KATHMANDU, April 18: Bowing to pressure from protesting village development committee’s secretaries, the government has decided to provide them a monthly incentive of up to 50 percent of their monthly salary.
For the past three weeks, VDC secretaries, especially in the earthquake-affected districts, have been refusing to carry out reconstruction-related tasks unless the government provided them incentive for the additional work.
Govt decides to provide 50% incentive to VDC secretaries
The government has decided to provide an incentive of up to 50 per cent of their salary to VDC secretaries on the basis of their performance and workload, informed Purna Chandra Bhattarai, spokesperson at the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development (MoFALD), adding, the decision was taken after VDC secretaries showed reluctance to go to their respective VDCs fearing high workload but no increment in the salary.
Along with the incentive, the ministry has decided to provide additional allowance for lunch to the VDC secretaries serving in 14 worst quake-hit districts as they would have to handle additional workload related to reconstruction and rehabilitation.“They will receive Rs 500 as lunch allowance during public holidays and Rs 250 on working day,” informed Bhattarai.
According to the ministry, the VDC secretaries who accomplish over 80 per cent of the monthly tasks assigned to them will receive 50 per cent of their salary as incentive. Those who accomplish between 60 to 80 per cent of the monthly tasks will earn an incentive amounting to 40 per cent of their salary. The secretaries who manage to complete less than 60 per cent of the tasks will not receive any incentive.
“We have adopted the performance based incentive measure with the aim to motivate VDC secretaries to complete tasks assigned to them on time and make the service delivery effective,” said Bhattarai.
Currently, in lack of sufficient officials, many VDC secretaries across the country are forced to oversee activities at more than one local office.
Altogether, there are 3,157 VDCs in the country. In the quake-affected 11 districts alone, 125 VDCs have no secretaries.
Now, with the incentive measures coming into force, the khardar-level VDC secretary may receive anything between Rs 25,000 and Rs 17,000 if they accomplish over 80 per cent of the monthly work, while the officer-level VDC secretary will receive up to Rs 36,000.
