Local bodies defy govt order to form new mechanism

Bishnu Prasad Aryal
Kathmandu, November 23

The government’s decision to form all-party mechanism in the local bodies has been paralysed owing to the dispute somewhere while older ones dominating in other places.

In the absence of elected bodies, seven-party mechanism including major political parties as per the Comprehensive Peace Accord signed three years ago was given responsibility to facilitate them in development activities. The Ministry of Local Development directed the local bodies to form all-party mechanism five months ago in accordance with the proportion of results in the Constituent Assembly polls.

However, it has been not implemented in the local bodies well, according to the local body authorities. The formation of the mechanism in the Kathmandu District Development Committee is at worse condition. “The structuring of the mechanism is badly hindered after the district leaders of the UCPN Maoist forced to include their 15 members in the formation,” said an official at the KDDC, requesting anonymity.

According to the CPA, there is a provision of a member representation in the mechanism from each of the political parties. However, Maoists pressured to include 15 members in the KDDC, claiming that it was the largest party in the CA. Most of the local bodies including Bhaktapur District Development Committee in the valley have failed to approve annual fiscal budget and finalise the development programmes even after the fiscal year began four months ago.

Jeevan Prasad Sitaula, chief at the Lalitpur District Development Committee, said that the five-party mechanism was still working in the mechanism despite government decision to form new one. “Additional four parties have demanded to include them in the mechanism. However, old mechanism did not allow them,” he said.

Sarbottam Dangol, member of the all-party mechanism in the Kathmandu Metropolitan City, said that there was only six-party mechanism functioning in the body. “We don’t need other parties to take in the mechanism as it is running without any dispute,” said Dangol, representative from the UCPN-Maoist. There are 18 eligible parties as per the CA election for inclusion in the KMC.

The case in the Lalitpur Sub-Metropolitan City is similar to KMC. There are eight members from the seven parties in the mechanism, said Badri Krishna Tamrakar, senior engineer at the LSMC. “One member has been included from each party while the mechanism contains two Maoist representatives,” he said. “However, there is no dispute in the mechanism,” he added.

State Minister for MoLD Ganesh Bahadur Khadka said that the ministry ordered the local bodies to include the members in the mechanism as per the spirit of CA election. “The parties requested us to include them in the mechanism and the cabinet made such provision,” Khadka told this daily. “Negligence in the inclusion of other parties in the mechanism was against the government decision and democratic spirit,” he added, without divulging any more details regarding the issue.