ammunition
• Communication services
• Services related to internal security
• Services related to supply and distribution of drinking water
• Services related to tourism, motel, hotel, restaurant and resorts
• Services related to petroleum products including liquefied petroleum gas import, storage and distribution
• Services related to the hospital, health facilities, pharmacy and production and distribution of medicine
• Services related to the collection of waste, transportation, recycling, disposal, and infrastructure development related to waste management
• Other sectors such as banking, electricity service, insurance service and daily consumable goods including, rice, iodine, edible oil and its supply and distribution-related services.

Earlier, the government has decided to halt SEE (Secondary Education Examination) and university activities to prevent the spread of the deadly virus in Nepal, which originated from Wuhan in Hubei province in China in 2019. Meanwhile, the virus has spread over 175 countries infecting more than 2,00,000 people and killing around 9,000 people, causing chaos all over the world. READ ALSO:

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