Krishna Hari Shrestha, Mayor of Galchi Rural Municipality of Dhading district verbally terminated the term of an employee at Municipality Office for providing information to journalists that reveal the misconduct of Mayor. The incident occurred on July 17.
Employee Sujata Regmi exposed that the Mayor had issued a property tax payment certificate with fake receipt- without paying the actual amount. The issue came into attention as the news was covered by major national dailies. After the coverage, the Mayor paid the allocated tax. But, he verbally fired Sujata Regmi from her job for disclosing the misconduct at office.
Regmi was appointed as a social mobilizer under Local Governance and Community Development Programme (LGCDP) project at District Development Committee seven years back and later recruited at the Rural Municipality's tax section. Along with Regmi, other two social mobilizers, Rupa Dhungana from Ward No 6 and Sita Tamang from Ward No 8 have also been sacked.
Regmi who was attending her exams lately said that she would resort to the legal remedy after her exams are over.
Fighting against the wrong system and disclosing the wrongdoing is tough. As there is no legal provision for the protection of whistleblower in Nepal, the case must be taken seriously by the concerned authority and thorough investigation must be carried out. The situation shows that there is the necessity of whistleblower protection act in Nepal for the victim to take the remedy through legislation
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