KAILALI, Sept 30: The process of infrastructural development in Sudur Paschim province has been hit hard as the Ministry of Infrastructure Development does not have even half the number of employees allocated for it. While the total quota for employees at the ministry is 55, it has just 22 employees.
"It is very important to have full strength of staff in any department otherwise the work gets affected," said Ram Chandra Bhatta, a non-gazetted officer at the ministry. "Daily works here have been hampered as we do not have more than 22 employees," he added.
The posts of highway division engineers, general division engineers, and sanitary division engineer and section officers, among others are vacant.
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"We don't have enough engineers, administrators, technicians," said Bhatta. "With less than required number of employees there is no question of efficient service delivery. Without experts or technicians, this ministry simply cannot work," he added.
He further reported that even technical issues are being handled by non-technical staff. “And that can be disastrous in some cases,” Bhatta noted.
"What's happening now is that the secretary of the ministry himself is taking care of both technical and non-technical issues. It is the same in other sections. This ministry lacks the right person in the right place," he stated.
The ministry has only three engineers while the quota for engineers alone is 26. According to Indradev Bhatta, the provincial secretary, the lack of technical employees has led to a chaotic situation.
"It is a very odd situation. Even after making all efforts, we have not been able to fill the vacant posts," he said.
Bhatta stated that he talked to the federal government several times regarding the issue but in vain.
