Sarlahi, June 11: As many as 194 employees of the Forest Products Development Board under the Ministry of Forests and Environment have complained that they have not been paid their salary for as long as seven months.
Altogether 143 employees of the Sagarnath Forest Development Project in Sarlahi, 42 of the Ratuwamai Afforestation Project in Jhapa (Kharka) and nine of the Forest Products Development Committee grieved that they have been denied of their salary for nearly seven months, informed Chattra Bahadur Lama, Chief of Sagarnath Forest Development Project.
As the forest products worth over Rs 200 million are being produced in the project area under the Committee, the staffers had not been provided salary since last December.
Also, 18 retired officers have not received gratuity, it was shared.
Timber measuring 118,000 cubic feet and amounting to around Rs 200 million remains to be sold due to which salaries could not be paid, said Premilal Prasad Shah, Chief of Project.
The projects under the committee that had been running from internal sources since 2035 BS have been in trouble since the implementation of a new regulation is in place to measure Goliya wood, he shared.
Since the timbers are not being sold, the committee has been suffering bankruptcy. Although tender was called repeatedly to sell the timbers, the entrepreneurs refused to accept the contract handed down to them, divulged Rajdev Prasad Yadav, Executive Chief of the committee.
Earlier, the committee had paid the employees their salary dues for 13 months by obtaining Rs 80 million loan from the government on installment basis, informed Yadav.
It is not still clear that whether the Project would remain under the federal government or provincial since the case is sub-judice in the Supreme Court for nearly six years which has led the committee’s functions to deadlock.
Yadav offered an insight to give respite to the unpaid employees. #nepal #rss
