They continue to shy away from going back to their duty stations as a number of armed groups operating in the areas have not stopped extortion and issue threats to their lives for failing to meet their donation demands.
Bhuwani Prasad Ghimire, President of VDC Secretaries Welfare Protection Center, said the security plan has not brought any substantial improvement in security situation in the villages yet. “Donation terror continues in the villages in the eastern Tarai and hilly districts even though the cases of kidnappings have come almost to a halt in the recent weeks,” he said.
The center is the umbrella organization of VDC secretaries working in 3,915 VDCs across the country.
Ghimire said VDC secretaries are still carrying out their duties from district headquarters as they are yet to be assured of their personal safety and that they will not have to face trouble from the armed outfits active in the region. “How would you dare to go to the villages when there is no guarantee of your personal safety?” asked Ghimire. “The VDC secretaries have been the prime target of armed groups as the representatives of local bodies are not in place.”
According to Home Ministry, as many as 109 armed groups are operating in various parts of the country, mostly in eastern Tarai and hilly districts.
People in the VDCs sans secretaries are deprived of getting basic government services such as VDC´s recommendations for citizenship, land purchase, and registration of vital events like birth, death, marriage and migration. Among others, the absence of VDC secretaries has also affected distribution of social security allowance to elderly, differently abled and destitute persons.
While some 300 VDC secretaries retired under the Voluntarily Retirement Scheme recently, 200 more positions of VDC secretaries are vacant for the last three years. The tendency of VDC secretaries to reside in district headquarters for fear of extortion has not only made ordinary people to face burnt of the problem, but also caused serious administrative vacuum in the villages.
Security experts argue that ensuring effective law and order situation is not possible unless there are functioning local government bodies in the villages. “We are ready to go back to the villages if there is security guarantee,” added Ghimire. “No such assurance has come from the government so far.”
koshraj@myrepublica.com
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