KATHMANDU, Sept 11: Minister for Federal Affairs and Local Development Ministry Hitraj Pandey has expressed his commitment to resolve problems facing the Local Restructuring Commission (LRC) in relation to the demarcation of local units. 

Expressing his view at the meeting of the felicitation committee of the LRC held to resolve the disputed issue, he viewed that the commission should draw the boundaries of local bodies on the basis of consensus among all political parties. "I will apprise all political parties and top political leaders of the latest developments the commission is making on the issue," he said. 

Problems have surrounded the commission of its proposal to bring the number of local units down to 556 from the existing over 4,000 as part of the restructuring of local bodies under the new federal setup. 

The issue has also got various political parties divided over it, some of whom like CPN-UML has welcomed it while others like Nepali Congress protested. 

Meanwhile, emerging from the meeting, the commission Chairman Balananda Poudel said the meeting focused on resolving technical problems of the issue. 

Although the commission's district technical committees of country's 75 districts have been asked to submit the report of the restructuring of local units by the deadline (August 31), only 21 districts submitted the report so far. 

Earlier, the commission extended the deadline to August 31 after the first deadline of mid-August expired. RSS 
 

 
• hitraj pandey
 
• mimister of federal affairs
 
• local development ministry
 
• lrc