CTEVT union seeks minister’s resignation

Kathmandu, October 12:

The Employees’ Union of the Council of Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT) today demanded the resignation of minister for Education and Sports, Dr Mangal Siddhi Manandhar.

The union said the minister had a hand in retaining Agni Prasad Kafle as the chief administrative officer of the council. “The post was just a provisional one created by a secretary-level decision as the ordinances were scrapped after the success of the Jana Andolan,” said Raju Khadka, the union’s secretary. “The minister, instead of looking for ways to end the ongoing protest of the employees, wants to keep Kafle forever in the unlawful position,” he added.

The protest programmes had begun on September 3 and the council is closed currently. “It has already been 40 days. The ministry never bothered to listen to our calls. It rather formed an examination committee to conduct an entrance test for the nursing course,” the president of the union, Iswar Chandra Ghimire, said. “When the examination coordinator Ramesh Kumar Poudel himself is not ready to check the answer sheets of the entrance test, Kafle is hiring other hands to check the papers at his home,” he added.

The union has been demanding that position of administrative chief be scrapped and new office bearers of the council be appointed. It said today the protest programmes will continue until all their demands are met.