September 5: The government has decided to pay the unpaid wages of workers hired by Italian company CMC di Ravenna for the Melamchi Water Supply Project.

A total of 680 workers were unpaid by the contractor by the time it unilaterally pulled out of the project in last December.  The Ministry of Water Supply has said it will release Rs 300 million for the workers as a relief amount after the Italian company failed to show up.

Secretary at the ministry, Madhav Belbase, informed the Public Accounts Committee of the lower house on Wednesday that the government has initiated the process to distribute relief to the workers ditched by the company.

He said that the government took such decision after receiving a memorandum from the workers that they were yet to receive their wages from CMC di Ravenna.

However, Secretary Belbase said that the government cannot pay the amount the contractor owes to sub-contractors on legal ground. The Italian company owes Rs 1.35 billion to the local suppliers.

During the meeting, members of the Public Accounts Committee had criticized the government for failing to complete the project nine months after the Italian company pulled out of the project.

In response, Belbase told the parliamentary committee that the project has been facing obstruction in its attempt to complete the remaining works and asked the panel to initiate political solution to the problem.