Biratnagar, February 13:

The District Administration Office, Morang, has suggested the Home Ministry suspend the distribution of citizenship certificates until the security condition in the district improves.

The teams mobilized for the distribution of citizenship certificates in Katahari, Nocha, Dayaniya, Bardanga, Sidhraha, Tanki, Mrigauliya and Rajghat VDCs in Morang have returned to the district headquarters due to the Terai agitation.

Local representatives of Dadarbairiya, Bardanga and Katahari VDCs have urged not to send the distribution teams, a source at the DAO said.

At an interaction organised by the DAO yesterday, leaders of the distribution teams said that they would not perform their duties until security is guaranteed.

The leaders of team Nos 3, 11 and 5, Mohamad Kunwar, Bhimraj Pokhrel and Madhav Pokhrel, said they were mentally not prepared to carry out the distribution work due to the security situation in the region.

Some leaders of the teams have filed applications in the DAO asking the latter to relieve them of their duties. “The DAO has already informed the Home Ministry about the situation here”, assistant CDO Ram Prasad Ghimire said.

A letter sent by the DAO to the ministry states that eight citizenship certificate distribution teams returned from eight VDCs due to the Terai agitation and that the situation in some VDCs has not returned to normal. The DAO was scheduled to distribute the certificates from January 16 through March 14.