Mayor Janachandra Rokaya said that all work, including the municipality's planning agreement, has been halted after the head transferred by the ministry refused to come to the district.
What you should know
The work of government offices in the Himalayan districts, from local levels to the office buildings, is being affected due to the absence of chiefs and other employees. Service recipients are suffering due to employees who refuse to come to the district after being transferred and who do not stay for long even if they do come.
Tripurasundari Municipality here is currently without an office chief. The then Chief Administrative Officer Nokhiram Wali, who went to attend a workshop organized in Surkhet last December, did not return to the district. He did not return after being informed that he had been transferred in the first week of Poush. The people's representatives have complained that the local level work has come to a standstill after the ministry transferred Wali to Panauti Municipality in Kavre without consulting them.
The people's representatives of the municipality had tried to make a senior employee working there the acting office chief in consultation with the ministry. They had requested Dipendra Aidi, an agricultural development officer working in the agriculture branch, to become the chief. However, the Aidi rejected the people's representatives' proposal. After that, another senior employee, Engineer Chandrashekhar Wali and Public Health Officer Thaneshwor Paneru, were requested to take turns as the acting chief, but they did not accept.
After three people refused, the municipality's information officer Hemant Shahi was requested to assume the responsibility of the mayor. The people's representative said that even though Shahi expressed his willingness, the ministry refused, saying that a junior employee cannot be given responsibility despite being a senior employee.
Information officer Shahi said that since the municipality does not have an office chief, financial and other work has come to a standstill. After no solution was found, the deputy mayor Devi Gharti reached the Ministry of General Administration with a file. After that, the ministry had deployed Hari Bahadur Khatri, the office chief of the Industry and Consumer Protection Office in Banke.
Even though the ministry had deployed him, Khatri has not reached the work area even after almost a month. Mayor Janachandra Rokaya said that all work including the municipality's plan agreement has been stopped after the head transferred by the ministry refused to come to the district. He said that problems arise when employees deployed by the Ministry of General Administration refuse to come to the municipality.
