Eighteen government offices in Dhanusha district, 12 in Mahottari and five in Sarlahi have no chiefs as they do not want to remain in their offices for lack of security, the Chief District Officers (CDO) of those districts said. [break]
In Dhanusha the District Education Office, Janakpur Municipality, Janakpur Cigarette Factory, Tourism Office, Janakpur Customs, District Election Commission, Local Peace Committee, Land Reform Office, Bureau of Statistics, District Agriculture Development Office, Internal Revenue, District Post Office, Janakpur Zone Divisional Roads Department Office, Professional and Skill Development Training Center, Nepal Railways and Land Revenue Office do not have their office heads.
Similarly in Mahottari, the District Development Committee, District Education Office, Public Service Commission, Local Peace Committee, District Post Office, Land Revenue Office, Land Reform Office and Jaleshwar Municipality have been running without their chiefs. Likewise, five offices in Sarlahi including District Development Committee, Local Peace Committee and District Education Office also do not have their office heads.
Dhanusha CDO Shambhu Koirala says most of the senior officials have been transferred elsewhere due to the violence in the Tarai. “Office heads have been transferred following the rise in extortions, abductions and murders. Who isn´t scared for one´s life?” explains CDO Koirala. Koirala says a few offices are functioning under acting heads.
Normal functioning of the District Education Office, Dhanusha has been severely affected due to the absence of most employees and the office chief. Rudra Narayan Jha, who has been nominated Acting District Education Officer, discloses that he alone out of six school inspectors remains at the office. Even Jha has been doing his official work from home, citing security concerns. “I have started to work from home after efforts were made to force me to do things that were never done by other office chiefs,” Jha says.
Similarly, there is no section officer at the office despite the quota for two such officials. Jha discloses that routine work such maintaining school records, monitoring teachers and schools and making recommendations has also been affected.
Mahottari´s District Post Office has been running without a chief for eight years, the Land Reform Office for four years, Land Revenue for three years and the Public Service Commission for two years, says Mahottari president of the Fedeartion of Nepalese Journalists Hari Prasad Mandal.
Mahottari CDO Sagarmani Parajuli says officers of hill origin have been transferred after the onset of the Tarai movement. “This place is not fit for employees of hill origin and we have been running the offices under employees of Tarai origin as acting chiefs,” CDO Parajuli says. He further says that this lack of employees is not limited to the Tarai but rather is a phenomenon across the whole country.
Related story
From half a dozen to 321 offices: modern Nepal's quest to run i...
-1200x560-1781083488.webp)
