Drowning industry, keening workers

Himalayan News Service
Bhaktapur, January 19:

For the past three days, workers at Bhaktapur Craft Paper Industry are staging a protest but the management does not seem concerned about their demands.
According to worker Kamala Giri, they want the ouster of the managing director (MD) and the board manager.
“This MD has never shown concern for the industry and we are suffering because it is in loss. We have not got salary,” Giri said. Aside from demanding the MD’s and board manager’s resignation, workers also alleged that during the annual general meeting (AGM) of the industry on January 13, the MD presented annual statistics and a report whose veracity they doubt.
“Bhaktapur Craft Paper Industry was formed in 1981 by UNICEF to help women, children and 40 per cent of it is meant for the community but later UNICEF handed over the industry, with the 109 workers becoming shareholders. We are also among them,” said Giri.
Voicing concern at the industry going downhill, she said, “We used to export craft paper to the US, Japan and Australia through UNICEF, but it is three years that we are suffering huge losses as there are no orders.”
Workers said craft paper worth Rs 22-25 lakh was lying in stock. The minimum salary of a worker is Rs 5000 and the management is unable to give it.
A representative of the management said they had urged the workers to form a talks team to solve the problem. The workers admitted that they did not have a talks team, and insisted on the resignation of the MD anyhow.
Another worker accused the MD of creating false hopes among them and making them work without pay. “Orders have dried up, but we are asked to work. It costs Rs 3600 to make one frame of paper. Whatever we produce is just getting stocked here. This has resulted in complete decline of the industry.”

Handicrafts promo ad hoc panel:
KATHMANDU: With the aim of promoting handicrafts, handicraft entrepreneurs led by FHAN president Pushkarman Shakya and Lamjung Industry and Commerce Association president Pramod Kumar Shrestha formed Handicraft Industry Association ad hoc committee at Lamjung with nine members.
The committee was formed on January 17, said a release. Meanwhile, according to another FHAN release, a team of representatives of the Federation of Handicraft Association of Nepal (FHAN), under the leadership of Yagyaman Shakya conducted a monitoring and observation campaign of the Chitwan Mahotsav that had been organised from January 15 to 18. — HNS