Rampur (Palpa): Rampur Municipality is yet to pay risk allowances to the health workers involved in Covid-19 treatment and management to the infected people since March 2020.
According to the municipal records, a total of 40 staff including health workers were involved in the frontline to treat the infected people in the municipality having around 40,000 population. The government decided to provide the risk allowance to the health workers and frontline staff involved in the treatment of infected people.
“We are yet to receive the allowance of the first lockdown imposed last year,” said the health staff in the municipality. “We were told that we will be paid, but we are still waiting for it,” they added.
The government made provision to pay risk allowance up to 75 percent of a regular salary.
The records of Rampur Municipality show that a total of 1,223 people were kept in quarantine in the last fiscal year. Till now, nearly 1,000 people tested positive for the pandemic. The municipality shut down all 24 quarantine centers and a 50-bed isolation center since the end of the last fiscal year in July 2020.
The municipality disbursed Rs 10 million for the Covid management activities in the last fiscal year while the government provided Rs 1.5 million for the local body. Similarly, the municipality allocated Rs 10 million in the current fiscal year for the Covid response, according to the Account Section of the municipality. Additionally, the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers disbursed Rs 1 million to each of the 753 municipalities across the country, according to the Prime Minister’s Office in Kathmandu.
The municipal authorities claimed that they were in favor of providing risk allowances to the health workers.
Giriraj Ghimire, chief of the health division of Rampur Municipality admitted that the risk allowances are yet to be provided to the front line workers. “Municipality has allocated Rs 1.5 million to distribute as the risk allowances. It is on the process to complete procedures,” he said. “It will be distributed soon,” he claimed.
This news is based on a fellowship program.
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