Kathmandu, September 16: The workers in the Melamchi Drinking Water Project in Sindhupalchowk district have called off their protest after an agreement was made among the workers, local vendors, suppliers and officials of the Ministry of Water Supply on Sunday.
In the talks led by Ministry’s Secretary Madhav Belbase, the agitating workers agreed to put off their protest after the concerned parties agreed to meet their demands. Agreement was made to submit report to the Technical Committee and the Committee will submit its report to the Melamchi Drinking Water Development Committee with the names of the Nepali workers who were left out to be enlisted for compensation.
The Committee will also recommend the government to provide the workers compensation within two months from the application submission date. The concerned authorities have agreed to provide medical services to those workers who were injured during the protest. The workers will resume the halted work of the Project which aims to supply 170 million litres of water to Kathmandu Valley on a daily basis. The agitating workers whose number stand at 828 have yesterday agreed to halt protest and sloganeering among others.
The workers, as well as local suppliers, were protesting as the Italian contractor Cooperativa Muratori e Cementisti di Ravenna (CMC) which owed them their salaries had abandoned the Project halfway and absconded. The vendors and suppliers have also agreed to call off their protest.
The talk was facilitated by Chairman of Board of Directors of the Melamchi Valley Social Upliftment Programme Upendra Tamang and its Vice-Chairman Chiran Tamang. The talk was attended by Ministry’s secretary Belbase, member-secretary of the Technical Committee Kamal Raj Shrestha, CMC Vendor, and Suppliers Struggle Committee Coordinator Bishnu Mani Acharya, member Kiran Thapa and Devi Raman Adhikari, Ramesh Nepal and Gunakar Neupane among others from the workers’ side.
