KATHMANDU, March 4: A task-force formed by the government to review the number of local units proposed by the local level restructuring commission (LLRC) has proposed to increase the number of local units by 25, making the total number of local units 744.
The three-member taskforce led by Minister for Federal Affairs and Local Development Hitraj Pandey finalized its report on Friday, proposing to increase 17 new local units in eight Tarai-Madhes districts of Province 2 and 3 local units in a few western Tarai-Madhes districts.
Minister for Industry Nabindra Raj Joshi of NC and Minister for Supplies Deepak Bohara of Rastriya Prajatantra Party are two other members of the taskforce.
Commissioners divided over local units
The taskforce proposed to increase 25 local units, mostly in the districts of the southern plains, after holding consultation with the lawmakers representing various Tarai-Madhes districts.
Although the Madhesi lawmakers had demanded that the number of local units in Province 2 be increased further, the taskforce members had ruled out the possibility of increasing the number of local units more than 744.
'The taskforce members told us in the meeting that we can change the boundary of the local units but not the number of local units. So, we finally agreed to settle the number to 744, with a provision to increase 25 local units in Province 2 and a few other districts in western Tarai-Madhes districts,' NC lawmaker Ram Krishna Yadav told Republica.
Earlier, the LLRC headed by Balananda Paudel in its final report had proposed 462 village councils, 241 municipalities, 12 sub-metropolitan cities and four metropolitan cities under the new federal system.
As the agitating Madhes-based parties expressed strong objection over the proposed number of local units in Tarai-Madhes, the government decided put the commission report on hold until there is political understanding among political parties on the number of units.
The delay on part of the government to submit its final report to the Election Commission (EC) has made the EC unable to expedite actual poll preparation works. The EC has been urging the government to provide the report of the LLRC without further delay if the elections are to be held in the stipulated date of May 14.
