Siraha/Rautahat, August 7:

Rautahat VDC secretaries to go on strike.

The Employees’ and Teachers’ Joint Agitation Committee, Siraha, said today it would not sit for talks with the government till security of teachers and civil servants was guaranteed. Committee’s president Pradip Goit said this while speaking at a memorial service for Saptari district education officer late Mohamed Hasarath Ali at the Saptari district administration office.

Demanding security for government employees, the ETJAC has been on an agitation since Sunday. All government services, save emergency service at hospitals, have been shut.

Yesterday, the district administration sent a letter to the committee, urging it to come to the talks table.

President Goit said the protest programmes would continue as announced earlier.

Civil servants and employees of financial institutions participated in the memorial service.

Government offices, financial institutions, corporations, local bodies and health institutions have been shut. Earlier, the VDC secretaries’ rights protection centre shut the offices of local bodies to protest the abduction of a VDC secretary.

Meanwhile, VDC Secretaries’ Rights Protection Centre Rautahat said today it would bring work at VDC offices of Rautahat district to a halt from Sunday.

Issuing a press release today, it said the strike was being called to protest the mistreatment of Bramhapuri VDC secretary Shanker Shah by representatives of seven parties. The representatives had mistreated Shah for not releasing funds to a users’ group. The release demanded punishment for those who mistreated Shah.