Govt urged to fulfill 1279 VDC secys soon

Bishnu Prasad Aryal
Lalitpur, September 10

Proposing four different alternatives, the Ministry of Local Development has urged the cabinet to decide on appointing secretaries in 1279 village development committees within 15 days.

According to the MoLD, there are 1279 out of 3915 VDCs without secretaries across the country.

The cabinet should decide on the matter to fulfill the seats lying vacant by the MoLD within two weeks, said Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya, spokesman for the MoLD. "We have proposed to coordinate while inter-ministries transfer of the staff, forge policies to allow the local level for appointing the VDC secretaries on the basis of merit, allow zonal office of Public Service Commission appointing temporary secretaries and manage the district employees both technical and non technical to work as secretaries," said Thapaliya.

Thapaliya said that people are deprived from first step of getting government facilities due to the lack of VDC secretaries in many districts. "People should feel presence of the government in the local level as per the decentralization policy," he said. “Local level should be allowed to appoint the secretaries for the long-term solution of the problem.”

The lack of secretaries in the VDCs has barred people from getting recommendation for citizenship paper, birth/death registration, and so on.

The government has completely failed to ensure priority in the local governance, said Bhim Prasad Dhungana, general secretary of the Village Development Committee Federation of Nepal. “More than one third of the VDCs of country do not have secretaries,” he said. “In some districts, there are more than necessary quotas while many districts are facing short.”

The government should give priority in such a serious matter, said Thapaliya. "On one hand, it is time to initiate development projects of the current fiscal year and the grants have been already issued. On the other, the social security allowances such as elderly and widow allowance should be distributed before Dashain festival," he added. "But, everything is at halt now."

Thapaliya indicated the drawbacks of the Ministry of Public Administration and the Public Service Commission in failing to relocate and recruit the personnel in the VDCs. "There is lack of coordination of MoPA with other ministries and the PSC takes about six months to appoint a staff," he said.

There are only 29 VDC secretaries working in Saptari district where 114 VDCs exist. Similarly, 28 VDC secretaries out of 50 VDCs are working in Taplejung. "There were already more than 500 posts of secretaries vacant in different districts while more than 500 bid golden handshake recently," said Thapaliya. "However, the VDC secretaries were recruited en masse about 35 years ago. How can it be sustained now?"

Dhungana said that some of the districts such as Dhankuta, Biratnagar and Kathmandu are overcrowded with secretaries while others remain vacant. "The majority of personnel don't like to go in VDCs while others like to transfer anywhere from there because of the security reason in the local level," said Thapaliya.