Kathmandu, December 25:

The government has still not paid Rs 200 million to civil policemen, who served as ‘unified police’ in various army barracks for their accumulated leave, and to those police personnel who were injured in action during the decade-old insurgency. However, personnel of other security agencies, including the Armed Police Force (APF) and the Nepali Army, who worked as ‘unified police’, have been compensated.

The Parliamentary State Affairs Committee’s (SAC) has summoned Minister for Home Affairs, Krishna Prasad Sitaula, and Home Secretary Umesh Mainali, Finance Minister Dr Ram Saran Mahat and the Finance Secretary tomorrow to explain why “civil police have been discriminated against”.

They are being summoned also to clarify why the government has not compensated the Internally Displaced People (IDPs). The announcement to pay compensation to the IDPs was made in the annual budget passed in July. The SAC had earlier directed the government to immediately compensate the injured policemen, as well as those personnel who had worked as unified police without taking home leave.

“The ministers and secretaries have been summoned tomorrow to clarify the matters,” an official at the SAC told The Himalayan Times. SAC will also convene a meeting soon to discuss again the contentious issues in a bill related to the Civil Service. The government seems to have dumped the bill at the SAC as the ministries concerned are least concerned about “working out” the problematic provisions as per the suggestion of the SAC.

Many issues are hindering the passage of the bill. First, the issue of turning the existing “class-wise” system in bureaucracy into “level-wise” system is yet to be settled because the Ministry of General Administration has not finalised the number of levels.

Secondly, there exist contradictory provisions for civil employees to join trade unions in the bill and a proposal passed by the restored House of Representatives (HoR). According to the HoR proposal, civil employees up to the undersecretary level can join such unions, but the bill has given the right to join the unions to employees only up to the second-class-officer level.

The other issues are related to provisions of automatic promotions to those who have served over 16 years as non-gazetted employees and 20 years as gazetted officers; giving permanent appointment to limited women employees.

The issues are also related to provisions of pension; changing the ‘service groups’ by bringing diplomatic, audit, parliament and legal groups into the administrative group, and not keeping any limitation of group and sub-group on the gazetted first-class officers and above.

“The SAC is ready to pass the bill unanimously, but the issues including giving rights to civil employees for being affiliated to trade unions, turning the class-wise bureaucracy into the level-wise system need to be settled,” SAC chairman Hirdaya Ram Thani told The Himalayan Times.