Decision to take initiatives for addressing demands of Parliament staff

Kathmandu, June 17: Initiatives are to be taken to address the proper demands related to the service and facilities of the Parliament Secretariat employees. A decision on this was taken in the discussions among the Speaker of the House of Representatives (HoR) Devraj Ghimire, National Assembly Chairperson Narayan Prasad Dahal and the chief whips and whips of the parties. A meeting of the representatives of political parties representing in the Parliament held at Speaker Ghimire’s office chamber in Singha Durbar today reached an agreement to address the fundamental demands relating to their services and facilities raised by the Parliament Secretariat employees, in consultation with the Ministry of Finance. Nepali Congress Chief Whip Ramesh Lekhak said after the meeting that all were unanimous that the service and facilities of the Parliament Secretariat employees should be revised and provided in tune with the time in accordance with their work, as they have to work since early morning till late into the night given the Parliament different work nature. “All the political parties are agreed on the topic that several services and facilities determined 15 years back should be revised and made available,” the NC Chief Whip said, stressing that the government should manage the funds required for operating the parliament. He also suggested the parliament to also spend the budget it gets from the government in a frugal way. CPN (UML) Chief Whip Mahesh Bartaula said that all the parties were univocal the just demands raised by the employees of the Federal Parliament Secretariat should be fulfilled. He added that the government should allocate the budget required for fulfilling the justified demands and the facilities and emoluments should be made in tune with the time. CPN (Maoist Centre) Whip in the National Assembly, the upper house of the Federal Parliament, Gopi Achhami shared that all the parties were one on addressing the basic demands raised by the civil servants working in the Parliament Service, in consultation with the Finance Ministry. President of the Federal Parliament Secretariat Employees Union, Govinda Belbase said that their protest continues as no agreement was made regarding their demands in the preliminary discussions with the office-bearers including the Speaker, the National Assembly Chair and others, and only the notice that the Union would be informed about this after consultations on the matter with the Finance Ministry. It is estimated that around 100 million rupees will be required to meet the Union’s demands. The Union has been agitating putting forth an 11-point demand. —