Agitating civil servants take to streets

Kathmandu, December 31

Agitating civil servants today took to the streets opposing the recently-enforced Civil Servant Adjustment Ordinance.

The civil servants, who have been agitating for the past four weeks in front of the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers and the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration, staged a protest at Maitighar Mandala today after police armed with guns and sticks barred them from protesting before the ministries.

Meanwhile, government employees met ruling Nepal Communist Party Co-chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal at his residence in Khumaltar and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health and Population Upendra Yadav at his Federal Socialist Party-Nepal office at Balkumari.

One of the agitating government employees, Gopal Prasad Pokharel, said Dahal assured them of a bill incorporating their demands. Pokharel said DPM Yadav told them the government would not go against employees’ career development.

The agitating civil servants said they would not halt their protest until they were assured by the government that it would remove the provision that an employee of one government tier could not be transferred to another.

They said the government should come up with three bills — federal civil servants bill, provincial civil servants bill and local levels employees bill — to address their woes.

MoFAGA Secretary Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya, however, claimed, “The ordinance does not bar any employee of the federal, provincial or local governments from reaching the post of chief secretary.”