Kathmandu, February 12

The Local Bodies Restructuring Commission said it had not been able to carry out its works on special, protected and autonomous regions due to uncertainty over the status of its report.

The LBRC had submitted its report on January 6, suggesting creation of 719 local bodies across the country. The government has recently formed a three-member task force to study the report and recommend revisions in the report.

LBRC member Neeraj Shah said the commission’s works on special, protected and autonomous region would be futile, as the government had not even endorsed its report on the local bodies.

LBRC officials said the commission might not be able to complete its remaining tasks within the stipulated deadline. As per the statute, the commission is required to submit its report on special, protected and autonomous regions, structure of public administration in the federal setup and their economic viability by March 13.

“How can we complete the remaining task, when we do not know, which one of the local bodies we recommended would be valid,” Shah wondered. He said the LBRC would be able to determine special, protected and autonomous regions within the local bodies recommended by the commission. “We can start work on special, protected and autonomous regions once the commission’s report on local bodies is endorsed,” Shah added.

Expressing dissatisfaction with its content, the government had refused to endorse the report, saying  further consultations were needed. Shah accused the government of making LBRC’s report a disputed document by forming a separate task force to recommend revision in the report.

Another LBRC member Sunil Ranjan Singh said any change that the government might suggest in the LBRC report, which was prepared by a constitutional commission, could create legal questions. He said revision of the LBRC report could also complicate state restructuring.

He said the commission would be compelled to submit uncompleted report to the government if it continued to ignore the LBRC’s concerns and demands.

“We have repeatedly asked the government to provide us data of the wards, their economic resources and ethnic clusters, yet the government has not provided us required data,” Singh said.

LBRC Chief Balananda Paudel said the commission had not been able to send its report to the districts to discuss special, protected and autonomous regions as the government was yet to endorse the report. He said that the LBRC could not disclose the report prior to its endorsement by the government. Meanwhile, the government task force has started discussion with the disgruntled locals of the Province 2 from today.