161 govt engineers have nowhere to go

KATHMANDU, August 23: As many as 161 engineers working in the now abolished Department of Local Infrastructure (DoLI) have no place to go. No matter where the government tries to transfer them, the government’s move is opposed. So, these engineers are left stuck in between.

The government wanted to accommodate the engineers of DoLI in the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure. But the government had to backtrack on its decision after the nearly 1,200 employees of the ministry unitedly opposed the government’s plan. On August 4, the government decided to establish a Settlement and Market Infrastructure Facilitation Department under the Ministry of Urban Development and place the technical staff working in DoLI under the same department.

To prevent the implementation of this decision of the government, the employees of the Ministry of Urban Development have started an agitation from Thursday. They have started a sit-in since Monday. On Sunday, they announced more programs of protest by holding a press conference. According to which, they staged a protest for one hour from 10.30 AM to 11.30 AM on Monday on the premises of the Urban Development and Building Construction Department.

Similarly, a program was also decided to submit a memorandum to the government by the employees of seven intensive project implementation units and 13 intensive urban and building construction projects across the country through the chief district officers of the respective districts. According to which, in some districts, the memorandum was submitted to the district administration offices on Monday. Engineers participating in the protest said that in some districts, the plan is to submit the memorandum on Tuesday. "Until the decision taken by the cabinet meeting on August 4 is corrected, our protest will continue," said engineer Ekaraj Adhikari, who participated in the protest.

So as not to allow the DoLI engineers to be adjusted in the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, ther under secretaries and even some joint secretaries of the ministry were also directly involved in the agitation.

There is no problem, however, with the employees of the DoLI administration section. The Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration has sent these employees to fill the relevant vacant posts in different offices and departments. “There is no problem in accommodating the employees of the administration group of DoLI. We are sending them to fill vacant posts in other offices,” Suresh Adhikari, Secretary of the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration said.

The government, through the budget speech on May 29, announced that DoLI would be abolished and at most 10 percent of the employees working there would be sent to the Local Infrastructure Development Facilitation Unit under the Ministry of Federal Affairs and the remaining employees would be accommodated in the provincial governments and the federal Ministry of Physical Infrastructure. But after the employees of the Ministry of Federal Affairs protested, the government came to the conclusion of not sending DoLI's engineers to the ministry. Secretary Adhikari said that the decision taken by the Council of Ministers will be implemented.

The technical staff of the urban development ministry who are agitated against the accommodation of DoLI technical staff in the ministry claim that the nature of work of the technical staff of DoLI and that of the technical staff of the ministry is different. “If the DoLI employees are brought to the urban development ministry, then hundreds of our friends who have been waiting for years for career development will be treated unfairly," said an engineer participating in the protest. "Therefore, we will not allow the decision to be implemented."

However, DoLI technical staff say that the government's decision must be implemented. “We are employees. We have to accept the decisions taken by the government,” said Engineer Mahesh Aryal, spokesperson for DoLI, “It’s not that we don’t have anywhere to go. The government has already decided on our matter. Now that decision must be implemented.’’

There are 378 staffers including overseers in the now scrapped DoLI. Of them, 161 are technical manpower (engineers). Other technical staffers have been sent to other government offices. But these 161 engineers have nowhere to go. In the year 2020, DoLI conducted the Organization and Management (O&M) survey twice a year and added 16 posts at once. Technical staffers were promoted to the additional posts. In order to increase the number of posts, it was decided to have Doli offices in all seven provinces only last year. But within a year of this decision, the government decided to scrap DoLI. Then began the controversy over the staff.