56-year-old Bhim Bahadur Khadka is a sanitation worker working in Hajira under the Garden and Greenery Promotion Project under the Environment Department of Kathmandu Metropolitan City.

Ramechhap lives in Godavari in Lalitpur with his permanent home . He spends 160 rupees daily to come and go from Godavari to work in the metropolis. He started work and received Rs. 27,000 for 40 days, but he has not yet received the attendance of 60 days of work 

Bheem says, 'The money that was initially understood has run out . Now I have asked Salo for a loan of 10,000 and covered the expenses. Wife cannot work at home . I am the only earner.'  He spends Rs 8,000 on food and Rs 3,500 on rent. Earlier he used to carry heavy loads . He came to work in the metropolis after not being able to carry heavy loads. That too, he has completed 100 days of work under the green promotion project of the metropolis on February 28th.  ``One hundred and four days have not come . I have agreed that I will pay after the money comes from here," he said, "I have not decided where else to work. I am waiting for when the money will come. Now the Prime Minister has to settle it.'

This problem is not only for him. Three hundred employees of the metropolis who work on daily wages are now waiting for their salary. Not only that, permanent and contract employees in the metropolis have not been able to get their salaries since January.  Majuna Silakar, one of the three employees, says, "I have a borrowed seed in Tinkune of Kathmandu. Monthly installments of Rs 30,000 have to be paid. I have paid the money that I have saved so far.' She is a sixth level officer of the metropolis. Majuna has a husband and a son . The son is doing his master's degree. Husband contributes 20 rupees towards household expenses . However, he is struggling to meet the monthly expenses. ``Home is just to say . 50,000 a month is all I need for house expenses,' she says, 'I don't have to give it to my son, but the loan has increased the expenses.' 

There are 2368 employees and 1800 teachers on permanent, contractual and daily wages in the metropolis. In which there are 439 employees on contract . Dhruv Kumar Kafle, assistant spokesperson of the metropolis informed that all these employees have not received their salary for two months. He said that the metropolis has yet to pay 25 million rupees for all the employees.

"The salary of teachers teaching Nepali language has been stopped since Pus". This is taught by us from internal sources . They are 172 employees," he said. But we are trying to get rid of it.'  For this, if the metropolis works on daily wages, they are requesting through their supervisors to help them run rations through the nearest shop and they have requested not to stop school admissions and examinations immediately, he said. "In the meantime, according to the interest given by the ministry, this problem will probably be solved by the first week of March," he added.

But Nar Bahadur Saud, president of the local level employees' union of Nepal, says that the metropolis and the federal government are making unnecessary propaganda when the employees of the metropolis are not getting their salaries. Employees are supposed to work and eat. From laborers to monthly salary earners, he said, "The government and the local level should solve this problem." It should be taken out jointly. We should be fast but it is getting longer.'' He said that now the union is sitting in a wait-and-see situation and this problem will increase and pressure will also be put on the people's representatives.

Why is the employee's salary stopped?

The reason for stopping the salary of the employees in the metropolis, the dispute of the chief administrative officer . Which has now created tension between the federal government and the metropolis. 

On January 5th, the metropolis chief administrative officer Saroj Guragai informed through a press conference that an investigation will be conducted on the allegation that the map was approved without completing the permit process for the construction of the Kathmandu Tower building. 

Mahanagara formed a three-member investigation committee headed by former Supreme Court judge Shekhar Prasad Paudel to investigate Guragai. Shankar Prasad Pandey, the former secretary to the government, and Suman Narasimha Rajbhandari, the vice-chairman of the city's urban planning commission, were members. Guragai is now on home leave after the issue came out.  In his place, Govind Prasad Sharma came as the Acting Chief Administrative Officer. Sharma also worked only till 27th of December . Nurnidhi Neupane is now in the same responsibility. 

However, Bhupadev Shah, the personal secretary of Balendra Shah, the head of the metropolis, informed that the project above 10 rupees and the salary of all employees have been stopped because the acting chief administrative officer has no financial authority. There was a problem at the beginning. There is no money in the current account of the city," he said, "the money has not been brought to the current account. That right is only in the chief administrative officer of the metropolis . This matter came out when it was over.' He said that although financial transactions were conducted in the office for 20 days after the incident, all financial transactions have been closed since January. Not only that, but only the chief administrative officer has the right to approve projects above 10 million rupees, Shah informed that such development works have also been stopped.

"We have money in the reserve account, but we cannot spend it from there, we have to bring it to the current account," he says, "We have stopped paying 750 million rupees for the salaries of city representatives, employees and employees based on needs, contracts above 100 million rupees and development works. " 

But the metropolis is not in a position to be flexible about the chief administrative officer . "The metropolis is not ready to present those who work in violation of the law regarding the establishment of legal status," he said. 

After the investigation committee also failed to prepare a report, Shah, the head of the metropolis, took the opinion of the urban management, law and human rights and public works department of the metropolis and submitted it to the federal ministry. 

'The investigation committee took a lot of time . Time had passed once more. When it was said that it should be added again, and in that situation, the ministry asked what is going on,' said Shah, the personal secretary, 'If the inquiry committee does not give a report, the mayor sent a letter to the ministry with a departmental opinion . It was done in the hope of removing this obstacle.' 

On February 21, Chief Administrative Officer Guragai submitted a request to the Federal Ministry to improve the working environment in the metropolis after the metropolis submitted its opinion. On the 22nd of February, the ministry also sent a letter to Guragai asking them to improve their working environment.