In a bid to resolve the long-standing problem of employee shortage, the Karnali provincial government has constituted ‘special encouragement allowance’ to the employees working in the province.

The provincial Cabinet meeting held last week decided to provide the ‘special encouragement allowance’ to the government employees for effective and efficient administration. The allowance ranges from Rs4,000 to Rs10,000 based on geographical remoteness of the district where the employees have been posted.

According to the Office of Chief Minister and Council of Ministers, the special allowance has been decided as the employees are reluctant to be posted in Karnali. “Based on the geographical remoteness the encouragement allowance, visit allowance and health treatment allowance will be provided to encourage the employees working in Karnali Province,” reads the Cabinet’s decision which is made available to the Post.

Karnali, the remotest of seven federal units in the country, has been reeling under an acute shortage of government employees. According to the Office of Chief Minister and Council of Ministers, 1,213 civil service posts are vacant currently in the post.

Kebal Prasad Bhandari, chief secretary of the Karnali provincial government, said that various allowances had been managed to encourage employees working in the province. The decision will be implemented from January 15.

The government has classified all 10 districts of Karnali into four geographical regions.

An employee working in Surkhet will receive Rs4,000 special encouragement allowance per month while the employee will get a monthly allowance of Rs6,000 in Salyan, Rukum (West), Jajarkot and Dailekh. The encouragement allowance in Kalikot and Jumla is Rs8,000 and the amount is Rs10,000 in Mugu, Dolpa and Humla.

As per the Cabinet’s decision, all the employees of different levels receive a similar allowance. However, the rate of allowance is different for the employees of the health sector. The specialist doctor of the 11th level will receive 75 percent to 135 percent allowance of the basic salary in different districts. Similarly, the specialist doctor of ninth and tenth levels will receive 75 to 125 percent. The health workers up to the eighth level will get 50 to 100 percent allowance based on the districts where they work.

Both the development activities and the day-to-day administration work have been greatly affected owing to the shortage of the employees in the province.

According to Bhandari, 4.06 percent of the recurrent budget and just 0.58 percent capital expenditure have been spent in the first five months of the current fiscal year. “It is quite disappointing expenditure. The lack of employees is the main reason behind the low budget expenditure,” said Bhandari, expressing his hope that the special encouragement allowance would attract the employees to work in Karnali.