KATHMANDU, AUGUST 18
Former president of Nepal Trade Union Congress Laxman Bahadur Basnet has alleged that the Nepali Congress has failed to secure reservations for labour in the party and the Parliament.
Addressing a press meet today, Basnet said the NC is still unable to implement the memorandum of understanding securing 10 per cent reservation in the party for labour, which was signed between NTUC and then NC president Sushil Koirala during its fifth convention held in Chitwan in 2013.
"The contribution-based social security programme endorsed by the NTUC more than two decades ago has been implemented to some extent, but it is still unorganised and the programme has not been implemented for the self-employed," he said.
Stressing the existing underrepresentation of farmers, labour and youth in policy-making, he urged the government to assure voting rights for migrant workers in the forthcoming election.
"Even though the Election Commission has completed the study on creation of clusters of youths, farmers and labourers as provisioned in the constitution and their representation at the policy-making level, such clusters are not being created due to the lack of will on the part of the political parties," he informed.
"The government's policies for migrant workers are bigoted as they only accept remittances but do not allow them to participate in the election," he added.
A version of this article appears in the print on August 19, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.
