KATHMANDU, March 14: The Local Level Restructuring Commission (LLRC) formed with the mandate of finalizing the number of local units, special, autonomous and protected areas in accordance with the new federal setup submitted its report on Monday without fixing the special, autonomous and protected regions in the country.
The commission has mandated the elected representatives of the local government to finalize the numbers and boundaries of special, autonomous and protected regions. The commission has cited the lack of time for its inability to complete the task itself.
“The government endorsed the number of local units across the nation at 744 as per the commission's report very lately,” Balananda Paudel, chairman of LLRC, told Republica, “We should leave it to the people's representatives to fix the number of special, autonomous and protected areas.”
The term of LLRC, which was formed on March 15, 2015, with the mandate of finalizing the number and boundaries of the local units, expired on Monday.
With the commission failing to fix the number and boundaries of the special, autonomous and protected areas for the marginalized and backward minorities, the election for the same groups are said to be delayed.
On Monday, chairman Paudel suggested to Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal that the government should have to fix the special, autonomous and protected areas in different wards after the local polls.
As the government is preparing to hold local polls on May 14, Paudel while submitting the commission's final report to PM Dahal suggested fixing the areas only after electing the local representatives.
He also suggested to the government to finalize the jurisdictions of the federal, provincial and local governments at the earliest. “As some of the provisions on the jurisdiction of of the three governments overlap, the government should finalize the issues as soon as possible,” said Paudel.
At a function organized at the PM Office at Singha Durbar, PM Dahal expressed his happiness over the finalization of the local units in the new federal setup. “Now, the people have the right to build infrastructure on their own for the first time in history,” PM Dahal said after receiving the final LLRC report.
Speaking at the function, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Federal Affairs and Local Development, Kamal Thapa said that the delegation of power to the local units in Nepal is the most remarkable in the entire South Asia. “We feel proud of making our local units excellent by making them powerful,” said DPM Thapa.
EC wants date, LLRC report at once if poll to be held by May
The government endorsed the final number of local units on March 5. The new units came into effect from March 10, replacing the erstwhile 217 municipalities and 3,117 village development committees.
