Kathmandu, December 26

Frustrated over the government’s refusal to accept its report, the Local Bodies’ Restructuring Commission today sent a formal letter to Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, seeking time to submit it.

The constitutional body, which is mandated to determine the number and boundaries of local bodies, stated that the letter was sent to the Prime Minister Office informing it that the commission had completed its report and was ready to furnish it at any time.

“We have written to the PM that we have determined number, boundaries, centres, names and wards of local bodies and completed the report,” said LBRC member Sunil Ranjan Singh. He said the formal letter was written, as the PM was not granting LBRC time to submit its report.

The government has been hesitating to receive the report, as receiving report will render local bodies under the old structure invalid. According to Article 303 of the constitution, current local bodies will become non-existent after the LBRC submits its report to the government, according to Singh.

LBRC Chief Balananda Paudel had requested the PM to accept the report prepared by the commission on December 15. The PM asked him to wait for a few days and he wanted consensus among major parties before accepting the LBRC’s report.

PM’s Political Adviser Chakrapani Khanal said the government wanted some kind of consensus among major parties before accepting the LBRC report. “I do not understand why the commission is hurrying to submit its report, when it has still over two months to do so,” wondered Khanal.

He said the PM and CPN-UML Chair KP Sharma Oli and NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba had discussed issues related to the LBRC report and agreed to hold further discussion on whether to hold election under the new structure or old system.

He said the government would accept the report after forging consensus among the parties and the commission could make necessary changes in the report until then.

The LBRC said it had proposed to create around 720 local bodies.