Engineers mobilised by the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) in Dolakha have started a protest, saying that they have been without work and pay from the day they arrived in the district two months ago to assist the earthquake-affected families in house reconstruction.

Rajan Adhikari, the engineer deployed at Bigu VDC, said there was no work in the village, nor has he received the salary for the past two months.

Another engineer deployed in the district, Hariram Sunar, said most of the VDC secretaries are busy as the fiscal year is drawing to an end. The VDC secretaries are supposed to provide us the guidelines and suggestions, he added.

The concerned engineers say their contract is about to expire and they have not even begun their task.

They do not know if their contract will be extended.

The engineers have demanded the NRA sub-regional office, the District Development Committee, and the Urban Development and Building Construction Office to pay them the outstanding salary of two months and get the reconstruction work started without further delay.

Engineer Dinesh Uprety, who is deployed in Shyama VDC, said it was unlikely the reconstruction work would start before the Dashain as most of the villagers are busy in plantation these days.