BIRGUNJ, AUGUST 4
Contract-based employees of Parsa's Sakhuwaprasauni Rural Municipality have staged agitation. The staff concerned formed a struggle committee and demanded that the local level extend their contract and allow them to record their attendance.
Struggle Committee Coordinator Abhyas Raut Kamkar complained of pressure piling up over political affiliation. "We are putting up with tremendous pressure over our political affiliation and as part of design to appoint a new set of staff close to those who are in power at the local level now," said Kamkar, adding, "There is no environment to work."
Regarding their concern, 18 contract-based staff members have submitted memorandums to the rural municipality Chairperson Jaswanta Yadav and District Coordination Committee Parsa chief Ajaya Sarraf.
The memorandums have accused the new elected leadership at the local level of creating difficult environment for the staff to work and piling pressure on them to resign. "The municipality's intention to remove us is also evident from the fact that it had published a notice on its Facebook page asking us to fill in our work performance form and submit the same by the next day," said Kamkar. "Though we somehow managed to submit the sought form within the deadline, we were not allowed to put in our signature in the daily attendance register, citing that we would be allowed to do so only after the contract was renewed," he added.
The memorandum has sought renewal of the contract and scrapping of the vacancy advertisement for new staff to replace contract-based staff published in the rural municipality.
On his part, rural municipality Chair Jaswanta Yadav lamented the protest over the attempts being made to lessen the financial burden on the local level. "We had as many as 12 office assistants until three months before the local election at the municipal office. I don't see any reason why we need so many office assistants.
Similarly, there are five social mobilisers who don't have any work to do," he said, adding that, "These unnecessary appointments by the previous local government had created unnecessary financial burden on the rural municipality."
"Some staffers have secured over 80 per cent mark on the basis of work performance form," said the rural municipality chair, adding that the new advertisement was to appoint capable persons through the standard procedure. The vacancies announced for new staffers, including the post of drivers, health assistants, lab assistants, AHWs and assistant nursing midwives.
A version of this article appears in the print on August 5, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.
