UPDATE DARCHULA ACCIDENT TOLL INCREASES TO SEVEN Kathmandu, 23 May: Death toll in the Darchula bus accident has increased to seven and 25 have been injured. Three Indians are among the seven killed. Nnnn DEMAND FOR JUST ELECTED NEFIN CHIEF A disgruntled faction of the Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies ( NAFEA ) has decided to impeach incumbent chairman Bal Bahadur Tamang through a special general assembly of manpower agencies. Organizing an emergency meeting on Wednesday, 13 of the 21 members in the NAFEA executive committee submitted their resignations. However, they have not been approved. Members of the faction said their resignation came in response to highly objectionable remarks made by its chairman Bal Bahadur Tamang in public forums. A few days ago, Tamang had said while addressing an interaction programme organized by the Foreign Employment Promotion Board that over 99 percent of the manpower companies use double labour contracts—one fake and one genuine—while sending migrant workers overseas. He said that fake contracts were used inside Nepal to acquire work approval from the Department of Foreign Employment and entry at TIA immigration. Tamang, who has earned a reputation as a reformer in the industry, had said that the government should be able to end these anomalies by addressing the rightful demands of manpower entrepreneurs. The interaction programme was attended by top officials of various concerned bodies including the labour minister and the secretary of the Labour Ministry. “The meeting agreed to remove him from the chairmanship through a special general assembly. We will demand calling a meeting within 15 days. We have two-thirds of the member agencies to remove him from the position,” said Kamal Tamang, NAFEA first secretary. The meeting was not attended by Tamang’s faction. The meeting has held a signature campaign to pressurize the leadership to call a general meeting. “The chairman’s remarks have tainted the reputation of the entire foreign employment sector. We agree that such practices exist in the industry, but it’s wrong to put everyone in the same basket,” said Kumud Khanal, NAFEA second secretary. Khanal added that there had been significant changes in such fraudulent acts following the reformation campaign introduced by Purna Chandra Bhattarai, former DoFE director general. Various prominent board members including the first secretary, second secretary, third secretary and treasurer had submitted their resignation on Tuesday. The resignations have come just a few months after disgruntled members called a special general assembly to impeach Tamang stating that his remarks have “disgraced the foreign employment sector”. But more than half of the NAFEA members agencies had not attended the assembly then. Tamang’s faction said that some entrepreneurs who did not want “positive changes” in the sector were playing dirty politics and hatching a plot to remove him. They said that two of the 13 members who had submitted theirs resignation had already lost their board membership over disciplinary issues. “I will not give up my struggle to clean up the foreign employment sector. There are problems both in the government system and the manpower agencies. Both of us should accept our shortcomings to reform this sector,” said Tamang. nnnn