Chief of the Commission Bala Nanda
Poudel said that after the government directed the Commission to include
‘Ilakas’ as one of the bases for local body restructuring, now work has to start
from the very beginning.
If the report is not submitted by that
date, the election to the local bodies cannot take place by mid-April next
year.
The Election Commission has already
warned the government that if the report of the LBRC was not submitted by
November 15, the polls could not be held in April next year.
The local polls must be held by that
date as the government must hold three elections within one-and-a-half years to
expedite the constitution implementation process.
The Commission said that the confusion over
restructuring the local bodies, which had prevailed for a couple of days after
the major political parties agreed to create villages and municipalities as per
the now existing ‘Ilakas’, has been removed
following the meeting with senior political leaders, including Prime Minister
Pushpa Kamal Dahal.
However, a meeting of the ruling
CPN-Maoist Centre and Nepali Congress and the main opposition CPN-UML held on
Monday at Singha Durbar had asked members of the Commission not to turn the
existing Ilakas into local bodies but to consider the Ilakas as one of the bases
while restructuring.
But as another standard needed to be
included while deciding the number and border of the local bodies, the Commission
has to revamp its work yet again.
But, the Commission had outrightly
rejected the proposal, maintaining that if the local bodies were to be created
on the basis of the existing Ilakas, no study or preparation was needed, and it
would be unconstitutional, too.
“Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal
Prachanda and leaders of the other political parties asked us to consider the Ilakas
as another basis for restructuring. Therefore, we need additional time to
complete our report according to the new provision,” Poudel said at a press
meet at the Commission’s secretariat.
According
to Poudel, PM Prachanda had asked the Commission to submit its final report by
November 15.
“But, we couldn’t assure the PM on the
date because it will definitely take more time to restructure the local bodies
by including yet another basis. We may need to begin work from the beginning,”
said Poudel.
He said that they would soon begin
discussion on how to move forward by implementing the new provision.
Earlier, the Commission had said that it
would submit the report by 15th October.
There are 927 Ilakas in the country.
After the restructuring of the local
bodies by including the Ilakas, the number of local bodies in the country will
be about 700.
The Commission had finalised on 565
local bodies and more than 52 districts had submitted their report on
restructuring to the Commission.
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