Dolakha. Employees of the country’s largest 546 MW Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower Plant have gone on strike, alleging discrimination in the service facilities they have received. They have been on a phased strike for four days, alleging discrimination in service facilities between the residents of Dolakha district and employees from other districts working in the company.
A consensus was reached between the project management and the District Residents Contractual Employees Struggle Committee on October 20 to end the said discrimination. According to the agreement, the service facilities of all employees should be standardized by mid-January, but the agreement has not been implemented yet, said Ram Bahadur Khadka, coordinator of the Dolakha District Resident Contract Employees Struggle Committee.
He said that they were forced to launch a struggle after the company ignored them when they repeatedly wrote to implement the agreement made on Asoj 20. ‘We had issued a press release on Chaitra 20 and urged the company management to implement the old agreement by Chaitra 20. However, they ignored that too,’ said Coordinator Khadka. ‘When we politely drew their attention, they instead used threatening language and insulted us. That is why we had to launch a struggle. Now this struggle will continue until the agreement with us is implemented.’
To create pressure for the implementation of the agreement, they are currently holding peaceful sit-ins and protest meetings by shutting down all the work of the project office in Gongar, Bigu Rural Municipality-1, Dolakha. Similarly, none of the company’s vehicles have been allowed to ply. However, in case of emergency during ‘plant operation’, vehicles will be allowed to ply, says Khadka, coordinator of the struggle committee. According to him, there has been no disruption in the operation of the ‘plant’.
Despite discussions, things did not work out, employees became even more agitated
After the employees started the struggle, the project management formed a negotiation committee and held intensive talks and discussions with the struggling employees. However, the discussions could not yield any conclusion. However, they have become more angry and agitated, saying that the management side has falsely accused the employees by publicizing the issue that was not raised during the discussion in the media.
Especially after the first round of talks with the employees, the statement given by the project management side in various media outlets that the ‘demands could not be met due to the failure to hold the project management board meeting and the ongoing employee agitation has affected the reconstruction’ has further angered the employees, said Coordinator Khadka.
He has claimed that the board of directors has held five meetings on different dates even after the agreement on Asoj 20. Similarly, he has also clarified that there has been no disruption to the project work due to their agitation. He informed that the construction and reconstruction work of the project’s ‘Right Settling Basin’ and the Rolwaling Khola Hydropower Project is being carried out continuously by the entrepreneurs and the work is being monitored and inspected by the company’s employees from other districts for this work. He said that the ‘plant operation’ is ongoing and will continue to be ongoing.
प्रतिक्रिया दिनुहोस्