UDAYAPUR, JULY 23
The agitating contract-based employees of Triyuga Municipality in Gaighat have padlocked the municipality office and its works have been obstructed for the last five days. The staffers are staging a sit-in at the main gate of the municipality office, calling for their reinstatement after the municipality did not extend their term and expelled them a week ago.
None of the municipality's officials could enter their office after the protesting employees padlocked the main gate on Thursday and Friday.
As a result, people who had come to the municipality office for official works had to return home without getting their work done.
"We have been drawing Mayor Basanta Kumar Basnet's attention to our demands for a week. We were expelled without any reason and we will continue our protest until we are reinstated," said one of the agitating employees.
Triyuga Municipality has said the 60 temporary, contractual and daily wage employees have automatically lost their jobs after the municipality decided not to extend their term with effect from July 17. Mayor Basnet said the contract and temporary employees' term was not extended as the municipality was not able to bear the financial burden of paying these employees. He said the municipality would not take its decision back.
Meanwhile, the agitating employees say that they will continue their protest programmes until they are reinstated.
A version of this article appears in the print on July 24, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
