. Youths have taken to the streets to protest the government’s decision to appoint personal personal secretaries (PA) to members of the Federal Parliament.
On Saturday, youths of the Genji generation staged a protest at Maitighar Mandala, demanding the immediate revocation of the government’s decision. The government had published a notice in the gazette on July 19, 2083 amending the schedule of the ‘Salary and Facilities of Office-bearers and Members of the Federal Parliament, 2073’ to allow lawmakers to appoint a private private secretary.
Youths took to the streets to protest against this decision. Ajay Sodari, an activist of the National Genji Citizen Campaign, who is leading the movement, strongly condemned the government’s decision to reinstate the personal secretary of the lawmaker and warned the government to withdraw it immediately.
He accused the leaders who had raised voice in favour of good governance and austerity in the past have now reinstated the personal secretary facilities against their commitments to put a financial burden on the state after joining the government.
“This decision should be reversed,” he said. The Balen government has decided to keep the personal privileges of the MPs from its cabinet. We have come out on the streets against it. We call for the immediate withdrawal of the decision. “If the decision is not withdrawn, we will start a street protest and withdraw the decision,” he warned.
Sodari said that the tendency of appointing relatives, cadres and neighbours of lawmakers in the name of personal secretary would weaken good governance.
According to him, the expenditure incurred on the appointment of personal secretaries of lawmakers of the House of Representatives, National Assembly and Provincial Assembly members would cost the state treasury over five years amounting to more than five billion rupees. According to him, the amount should be invested in education, health, agriculture and infrastructure development.
Similarly, Prakash Bam, secretary of the same campaign, strongly opposed the government’s decision to appoint private secretaries for MPs.
Claiming that the system of personal secretary could become a mechanism to institutionalize corruption, he demanded the government to withdraw it immediately.
‘Each lawmaker will have his own mechanism of corruption in a policy manner. “The previous government had abolished the post of private secretary,” he said, adding, “Now the government has to invest around Rs 3÷0 billion in the next five years to appoint a private secretary in the federal parliament and the province will also learn from it.” Stating that the erstwhile government had abolished the post of personal secretary, he said it was against the interest of the people to bring such a system again. According to him, around Rs 30 billion will be spent from the state coffers in five years if the private secretaries are appointed for the parliamentarians at both the federal and provincial levels.
He said that if the money is invested in the productive sectors such as education, health, tourism, hydropower and industry, the country will get long-term economic benefits.
Bam expressed the view that if the lawmakers have to hire necessary helpers, they should manage their own salaries and perks.
He said that providing the salary of the private secretary from the state treasury would be a misuse of taxpayers’ money.
Similarly, Sunil Singh, coordinator of the National Genji Citizen Campaign, said that it was against the people’s expectation to provide additional facilities from the state treasury to the lawmakers who reached the parliament with the slogan ‘Elect those who know’ before the elections.
He urged the government to immediately withdraw this decision, protesting the government’s move to provide private seats to the lawmakers elected through the mandate of the people’s mandate.
Stating that people in Karnali and Sudurpaschim provinces still lack basic health services, medicines and transportation, he stressed the need to spend the state’s resources to improve the living standard of the people. He said that the government is working to increase the facilities of the parliamentarians at a time when the citizens of the border areas are facing citizenship problems and border security challenges.
Claiming that billions of rupees are spent annually on the services and facilities of the lawmakers, Singh suggested that the money should be used for tax exemption, public service reform and relief to the citizens. He called for reducing taxes on corpses, improving public transport and spending the budget on areas that directly benefit the people. He demanded immediate scrapping of the provision of providing personal PSO and other additional facilities to the lawmakers, warning of strong protest from both the parliament and the streets if the government did not budge from its decision. This decision of the
government is being opposed from all sides. Advocate Dr. Silwal filed the writ petition naming the government, Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs and Speaker of the House of Representatives as defendants. The petition has been listed for hearing on July 26.
The petition states that the personal secretaries of 884 lawmakers, including 334 members of the Federal Parliament and 550 members of the Provincial Assemblies, will be paid an average monthly salary of Rs 60,000 and will spend more than Rs 3.18 billion in five years
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