April 5: The government has decided to ban strikes in sectors providing essential services to the public.

A cabinet meeting held on March 28 took a decision to this effect.

Minister for Communication and Information Technology Gokul Baskota informed during a regular press briefing on Thursday that the council of ministers decided to ban strikes in such sectors.

During the press briefing, Minister Baskota said that the essential service sectors which are prohibited from announcing strikes includes sectors like food transport, public transport, medicine transport, garbage transport, banking, insurance, electricity service, postal service, communication sector, petrol, gas, as well as water, land and air transport among others.

The minister said that the government took this decision in accordance to Section 3 (1) of the Essential Services Operation Act, 2014, which allows the government to impose ban on strikes in the essential service sectors for the welfare of public.