"Chaya center’s workers become owners’ ‘thugs’, threaten heritage rights activist (with letter)", 31 December 2020

Workers have a history of taking to the streets and carrying out struggles when their employers do injustice and exploit labor. However, it has been found that today’s workers have started to engage in various unwanted activities to protect their employers instead of protesting against the black acts committed by their employers and investors.

It has been found that the so-called leaders of the workers working at the Chhaya Devi Complex built by occupying Kamalpokhari in Thamel have threatened the rights activist fighting for heritage conservation. Banker and billionaire businessmen Prithvi Bahadur Pandey, Suman Pandey and owner of Hotel Aloft and Chhaya center, Suhrid Ghimire have been found to have used their employees like local thugs to threaten the activist.

Bhagwat Pradhan, a heritage rights activist, has been threatened by the workers of the Chhaya Devi Complex built on the land of Kamalpokhari, which was grabbed by 43 land mafia. Alleged labor leaders came to his house to threaten him. “My wife was threatened at home. I was threatened by Ram Bahadur Shrestha, the secretary of GEFONT (General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions),” Bhagwat told the Diyopost.

On behalf of the 1,200 workers employed at the Chhaya center, the three leaders threatened him with a three-day ultimatum. Their letter can be found in full by clicking the link above.