The election, to be overseen by the Ministry of General Administration, on April 22 will lead to the establishment of the first of its kind official trade union of civil servants.The police arrested the civil servants on Sunday after they started protesting and vandalizing the office of the chief election officer at the premises of the Ministry of General Administration and also a vehicle belonging to the police, said Deputy Superintendent of Police Prajit KC, the chief of Metropolitan Police Circle, Sigha Durbar.
The Singha Durbar area is a no-protest zone.
"We took no action when the civil servants affiliated to trade unions of UCPN (Maoist) and Madhesi parties were staging sit-in in the no-protest zone. We arrested them only after they barged into the office of the chief election officer, disturbed the work at the office, and smashed a window," said DSP KC, adding, "They even vandalized a TATA van of Nepal Police."
The civil servants are currently in police custody. None of the protesters suffered any injuries. Around 100 civil servants had reached the office of the chief election officer to stage protests.
Since a week, the Maoist and Madhesi trade unions have been staging protests demanding that the ministry decrease the ratio of threshold for securing representation in the new trade union.
The existing election allows only those trade unions who secure at least 20 percent of total votes to be part of the official trade union. The agitating trade unions want the threshold to be brought down to 5 percent.
Among those arrested were chairman of Rastriya Sevak Karmachari Sangathan Sharan Gurung, vice-president of the same union Ambika Dhamala, Suresh Chapagain, Lekh Raj Dhakal and Ganesh Maharjan.
Meanwhile, representatives of trade unions affiliated to Nepali Congress and CPN-UML have been saying that the ministry should not make any changes to the threshold provision in the election process.
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