EC apathy mars KMC to form mechanism

Bishnu Prasad Aryal
Kathmandu, August 20

Formation of the all-party mechanism in the Kathmandu Metropolitan City has been held up after the Election Commission failed to provide official list of the political parties represented in the Constituent Assembly from the KMC.

This time, the Ministries of Local Development and Finance have changed the criteria in the formation of political mechanism to settle all the rows in the absence of elected representatives by including the political parties in the CA. Earlier, there was a provision of seven-party political mechanism as per the Comprehensive Peace Accord made by the political parties.

“Lack of the official list of the political parties elected in the CA has barred us from forming the all-party mechanism in the civic body,” said Saligram Rijal, under-secretary at the KMC. “Although we urged the EC in written about two weeks ago, we’re yet to receive the official list of them,” Rijal told this daily.

The municipal council meeting of the KMC scheduled to be held before mid-July to approve the annual budget and programmes for the current fiscal year has remained still undecided due to the absence of the all-party mechanism.

Rijal said the KMC asked the EC, Kathmandu District EC and CA Secretariat in written for the list of the political parties. “EC and KDEC sent us only the names of the political parties contested in Kathmandu but not the official list of parties in the CA,” he said. “The CA secretariat orally asked to consult the EC for the list.”

According to the EC, altogether 40 political parties including Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and UCPN-Maoist contested in the CA polls from Kathmandu. There are 24 political parties in the CA.

The KMC requested EC twice for the list parties in the CA but to no avail, said Rijal. “Instead, it sent us an unofficial letter on plain sheet without stamp of EC, name of the commissioner and its official letter pad,” he added.

Uddhav Prasad Baskota, spokesperson for the EC, expressed ignorance to this matter and said the EC dispatched the real data to other offices including the Prime Minister. “I was not in Kathmandu for the some days. So, I cannot say in details. About one and half dozen parties are represented in CA from Kathmandu,” he added.

The delayer in holding council meeting and approving the annual budget and programmes will badly affect implementation of regular development projects of the civic body. Some of the development projects of last year are still going on because of the delay in passing the budget and programmes in time.

"It cannot be said when the meeting will be held," said Rijal. However, Niranjan Baral, newly appointed executive chief at the KMC, said that it would be held soon. “We are working on it,” he added.

The estimated annual budget of the KMC that council meeting approved last year stands at about Rs 1.85 billion, according to the KMC.

Meanwhile, the council meeting of the Lalitpur Sub-Metropolitan City is also in limbo owing to the delay in formation of all-party mechanism for the same cause, according to the LSMC official.

This news was published on The Himalayan Times, August 21, 2009.