Political parties eyeing dev budget in local bodies

Bishnu Prasad Aryal

Lalitpur, April 10

The users’ committees in the local bodies are crucial agents for the development activities of more than Rs 13 billion annually. However, all of the committee members are politically appointed against the development discipline and spirit.

The monitoring reports of the Ministry of Local Development (MoLD) recently assessed in 10 districts reveal that the users’ committees to mobilise government grants in the development activities are appointees against the spirit of the Local Self-Governance Act-2055BS. A project below Rs six million is spent through the user’s committees, according to the MoLD.

“The committees should be transparently formed from the direct beneficiaries,” said Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya, spokesperson for the MoLD. “Government grants of some Rs seven billion is disbursed for the VDCs and more than Rs six billion for the districts,” he said. “All of the amounts are spent on the development activities through the user’s committees,” he added.

Users’ committees contribute upto 50 per cent of the project to the development activities in the local bodies whereas government shares at least 50 per cent of it. There are 3,915 village development committees and 58 municipalities in 75 districts across the country. A total of Rs 42 billion including Rs 22 billion for development and Rs 20 billion on administrative expenses has been allocated for the local bodies this year.

Dhruba Bandhu Aryal, under-secretary at the Local Development Section of the National Planning Commission, said the performances were badly affected due to the political appointees who are biased and work under the influence of certain political parties.

“User’s committees are under the capture of big parties while other small parties are excluded from the involvement in the development activities,” he said. “In the name of users’ committees, the development works are indirectly handed over to the contractors against the spirit of the users’ committees,” he added.

Thapaliya said the senior posts were allocated for the bigger parties and the junior ones to the smaller ones. “Even the parliament members come to recommend their cadres for the user’s committees. This kind of realised capture has created a loophole to misuse resources,” he said.

“On the other hand, the real people are deprived of the state resources for the development,” Thapaliya said. “The law provisions to appoint 80 per cent of the technical staff to carry out development activities in the local bodies but 80 per cent of the staffs are non-technical and only about 20 per cent technical staffers are appointed,” he said.

Aryal underlined the need of analysing state policies. “It is an urgent need to evaluate past and devise for the future goals to address the voice of the common people,” he said. Thapaliya focussed on a specific law to mobilise the committees unitarily.

The MoLD monitored whole performances including development activities and use of allocated funds in 10 districts--Morang, Ilam, Bara, Kaski, Rupandehi, Banke Surkhet, Dadeldhura, Kanchanpur and Rautahat. After the first phase, the monitoring is being carried out in other 10 districts. Five more districts will be scrutinised within the current fiscal.