BAJURA: Five ward chairs of Nepal Communist Party have padlocked the office of Badimalika Municipality citing inconsistencies in budget allocation to wards.

According to Ward 7 Chair Dharma Raj Padhyaya, the mayor and deputy mayor have allotted the budget in line with their vested interests.

Out of the nine wards in the municipality, five ward chairs are from then CPN-UML and four are from Nepali Congress.

According to Ward 9 Chair Binod BK, the municipality has allocated Rs 5.5 million to wards with chairpersons from then CPN-UML and Rs 10.2 million to Rs 10.55 million to wards with chairpersons from Nepali Congress.

“We were forced to padlock the office after the mayor did not follow our proposal to divide the budget based on population and geography of the wards,” BK added.

However, the deputy mayor, Kabita Bista remarked that the discussions are moving forward to a positive end. Nonetheless, the service seekers arriving at the municipality are deprived of their rights to seek service.