Rajbiraj, December 2

More than 200 employees of Saptari’s Tilathi-Koiladi Rural Municipality have not received their monthly salaries for the last four months thanks to a protracted dispute between the rural municipality’s chairman and chief administrative officer.

The dispute between RM Chair Satish Kumar Singh and Chief Administrative Officer Rajiv Kumar Jha has deprived rural municipality staffers of their salaries for the last four months. The dispute between the two had started ever since Jha reported to his duty in Tilathi-Koiladi Rural Municipality on August 25.

RM Vice-chair Suchita Kumari Yadav accused Chairman Singh of not delegating responsibility to CAO Jha fearing that doing so would expose his financial irregularities in development projects.

Ward No-1 Chair Dineshwor Mishra said employees were deprived of their salaries even during Dashain as Singh did not allow

Jha to look into financial matters of the rural municipalities. More than 200 staffers, including 56 under health and 102 teachers, have not received their salaries.

Similarly, around 2,000 senior citizens, people with disability and single women have also not received their allowance.

The rural municipality’s Disaster Risk Programme Officer Rajesh Kumar Jha said monthly salary was halted as CAO Jha was transferred to the District Coordination Committee and a bank account was yet to be opened in the name of the new chief administrative officer.

“The process of opening a new bank account in the name of Acting Chief Administrative Officer Raju Kumar Jha is under way. After the process is over, we will start distributing salaries and allowances,” said Rajesh Kumar Jha.