Over 4,000 employees serving under various departments of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City have been deprived of their monthly salaries for the last two months due to the ongoing rift between the federal government and the city office.

Those deprived of salaries include over 1,700 teachers hired to teach the ‘Nepal Bhasa’ subject in schools under the metropolis jurisdiction, metropolis police, cleaning staffers, among others, who have not received their salaries for the last three months.

“We have not received our monthly salary since Chief Administrative Officer Saroj Guragain was sent on leave in the last week of December,” said Sarita Rai, chief of the Environment Department under the city office. “Not only the permanent staff but hundreds of contract workers have also been deprived of their salaries.”

Officials say that important development works of the city office have been hampered due to ongoing disputes between the federal government and the metropolis and they are also uncertain how long it will take to resolve the disputes.

“We have over 300 contract workers handling the city’s cleaning services who have not been paid for the last three months,” said Rai. “It will be difficult for us to ask them to continue working without payment.”

Officials said regular tasks including cleaning, greenery maintenance, heritage protection, and solid waste management, could be affected if staffers are deprived of salaries for an indefinite period.

“Some staffers complain that they have been unable to pay their children’s school fees, while others are unable to pay their rent,” said Dhurba Kumar Kafle, assistant spokesperson of the city office. “We do not have to explain the problems to our staff, as all are aware of them.”

The KMC does not have a chief administrative officer since Guragain was sent on administrative leave on December 23 last year over his alleged involvement in irregularities when approving the design of the Kathmandu Tower.

The city office had accused Guragain of bypassing formal approval systems and due process while endorsing the construction plan for Kathmandu Tower at the Old Bus Park area and formed a probe panel to investigate his decisions.

Guragain had filed a written complaint to the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration stating that he had not been allowed to work by the KMC mayor, Balendra Shah.

A few weeks ago, the ministry reassigned Guragain as the chief administrative officer of the KMC and instructed the city office to create an environment for his return to work. The city office, however, has refused to assign the responsibility of the chief administrative officer to Guragain and instead requested the acting chief administrative officer be granted financial authority.

Metropolis officials say the ongoing ego conflict between the federal government and Mayor Shah has deprived thousands of employees of their monthly salaries and hampered regular work.

Mayor Shah had formed the investigation committee under the leadership of Shankar Prasad Pandey, a former secretary of the Nepal government, to look into Guragain’s decisions. Shah has yet to receive the committee’s report.