97 Teachers and Staff in Dailekh's Thathkandh Rural Municipality Not Paid for a Year

Surkhet. 97 teachers and staff in Thathkandh Rural Municipality of western Dailekh have not received their salaries for the past one year. Teachers, staff, early childhood development facilitators, and school assistants appointed by the rural municipality itself under the grant quota have not received their salaries for a long time.

They complain that they have not received their salaries despite repeated agreements and understandings with the village executive and local government. 'We are neither here nor there. It has become difficult to manage household expenses without receiving a salary,' a teacher lamented, 'Either provide the salary, or tell us not to teach. If a path was set, we would have gone to India for employment.'

According to those teachers, they have been teaching without salary for one year. Ravilal Devkota, secretary of the Rural Municipality Grant Teachers Struggle Committee, said that a struggle committee has been formed and preparations for protest are underway as their repeated requests have not been heard.

'Salaries for more than one year have not been paid, and there is no indication that this issue will be included in the budget for the upcoming fiscal year,' he said.

According to him, all community schools within the municipality will be closed indefinitely from Wednesday (today), and a program to lock the Education, Youth and Sports Branch, Accounts Branch, and the office of the Chief Administrative Officer will be held from Asar 5. 'The situation has come where we have to protest even to get our own salary, what could be more tragic than this?' he questioned.

According to him, although the rural municipality chairman Rakshabahadur Shahi appears positive on this issue, the employees and ward chairpersons are not cooperating. While the rural municipality has not paid the salaries of the working teachers, it is also appointing new teachers of the same nature, which is seen as a irresponsible step by the rural municipality. People's representatives are giving new appointments in the name of managing their close associates.

'After the start of this fiscal year, the posts of grant teachers became vacant in many places. Despite saying not to appoint, no one listened,' said a people's representative. 'There are employees who cannot pay salaries, and on the other hand, there are people's representatives who get teachers appointed without proper accounting.'