Minister and employees staying in hotels
DANG, March 6: Minister for Internal Affairs and Law of Province 5, Kul Prasad KC has been looking for a suitable residence ever since he assumed office. However, due to the lack of government buildings, he is yet to get a residence.
As a result, Minister KC has been staying at a hotel in Butwal and has established his residence there in a single room. He plans to stay in the hotel until the government provides him a residence.
“The residence here is not very convenient. It is especially difficult to hold important and secret discussions and meetings here,” said Minister KC.
The minister had turned down a proposal to make a small government building in Bhairahawa his residence though it is about half an hour distance from the ministry. “I turned it down as I did not see it suitable for the,” he said.
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Likewise, Deputy Speaker Krishna Chaudhary of the provincial assembly hasn't been able to find a suitable residence even weeks after assuming office. He has got a room at a hostel for the employees of Nepal Rastra Bank.
Although he says his stay at the hostel is comfortable, he has to go outside the hostel for meals. “The problem of meals has made the stay there very inconvenient,” he said. At present, Chaudhary's residence has been planned in a government building based in Bhairahawa.
However, the deputy speaker says the proposed residence is unsuitable, arguing that traveling to and from office would be time consuming and risky from the security point of view.
The residence problem is not limited to them only.
Due to the lack of sufficient government physical infrastructures, high- as well as low-level officials are without residences.
Many of them are staying in rented rooms and in hostels.
As the immediate past government under Sher Bahadur Deuba decided the temporary provincial capital without assessing the availability of physical infrastructures, the provincial government is facing lots of challenges in managing residences for public officials.
According to Chief Secretary Shankar Pathak of the Chief Minister's Office, the provincial government is having a hard time providing residences to their officials.
“Most of the government buildings are in use already. Unfortunately, due to the lack of sufficient infrastructures, we cannot solve the problem of residence immediately,” he said.
