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.

Published on: 13 October 2014 | The Kathmandu Post