VICE-PRESIDENT Inonge Wina says Finance Minister Dr Bwalya Ng’andu will soon furnish Parliament with details of how mechanisms being put in place to address the issue of civil servants being indebted to financial institutions will be implemented.

And Vice-President Wina says a huge number of councillors are joining the PF after resigning from the UPND because of high levels of intolerance in the opposition party.

She said this during the Vice-President’s Question Time in Parliament, Friday morning.

Chimwemwe Independent member of parliament Elias Mwila asked how prepared government was to discuss options of bailing out civil servants, such as teachers, police officers and nurses, as a good number of them were getting negative salaries due to heavy panic loan deductions and deductible figures, which kept increasing.

In response, Vice-President Wina said government was taking action to address the matter.

“Government would not like to see its civil servants being indebted to financial institutions and government is taking action to address this matter. The Minister of Finance will furnish the House with details of how the mechanisms being put in place to address this issue will be undertaken,” Vice-President Wina said in response.

Asked by Lubansenshi PF member of parliament George Mwamba on what was causing a huge number of councillors to resign from UPND and join PF, the Vice-President said it was due high levels of intolerance in the opposition party, among several other factors.

“There are many factors contributing to this exodus of councillors from UPND and one of these is the high levels of intolerance in UPND. The newcomers to the party are finding this very uncomfortable and that’s why some of them are leaving. And some are leaving because they cannot operate under a very undemocratic party where councillors are forbidden from interacting with government officials. Councillors want to see development in their wards and if they are forbidden from going to a government Ministry to discuss issues of development, then they get frustrated and leave. UPND officials should not complain whatsoever. And there is no PF that is buying any councillor, we don’t have those resources to undertake such an exercise,” Vice-President Wina said.

And Vice-President Wina said the Ministry of General Education had put in place programmes to reach out to rural pupils.

She explained that in conjunction with UNICEF, the Ministry had secured some radios and other reading materials in local languages for rural school children uags to ensure they were not left out.

“Of course, we do realize that there is no electricity in some parts of the country and sometimes radio reception is not very clear, but government, through the Ministry of General Education, is doing everything possible to reach out to all the pupils in our rural schools,” said Vice-President Wina when responding to a question from Chiengi FDD member of parliament Given Katuta who asked: “The children and parents of Chiengi would like to find out from the hardworking PF government the efforts that it’s making to reach out to the students and pupils, who are staying at home during the time of COVID. The children of Chiengi do not have access to computers or modern kind of communication that can enable them to learn as other children are doing because their parents cannot even afford television [sets].”