Speaker Gharti Magar has decided to dissolve the secretariat, saying that the federal government does not recognize the provincial Speaker and Deputy Speaker.
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Lumbini Province Speaker Tularam Gharti Magar has dissolved his own secretariat, saying the federal government does not recognize the provincial Speaker and Deputy Speaker.
Speaker Gharti Magar, in a statement on Sunday, said that the private secretariat and private employee facilities provided under Section 8 (1) of the Act on Remuneration and Facilities of Office Bearers and Members of the Provincial Assembly, 2075 BS, have been suspended in view of the special circumstances and needs of the current situation. The decision to remove the secretariat will come into effect from Mangsir 1 (today), the notice states.
The Sushila Karki-led government, which was formed after the Gen-G movement, had written to the Chief Ministers and ministers of the provinces asking them not to have more than 3 secretariats. However, there was no mention of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the provinces in the letter. As a result, the Speakers of all seven provinces had been complaining that the federal government did not recognize the provincial assemblies. The Chief Ministers had also lobbied Prime Minister Karki in their meeting, saying that the provincial government was autonomous and that the letter to remove the secretariat would not be binding in its implementation.
However, after receiving no correspondence from the federal government, Speaker Gharti has removed the 5-member secretariat effective from Monday. Speaker Gharti's secretariat had a deputy secretary-level personal secretary, an officer-level assistant personal secretary, a press coordinator, an office assistant and a driver. Until further arrangements or decisions are made, all the employees of the Speaker's 5-member secretariat have been retired effective from Mangsir 1, said Giriraj Khanal, Information Officer of the Provincial Assembly Secretariat. 'There were 5 people in the Speaker's secretariat,' he said, 'all of them have been retired effective from Monday.'
Following the letter from the federal government and the correspondence from the Office of the Chief Minister and Council of Ministers of Lumbini, the Provincial Assembly Secretariat had also removed the personal secretary that the Provincial Assembly members had been receiving earlier. The Provincial Assembly had stopped the salary facilities of the personal secretaries that the Provincial Assembly members had been receiving since Asoj 1. According to secretariat sources, the staff of the secretariat of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker were working as usual in Asoj and Kartik. Their salaries till Kartik are yet to be paid.
