Kathmandu, July 26:

The Parliament State Affairs Committee (SAC) today directed the secretaries of the concerned ministries to draw up an alternative arrangement to settle the problems created by the temporary appointments of women development officers at the Department of Women Development.

Temporary women officers have been protesting in front of the Singha Durbar for the past few days demanding they should be given permanent appointments. There are about 525 such officers who are serving in the Department for period ranging from three to 25 years.

The SAC directed the secretaries after listening to the problems from the Minister for Finance, Dr Ram Sharan Mahat and the secretaries at the Ministry of Women Children and Social Welfare, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of General Administration, Chairman and the secretary of the Public Service Commission and the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs. The alternative arrangement on this issue will be discussed when the SAC meets again.

While the secretaries suggested the MPs to take a political decision to resolve the issue of those women officers by bringing a new policy, MPs including the Finance Minister Mahat said

that a political decision taken in such an ‘ad-hoc basis’ would invite bigger but negative repercussion in the long run.

Clarifying on the financial repercussion, the Finance secretary, Bhoj Raj Ghimire, said: “In this particular case, women officers should be given a permanent appointment.

But there are other 30,000 government employees who have been given temporary appointments, and the state cannot bear the financial liability for all of them.”

MPs Dila Ram Acharya, Hom Nath Dahal and Mahendra Pandey said that the issue of women officers should not be dealt with sympathy.