Lalitpur, March 12:

The District Administration Office, Lalitpur, today halted the construction of a portion of the 92-km Kanti Rajpath that is supposed to link southern Lalitpur to Makwanpur until CA polls, following a dispute over the formation of users’ committee.

The Lalitpur DDC had on March 2 released Rs 2.3 million to the users’ group headed by Uttam Lama to carry out the construction work of the portion within the current fiscal year. However locals of Malta and Bhattedanda VDCs locked up the DDC office on March 9, questioning the way the users’ group was formed. They have been demanding the DDC to recall the money, form a new users’ group as provided in the Local Self Governance Act and hand over the construction work to the new group.

CDO Nirmal Prasad Dhakal said the work has been postponed on the backdrop of the impending CA polls and lack of unity among the road users. He said the decision was taken as the row, if deepened, could affect the CA polls.

In absence of elected local representatives, an all-party committee had been formed to carry out the construction work. A complaint had been filed against the user’s committee in 2006 too, accusing it of misusing Rs 10m.