Local development officers, accounts officers, executive officers and engineers at the district level offices of seven districts put forth such a view at a meeting with the secretary and other senior officials of the MoLD in Biratnagar this week. [break]
The MoLD on January 4 dissolved the all-party mechanisms running local bodies across the country in accordance with a directive from the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), which cited rampant anomalies in such mechanisms.
“They (officials) urged us to come up with an alternative arrangement to run the local bodies very soon stating that they cannot perform dual roles -- role of government official and role of political leadership as well,” said MoLD spokesman Dinesh Thapaliya.
Thapaliya said local officials informed them that they have been facing pressure from various political parties that are not represented in the Constituent Assembly (CA). “Even those political parties that did not participate in the CA election in 2008 are pressuring us to invite them at the meetings of local bodies and to ensure their representation while making crucial decisions at district and village levels,” Thapaliya quoted the officials as saying at the meeting.
Officials from Jhapa, Morang, Sunsari, Saptari, Dhankuta, Siraha and Udaypur districts were present at the meeting.
According to an undersecretary at the MoLD, following the government´s decision to dissolve the all-party mechanism running local bodies, the political parties have not been cooperating with the local officials as they used to do in the past.
Though, Minister for Local Development Top Bahadur Rayamajhi had said that the government would come up with alternative arrangement within 10 days, the MoLD has not done anything to this end.
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