Pokhara NDWC men on strike
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POKHARA, JUL 27 - This time, it is not a government school but the state owned Pokhara branch office of Nepal Drinking Water Corporation that is creaking under the rigours of political intervention.
Thirty-one daily wage labourers of the office are the latest victims of political intervention. They were fired from their job merely for their non-affiliation with any party affiliated organisation.
Angered at the unreasonable dismissal affecting their sustenance, the workers on Wednesday staged a sit-in in front of the office demanding reinstatement.
They said they were fired as they were hardcore labourers not concerned with politics. "Most of the dismissed workers are apolitical labourers," said Workers' Struggle Committee coordinator Chandra Bahadur Khatri. "Our families depend on the jobs that we had earlier. How can we make both ends meet after our income source has been cut off?" said Khatri.
The office has various organisations affiliated to different parties including UCPN (Maoist), CPN-UML, Nepali Congress and the trend of employing their people is rampant.
The victims also include those who have devoted 10 years of their life to duty. "I worked for 10 years on contract basis. Thereafter, I was degraded as a wage labourer," said Laxman Shrestha, who worked as a mechanic in the office. Bandhuraj Parajuli, a staff at the office, said, "It is unfair to fire workers without reason." Earlier, the office had also dismissed 14 workers but they were reinstated after pressure.
With the workers on strike, the branch chores have been affected. When asked, branch office chief Ishwor Prasad said that the act of employment and dismissal was done at the direction of higher-ups. "I will inform the centre of it," he said.
The victims warned that they would padlock the branch office bringing all work to a halt after July 31 if they were not reinstated immediately.
After the portfolio of the Physical Planning and Works ministry went to the Maoists, it dismissed 488 wage labourers across the nation. Among the dismissed workers are meter readers, table workers, plumbers, drivers, guards and peons.
Posted on: 2011-07-28 01:31
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