Over four dozen officials from the Ministry of Education have threatened to resign en masse if the government does not roll back its decision to deploy them at the local level under an executive head from the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development.

Issuing a statement on Tuesday, 49 under-secretaries from the ministry demanded respectable positions and promotion to take up their new assignments. They have demanded the post of executive head of the local bodies, rather than having to work under another under-secretary from the MoFALD, claiming to be the senior most staff. The government has assigned staff from the MoFALD to head the local bodies.

The problem arose as the under-secretaries have two levels—9 and 10—based on their seniority. The 10th level education under-secretary, in many local bodies, has been deployed to work under the ninth-level under-secretary from MoFALD who is the executive head. “We demand that the education secretary and the chief secretary address our concerns. If not, we will resign en masse,” reads the statement issued by the disgruntled officials. “They government has done injustice to us.”

The statement came a day after Minister for General Administration Tek Bahadur Basnet announced to deploy all the officials within a week. The officials have also decided not to receive the transfer letter until their concerns are addressed. The Education Ministry has already deputed 75 under-secretaries on the field but many of them have returned “humiliated”.

For instance, the ministry had transferred Under-secretary Yubaraj Poudel to Budhanilkantha Munici-pality but he returned to the ministry saying that he would not work under an executive head who has fewer service years.