All the VDC offices which have been shifted to the headquarters are from far-flung villages. In the absence of VDC offices in the villages, the villagers are forced to reach the headquarters to avail the VDCs´ services. [break]
The VDCs which have their own buildings in the villages have been spending thousands of rupees on paying rent for offices in the headquarters.
“We shifted to the headquarters after getting permission from all parties,” Agni Neupane, secretary of VDC Secretaries´ Rights Protection Committee, said. “Local people have not opposed to it either; they are rather upbeat as they can get all services from the headquarters.”
However, District Development Committee (DDC) asserts that all VDC offices shifted to the headquarters must return to the villages. “Until and unless there are security threats, VDC secretaries can not stay in the headquarters,” Krishna KC, information officer at the DDC, says. He admits that DDC has not taken any initiative to send the offices back to the villages so far. “We expect them to return to the villages on moral grounds,” KC says.
A majority of VDC secretaries, who were displaced from the villages during the Maoist conflict, had returned to villages. However, the subsequent turmoil caused by Tharuhat Struggle Committee´s agitation displaced some VDC secretaries once again.
Many secretaries fled villages after TSC cadres set a dozen of VDC offices ablaze. They have not returned back to the villages even after TSC promised not to attack VDC offices any more.
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