DHANGADI, JUNE 21
He had declared intention to resign from his post as a Provincial Assembly member on April 28. After facing expulsion from his party, he had also organised a press conference and announced in public that he was no longer a PA member.
Interestingly, Karna Bahadur Malla is learnt to be still drawing government facilities as a PA member, a position he himself had quit. As learnt, Malla, however, hasn't submitted his resignation at the Province Assembly Secretariat yet, which means he would continue getting the salary and perks as PA member.
"As the secretariat hasn't received his (Malla's) resignation, we can't stop releasing his salary and perks as per the law," said Sudurpaschim Province secretariat information officer Yubaraj Jaishi, the secretariat has been releasing salaries and perks including residential allowance and guest allowance every month.
Meanwhile, Malla himself said he had sent an email to Provincial Assembly secretariat a few days back. Still, Speaker Arjun Bahadur Thapa has to read out the resignation at the Provincial Assembly meeting before he is ipso facto relieved from his post as per the law.
It is important to note there has been a longstanding dispute in Nepali Congress Dadeldhura between the Sher Bahadur Deuba and Malla camps. Lately, the Malla camp had boycotted the party's district conference accusing the Deuba coterie of unilaterally distributing active membership to influence the conference. Irked by the rival camp, as the Malla camp had forged an alliance with CPN-UML during the local election, Malla was expelled from the party, even from his general membership.
A version of this article appears in the print on June 22, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
