Nepal Army (NA) has demanded allowance for its personnel deployed in construction of the Kathmandu-Tarai Fast Track.
NA has put the demand in a meeting of the Development Committee of the parliament on Friday saying making its soldiers work in the morning, evening and night will hit their morale and it will be difficult to carry out meaningful work without additional allowance.
Project chief Major General Yogendra Bahadur Khand demanded daily allowance of Rs 400 for 500 soldiers deployed for risky works like cutting trees, blasting, operation of heavy equipment and others. He also demanded incentives of Rs 150 for 1,334 that are deployed beyond the office hours.
Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Raghubir Mahaseth after listening to the NA briefing about the project indirectly opposed the demand for allowance. He argued that demand for allowance is not justified as the NA has awarded contracts for the Fast Track like his ministry does implying that the NA is not doing the works itself.
“Let’s give an allowance of Rs 1,000 instead of Rs 500. But the NA should have worked deploying 1,500 soldiers instead of 500,” he added.
Pointing that the Fast Track has been awarded to the NA bypassing the Department of Roads, capable of constructing it, and his ministry, he suggested that the budget for the project should also be released through the Defense Ministry instead of his ministry.
