KATHMANDU: Minister for Local Development (MoLD) Purna Kumar Sherma today said that he would communicate the demands raised by the agitating local body employees' union to Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal.

Urging the union to call off its stir and sit-in, Minister Sherma today told a delegate of the MoLD officials who apprised him of the situation that he would table their demands to the PM very soon. "We requested Minister Sherma to raise the matter directly with the PM," said Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya, spokesperson for the MoLD.

The agitating local body employees' union is bracing up for a sit-in in front of Singha Durbar. The union has indefinitely padlocked local bodies across the country since December 15.

“If the government continues to neglect our demand even after the sit-in, we'll go for indefinite stir," said Ganga Dhar Gautam, president of the local body employees' union.

According to the Ministry of Local Development, the fourth amendment draft of the Local Self-Governance Regulation addressing majority of their demands was tabled in the Cabinet three months ago. But the delay in approval of the proposed amendment by the Cabinet has fuelled the protest.