Engineers and assistant sub-engineers working in Khandadevi Rural Municipality of Ramechhap have resigned en masse, protesting the beatings, mistreatment and continuous threats at the workplace. Due to which the measurement, monitoring, plan implementation and payment processes carried out by the Infrastructure Development Branch have been affected.

A statement issued on the letter pad of the rural municipality on Thursday stated that for some time now, unnecessary pressure, intimidation and insecurity have been increasing on technical employees from people related to the Consumers Committee and others. The statement did not mention the number of employees resigning and the name of the person responsible for issuing the statement. However, it contains the signatures of 22 people.

The statement stated that the constitutional and legal rights of civil servants to work in a fear-free and safe environment have been violated, and that the pressure on employees and physical insecurity have seriously affected development work and service delivery. The statement also states that coordination is being done with the local administration and security agencies to identify the people involved in the incident and take legal action. The village municipality has warned that if the problem is not resolved immediately, not only development work but also the entire service delivery will be affected.

According to the statement, on Ashad 20, while the 20th village assembly session was underway, there was an attempt to misbehave and assault the technical staff, including the Chief Administrative Officer, on the premises of the village municipality office. Two days later, on Ashad 24, it is mentioned that technical staff were threatened with abuse and assault using abusive language inside the infrastructure section.

Chief Administrative Officer of the village municipality, Yugesh Kumar Yadav, claimed that technical staff were surrounded and assaulted on Thursday evening. According to him, the employees are feeling extremely unsafe due to the recent incident. 'Technical staff have been surrounded and assaulted,' Yadav said, 'Even while working according to the methods and procedures, they have to face various pressures and obstacles. Now, more than how to do the work, they are worried about how to save their lives.'

He said that in such a situation, technical employees are not able to go to the field for measurement, monitoring and inspection of the project. 'In such an environment, employees cannot be sent to the field,' he said.

Police took control of Prem Tamang of Khandadevi Rural Municipality-6, who was involved in the incident, on Thursday evening and brought him to the District Police Office, Ramechhap. According to Rajan Prasad Timsina, Police Inspector of the District Police Office, Ramechhap, preliminary investigation has revealed that there was a scuffle and scuffle after a dispute between the technical employee and the service recipient.

According to him, both parties have been called for a discussion on Friday to understand more about the incident. The police said that the Chief Administrative Officer of the rural municipality, Yugesh Kumar Yadav, has also been requested to be present in the discussion. According to the police, an investigation is ongoing to identify the real cause of the incident and the culprit.

Rural municipality Vice-Chairwoman Rama Ghising said that she only came to know about the collective resignation of the technical branch employees through a press release. She said that she has not received official information about who resigned.

According to him, when he reached the rural municipality office after the incident on Thursday evening, technical staff informed him that he had been assaulted. They said that the police had already taken one of the service recipients involved in the incident to the police station.

Vice President Ghising said that although there was a lot of work to be completed in the infrastructure branch within a week as it was the last phase of the fiscal year, the branch's work had been affected after the incident. 'Now is the most sensitive time to work. But due to the incident, the work of the infrastructure branch has been stopped,' she said.