CHITWAN: Energy Minister Janardan Sharma on Sunday directed employees of the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) to make the NEA a profitable business.

He was speaking at a programme organised in Chitwan this morning.

Saying that complaints were coming in about authority employees troubling service seekers in various pretexts and the trend of authority employees asking for bribe, he said action would be taken against those employees troubling service seekers once complaints were lodged at the complaint division of the Ministry.

"You (authority employees) should work to make the authority a profitable business, you will be allocated shares of Arun Hydropower," he said.

He also directed the employees to work in line with the 37-point programme issued by the Ministry.

The authority was preparing to distribute smart meter to its consumers with the view to provide facility to pay electricity bills from home itself, added Minister Sharma.