Jumla, May 05, 2016:Â The implementation of Karnali Employment Program (KEP) initiated by the government to provide jobs to at least one member of every family in the Karnali region has become ineffective since it failed to guarantee employment to locals.
As per the KEP guidelines, at least one member of every family should be provided with a 35-day job in the five remote districts of the Karnali region and they would be paid the due wage. The program area covers Jumla, Kalikot, Dolpa, Mugu and Humla districts of Karnali region.
Despite the implementation of the program as per its guidelines, the target group has remained deprived of the KEP benefits.
Although the budget allocated for the KEP was released on time for the current fiscal year, locals have yet to benefit from the program. It seems as if the local beneficiaries have forgotten about the employment program due to delay starting the projects under the KEP.
Surveys of only some projects have been completed while most of others are yet to finish the process in order to begin the projects.
In spite of being people-friendly program, the implementation of KEP has become ineffective because of its working approach, according to Civil Society leader Jaykrishna Acharya.
He blamed that the failure to recruit required technical and human resources on time and implement KEP as per its guidelines have made the employment project ineffective. Archarya held the carelessness of the KEP staff responsible for the failure.
Another local Umesh BC blamed that the government’s inefficiency has failed the program. “The program is targeted to provide jobs to at least one member of every family. But most of the poor people are still unemployed despite the implementation of the KEP,” he said.
In the past years, the release of KEP budgets used to be delayed but this year the situation is not the same.
Meanwhile, sources at the District Development Committee (DDC), Jumla claimed that preparatory work for survey of majority of projects is yet to be accomplished.
Raj Bahadur Thapa, technical assistance coordinator at DDC Jumla, admitted delay in implementation of KEP. “Karnali Employment Unit failed to complete survey and it has further affected recruitment process of workers,” he said.
He informed that the recruitment procedure for workers has already been started but the identity cards have yet to be handed over to the workers formally.
KEP coordinator Lekhnath Upadhyay also admitted that recruitment of new staff has caused delay in the implementation of the employment program.
