Community school teachers, health workers, and other employees of Rajdevi Municipality padlocked the municipality office and started a sit-in in front of the office today. They have started the agitation demanding salary due for the past six months.

Teachers’ Struggle Committee Coordinator Rabishankar Yadav said they were forced to stage a sitin as their repeated calls for salary to the municipality chief and chief administrative officer went unheeded for six months. The municipality failed to hold the municipal assembly due to rifts seen among the people’s representatives.

District Comptroller Office of Treasury and Accounting, Rautahat, has not released the budget to the municipality due to its failure to hold the assembly meeting.

Yadav said teachers, health workers and other employees had been running their home on loans.

“We have now decided to stage a sit-in as there is no possibility of getting salary anytime soon.”

Teacher Ram Biswas Mukhiya said the rift between Mayor Dhirendra Singh and Deputy Mayor Anshu Singh had adversely affected the municipality and its employees.

“This problem was reported to the DAO and the federal government, but nothing was done about it,” Mukhiya complained.

The municipality’s acting CEO Subodh Sah said employees were deprived of salary as the district comptroller’s office of treasury and accounting did not allocate budget due to the conflict between the mayor and the deputy mayor.

A version of this article appears in print on January 04, 2021 of The Himalayan Times.