21 March, Kathmandu-The Legislature-Parliament, Development Committee has issued directives to the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development to manage all employees at the local level and keep the Citizen’s Charter at each unit outlining the available services and facilities.
The committee issued this directive at the end of the discussion on operation of local level that it organised here today.
In the discussions, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Federal Affairs and Local Development, Kamal Thapa, shared that the meeting of the four main parties on Monday decided to make the local election on May 14 successful by addressing the Madhes demands.
“An agreement has been reached (in the Monday meeting of four major parties) to address the Madhes demands that can be resolved immediately and to address the remaining demands after the local level election. The remaining demands of the Madhes would be addressed before the federal and state-level elections. Many of the demands are not related to the local level and the government is preparing to ending the parliament session so that the lawmakers can go to their respective districts in preparation for the election,” he said.
The DPM and Local Development Minister stressed on the need of holding the local poll as the citizens will avail of government services and facilities at their doorsteps once the local level election is held.
Committee president Rabindra Adhikari instructed the Ministry to make arrangements to carry out the works from the local level itself by deputing employees matching the posts that have been fixed for the local level.
Likewise, the committee meeting has decided to draw the attention of the Election Commission towards this topic as problems might arise in assigning the employees and managing the offices at the local level with the election code of conduct already coming into effect.
Committee members Ganesh Kumar Pahadi, Guru Prasad Burlakoti, Prakash Sharma Poudel, Anita Devkota, Ram Chandra Pokhrel, Ram Kumar Bhattarai, Prem Bahadur Ale, Karna Bahadur BK, Sita Giri (Oli), Santa Kumar Tharu, Yagya Bahadur Thapa, Ranjana Sardar, Ram Krishna Ghimire, Bhakta Bahadur Khapangi and Ram Ayodhya Prasad Yadav spoke on various issues related to the local level including the new problems arising out of the local level restructuring, conflicts that it has brought in some districts and making the local level efficient enough to serve the people better by promoting good governance so that local democracy is at work.
Ministry secretary Kedar Bahadur Adhikari said the boundary of the local level is only for the time until the people’s representatives are elected and start their works. “The frontiers of the local Wards and levels as well as the headquarters could be changed by a two-third majority of the elected people’s representatives. The people’s representatives themselves will determine the border and headquarters of the local level as per the aspirations of the people,’ he explained.
The government on March 10 dissolved the local bodies and established 481 rural municipalities, 246 municipalities, 13 sub-metropolitan cities and four metropolitan cities, a.k.a. local level in their place. RSS (Photo available)
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