GORKHA, Jan 4: It has been more than five months since Deepak Darji, secretary of Ajirkot Rural Municipality ward-5, has been out of contact and is believed to have misappropriated government funds. On July 17, Darji had asked for a three-day leave and has not returned to office since then, informed chairperson of the rural municipality, Fanindra Dhital.
"He was also assigned with the responsibility of looking after ward-3 as there was no ward secretary there. His absence has badly affected the works of both the wards," said Chairperson Dhital.
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According to him, Darji's disappearance has irked the locals who had expected that they would no longer have to go through any kind of hassles after the election of the local units.
Darji is a local of Rapakot-2, Syangja. In his absence, his job is being handled by the chief administrative officer of the rural municipality. Though secretaries of other wards were told to handle his job, they refused to do so. As stated by most of the secretaries, locals of those wards have not yet received their allowance since months and even the documents regarding various expenses are incomplete and unclear. Darji has been out of contact without submitting the expenditure details of the last and current fiscal years.
Officials have found out an unsettled amount of more than Rs 2 million. Darji has been accused of embezzling a large amount of budget and grants sanctioned for allowance and other expenses of the wards. Despite numerous efforts, the rural municipality and other authorities have not been able to find Darji.
As per the Civil Service Act, 1993, if any government employee remains absent from his/her job for 90 consecutive days, his/her appointment to the post will be automatically terminated. As per this law, Darji has already lost his job.
Meanwhile, the rural municipality and the District Coordination Committee (DCC) are planning to file an arrest warrant against Darji.
