Kathmandu, January 21:

A taskforce of the seven-party alliance, formed to work out a modality on running the local bodies, proposed to run the local bodies under the alliance’s joint mechanism with proper representation of Dalits, women and janajatis.

Minister for Local Development and coordinator of alliance’s taskforce, Dev Gurung, told this daily that a joint mechanism of the seven-party alliance was proposed to revive the defunct local bodies at today’s meeting.

According to the proposal, all the village development committees, municipalities and district development committees would have at least one permanent representative from each of the partners of the seven-party alliance and representatives of other parties in the interim parliament would also have their representation in all local bodies.

“Representatives of other parties in the interim parliament can also be accommodated in the joint mechanism at the alliance’s approval,” Gurung said.

On the modality of leadership of all the local bodies, Gurung said the joint mechanism would try its best to reach a consensus among the members. If members of the joint mechanism fail to reach a consensus on leadership, it would be chosen on rotation basis with fixed tenure, he said.

Gurung said they could not reach a final decision today as the UML and Nepal Workers and Peasants’ Party members sought more time to consult with their respective party leaderships. The meeting has been adjourned till Wednesday.