KATHMANDU, Dec 9: After protracted efforts to woo the agitating Madhes-based parties failed, the commission formed to restructure the local units under the new federal system has adopted alternative ways to finalize the number of local units in the eight districts of Province 2 and plans to submit its report to the government by mid-December.
The commission held talks with the lawmakers from the major four political parties of the eight districts -- Parsa, Bara, Rautahat, Mahottari, Siraha, Saptari, Dhanusha and Sarlahi -- of Province 2 on Wednesday and Thursday and requested them to reach a consensus on the number of local units to be created in the eight districts of the province within the next two days.
Commissioners divided over local units
“As we have just one week left to submit our report to the government and Madhesi parties have been been cooperating with us for local restructuring, we held talks with the lawmakers from the major political parties of the eight districts and asked them to finalize the number of local units within the next two days. They have said that they will reach consensus on the number within the next two days and inform the commission,” Sunil Ranjan Singh, a member of the commission who looks after Province 2 for the commission, told Republica.
The commission held talks with lawmakers from the Nepali Congress, CPN-UML, CPN (Maoist Centre) and RPP. Though the commission had invited lawmakers from the Madhes-based parties, they refused to attend the meeting.
Due to non-cooperation from the Madhes-based parties, the district bodies of the commission in the eight districts of Province 2 had not been able to hold decisive consultations on the number of local units. Madhesi leaders have been arguing that they will participate in the local restructuring task only after the ongoing dispute over provincial demarcation is settled. They have also been demanding that the local units be put under the jurisdiction of the province.
He said that local development officers (LDOs) of all the eight districts were also present at the meeting held in the capital with lawmakers of the eight districts. LDOs are chiefs of the technical committees formed in each of the districts by the commisison.
Singh said that the technical committee in all the eight districts will draft report once the lawmakers reach a common understanding on the number of local units in the districts.
