KATHMANDU: Development Committee under the Legislature-Parliament directed the government to set a date for the long overdue election of local bodies at the earliest.

A meeting of the Committee chaired by Committee's Chairman Rabindra Adhikari on Monday directed the government to make necessary arrangements to fix a date to hold elections in the local level.

The Committee has directed the government to formulate necessary Acts and rules to do so.

Speaking in the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs Bamdev Gautam said that there is no any issue regarding deployment of security personnel for the local body polls once the date is fixed for the same.

"The main issue is to create a favourable political environment for the elections," Gautam told the meeting, "The elections could have been held in 2014 if there was any such environment."

The incumbent government wants to hold elections at the earliest, he claimed.

Similarly, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Federal Affairs and Local Development, Prakash Man Singh argued that the local bodies' elections could not be held due to lack of willingness amongst political parties. "The incumbent government is committed to holding elections by forging consensus among the political parties," Minister Singh added.

Lawmakers, at the meeting, had stressed on the need of local polls to carry out reconstruction of the quake-damaged physical infrastructures and resettlement of the quake-displaced persons.