NEPALGUNJ, JUN 20 -
Two days after VDC secretaries of Dhading resigned en masse demanding security, their counterparts in Banke followed suit on Sunday.

Forty-six VDC secretaries of Banke called it quits after an emergency meeting of the VDC Secretaries’ Welfare Protection Centre held at the office of the District Development Committee. The meeting concluded that it was unsafe for them to hold onto their jobs — as it was for Dhading’s VDC secretaries.

With cases of extortion, abduction and murder on the rise, Banke’s VDC secretaries feel their lives are threatened. Parshuram Shukla of the VDC Secretaries’ Welfare Protection Centre said they submitted their resignations to Chief District Officer Basudev Gyawali.

Three underground outfits — the Tarai Janatantrik Party Madhes, Tarai Janatantrik Madhesi Mukti Morcha and the Tarai Janatantrik Mukti Tiger — have earned notoriety for spreading terror among the civil servants of Banke. They have an active presence in the 14 bordering VDCs of the district.   

Secretary of Sitapur VDC Indra Bahadur Shrestha was killed on Jan. 26 by activists of the Tarai Janatantrik Party Madhes. VDC secretaries of Banke had fled to the district headquarters of Nepalgunj for safety. It was only after the local administration ensured security that the secretaries began returning to their villages. A couple of months after their return, criminal groups started hounding the secretaries again. The security situation deteriorated culminating in Sunday’s resignation of secretaries of Banke.

Central Chairman of the VDC Secretaries’ Welfare Protection Centre, Bhawani Ghimire, said that if the government continues to ignore the criminal activities that are rife in various places, the VDC secretaries in other parts of the country would quit as well. “We will not risk our lives. The government must ensure security or else we will not work.”   

Criminal groups and underground outfits are threatening and attacking the secretaries everywhere. The latest victim was Indra Kumar Shrestha, the VDC secretary of Sarlahi, who was gunned down on Wednesday. A little known outfit called the Samyukta Jatiya Mukti Morcha Nepal owned up the murder. Threat from this same group compelled Dhading’s VDC secretaries to resign on Friday. The Morcha has reportedly demanded resignation from all VDC secretaries throughout the country.

Posted on: 2010-06-21 07:58

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