KATHMANDU, OCT 13 -
A section of the employees of the Agricultural Development Bank
Limited (ADBL) launched a sit-in at its head office on Sunday
demanding the resignation of Chief Executive Officer Tej Bahadur
Budhathoki charging him with incompetence. However, the three
employees’ unions at the bank which are affiliated to the three major
political parties respectively -- Nepali Congress (NC), CPN-UML and UCPN
(Maoist) -- are divided on the issue.
NC-affiliated Nepal Bittiya Sanstha Karmachari Sangh (NBSKS) is leading
the protest, the UML-affiliated union is holding back while the
Maoist-affiliated union is behind the CEO who was appointed during the
tenure of a Maoist-led government.
The NBSKS has launched the protest demanding Budhathoki’s ouster for
incompetence and increasing the operating costs leading to a decline in
profits. NBSKS coordinator Ekraj Acharya accused Budhathoki of failing
to “put the right person in the right place” while delegating
responsibility. “Almost all the employees have been centralised at the
head office and branch offices with easy access while the regional
offices in rural areas have been facing a shortage of human resources,”
said Acharya. Their other demands include amending the company’s bylaw,
an increase in workers’ benefits and payment of outstanding bonuses from
previous years. The National Employees’ Union has described the protest
as being politically biased. “The workers affiliated to the ruling
party are just trying to oust the CEO because he had been appointed by a
Maoist-led government,” said Yadav Pokharel, president of the union.
“Everybody including the ADBL board that represents a group of
government officials have not been cooperating with Budhathoki to make
him fail.”
Meanwhile, UML-aligned Karmachari Sangh said it had not yet decided to
support the sit-in. “We are not involved in the ongoing protest,” said
Krishna Prasad Khanal, vice-president of the union.
No comments:
Post a Comment