Following the recommendation made by the Administration Reform Committee, the government has begun reducing the number of employees in government and semi-government offices. Last week\'s administrative restructuring of organisations under the Ministries of Finance, Agriculture, Housing and Physical Planning and Women, Children and Social Welfare did away with 1,045 positions, which included 153 gazetted and 592 non-gazetted officers, and 300 others.

The government is also going to encourage civil servants with more than 20 years of service to opt for voluntary retirement. This comes with a lumpsum amount equal to seven years\' pension which the General Administration Ministry hopes will prove attractive. The government has allocated funds to cover 700 such retirements. Meanwhile, more than 6,000 contractual and daily wage employees from semi-government offices are being given the boot, following a Finance Ministry directive not to renew their contracts after the new fiscal year that began on 16 July.

The workers thus affected are from the Drinking Water and Sanitation Corporation, Radio Nepal, Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation, National Sports Council and various district level offices. The General Administration Ministry estimates there are around 20,000 such contract and wage employees.