A cabinet meeting held at Baluwatar on Monday night took the decision.As per the new constitution, the government should form the commission within six months since the promulgation of the constitution.
"As per the provision, we have formed a nine-member commission with former secretary Balananda Poudel as chairman," said Minister for Information and Communication Sher Dhan Rai, who is also the spokesperson of the government.
The meeting also appointed Shyam Bhurtel, Dor Mani Poudel, Dr Madhav Adhikari, Dhiraj Sah, Sunil Ranjan Singh, Pabitra Shrestha Subba as members of the commission. Similarly, a joint-secretary will be appointed as member secretary of the commission.
"We appointed six members and the remaining one member will be appointed soon," said Minister Rai.
According to Article 295 Clause 3 of the constitution, the state will be restructured into three levels -- federal, provincial and local; and the government should form a commission within six months since the promulgation of the constitution to make recommendations on the numbers and boundaries of village councils, municipalities and special, protected or autonomous areas.
The commission is mandated to make recommendations within a year of its formation. The constitution was promulgated on September 20 and the deadline to form the commission was expiring Tuesday.
Talking to Republica on Tuesday, the commission's chairman, Poudel, said the commission will demarcate village councils, municipalities and special, protected or autonomous areas in line with the criteria set by the government.
Currently, as many as 3,157 VDCs, 204 municipalities, 12 sub-metropolitan cities and one metropolitan city are in the country. The commission will review all the existing local units and recommend the government new local units befitting the new federal set-up.
Similarly, the cabinet meeting had also decided to release over Rs 3.11 million to cover up medical expense of the 19 locals who were injured during the recent protests in Terai.
Likewise, the cabinet also had approved Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli's week-long visit to China starting from March 20.
Meanwhile, the meeting transferred 22 joint-secretaries to various government bodies and gave approval to Jhapa Municipality to construct the world's largest statue of Buddha in Jhapa, which will be 540 feet.
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