Dipayal, October 12:

Chiefs of the far west regional offices in Dipayal and those of district offices in Silgadhi have not returned work though a week has passed since the Dashain holidays ended. Non-gazetted first and second class officers are running the offices in the absence of the chiefs.

Office chiefs of 12 regional offices including the regional administration office, drinking water division, road division, agriculture and animal husbandry offices are yet to report back to work. Only the chiefs of the regional education directorate and regional statistics offices have joined office.

In the district offices, the chiefs of the agriculture development office, livestock service office, land revenue office, district development committee and district education office have not joined duty yet. The Chief District Officer of Doti has, however, returned to work after the festival holidays.

Important work of the locals remains affected due to the absence of the office heads.

Ram Bahadur Gharti Magar of Dhadal VDC, Doti, said, “My work, which should have been completed before Dashain, has not been done due to absence of the local development officer.” Most employees prefer to work in cities with all facilities and stay on leave for long periods, advocate Rana Bahadur Singh said.

Jagat Bahadur Budha of Bajura, who has business at the Drinking Water Office at Dipayal, said four days have passed since he arrived in Dipayal but his work has not been done.

Sources said only about 20 per cent of the employees work full-time. Most of the others go back home after signing the attendance register.

The employees present in the offices said the office chiefs would return only after Tihar.