Associations Of Local Bodies Cast In New Role

By Mukti Rijal

THE Association of District Development Committees/Nepal (ADDC/N) has elected its new executive body at a convention held recently. Similarly Municipality Association of Nepal (MAN) convened in Bhairahawa recently formed new executive. The ADDC/N has changed its leadership and elected Krishna Prasad Sapkota-President of the Kavre DDC-as its new leader whereas the MAN has retained Dormani Paudel as its chief.

Important

These two events are very important for local bodies in terms of strengthening their institutional leverage and fortifying their collective unity. Moreover, they are also important in furthering the process of local self governance and decentralisation. These bodies are representatives and legitimate authorities of local government institutions. Their coming together to express the interests and demands of local government institutions is itself very important and meaningful.

Muncipalities and District Development Committees have several converging interests. Yet they have different problems and needs not very much related to each other.

Municipalities are in fact passing through a very crucial and testing phase. The Local Self-Governance Act has abolished the octroi, which formed the principal basis of their revenue. This has significantly cut the resources of the municipalities thereby placing the urban based local bodies at resource starved position. The government has committed to raise local development tax and compensate for the need of municipalities so that the pinch of octroi abolition is healed. But it is reported that the local development tax has not been raised at the level that would contribute to ensure flow of resources in the coffers of municipalities. Local bodies at the urban level are thus said to be at a very difficult stage struggling to meet their operating costs.

Newly elected president of the Municipality Association of Nepal (MAN) Dor Mani Poudel has demanded for an increased allocation of resources to municipalities so that the resource crunch they are now facing would be alleviated.

As the country is undergoing the process of urbanisation with incasing rural-urban migration, municipalities are bound to face compounding challenges. They should acquire institutional and technical capacity to grapple with the mounting problems. The problems could be properly addressed only if municipalities have capacity to plan and implement the projects suited to tackle the urban needs.

The District Development Committees are enjoined with critical tasks and responsibilities by the new Act. They are given added functions in several aspects including planning, resource mobilisation and development of the district. DDCs are considered as nodal institutions under the preview of which all sectoral line agency offices at the district are required to operate. The Local Self-Governance Act has thus placed the District Development Committees in an important pedestal. But it has been alleged that the Local Self-Governance rules adopted by the government very recently has infringed upon the spirit of the act. Moreover, the local bodies have criticised the government accusing that the central authorities have devalued and derecognised the role and sanctity of the local government institutions.

According to the DDCs the new schemes as BP with the poor, Ganeshman peace mobilisation though now defunct and women uplift and development have allegedly by passed the popularly elected local government institutions. Newly elected team of the Association of the District Development Committees also met with the Prime Minister recently and submitted a memorandum demanding that the schemes pushed by the government outside the purview of the local bodies be implemented only through the tutelage of the local government institutions. The team also demanded to amend the provisions in the rules that have allegedly contradicted the stipulations in the act.

The assertiveness of the local governments to safeguard their interests and growing ability to mount pressure upon the central government is itself an indication of strengthening of local government system and decentralisation in the country.

The Association of local bodies has an important role today to keep watch on the on-going developments and ensure that no steps threaten or derail the process of decentralisation in the country.

Poor

Besides, they should rise above the partisan interests and foster professional capacity to provide services to local bodies. Local body officials elected at different levels have not been trained in enabling them to discharge their responsibilities properly as a consequence of which local government outputs in terms of development and maintaining good governance are poor. The local authority Associations should examine their role and act in a manner that products results in strengthening decentralisation and local government system.

Tanka Prasad Acharya’s Premiership

By Guna Dev Bhattarai

KING Mahendra decided to hold a conference of all political, social and sundry organisations so that he might be aware of the views pertaining to administration from different persons. The jumbo-gathering to be represented at the Narayanhiti Durbar was vehemently resented by the Nepali Congress, the Rastriya Congress and the Praja Party. They decided to boycott the said conference. Nevertheless the conference at the Narayanhiti Durbar was concluded with four positive results.

They were the direct rule of the King should be ceased, democratic norms and values should be followed, the date of the general elections should be announced as early as possible and the Advisory Assembly should be dissolved. King Mahendra having thoroughly reviewed the voice of the participants of the conference declared that he would fix and announce the date of the general elections within three months. Accordingly, the King dissolved the Advisory Assembly, and declared what the general elections, would be held by October 1957.

For sometime the people in the capital, were discussing the latest moves. The King was neither in a mood to do away with democracy nor to hand over the power to the leaders of different parties which were charged with corruption and nepotism. That is why he took the middle path. That is to say he began to negotiate with the leaders of different parties. Many problems of the country were placed before the leaders who were expected to tackle them.

The Congress Party requested the King that the direct rule should be terminated in no time and a composite or one party government should be installed thereby. The Praja Parishad advised the King that a government should be formed in which all major parties might be represented. The Gorkha Parishad suggested that the King should form a government comprised of one member of each party and some independents. The tenure of the said government should be terminated after the general elections. At last the Nepali Congress, the Rastriya Congress and the Praja Parishad submitted a joint memorandum to the King to form a government either by a single party or jointly by three parties. The King instead of letting the parties to nominate their members made a list of members of his own choice. In short the King wanted to have his men in the cabinet.

That is to say the King would not or did not like to hand over the responsibility of forming a government under the parties and the Congress, in particular.

Meanwhile, the King granted amnesty to K.I. Singh who returned to the capital in September 1955. It was very difficult on the part of the leaders of the country to know the real intention of the King. The King was not ready to form a multi-party govern-ment in which the Nepali Congress might participate. That was why the King appointed Tanka Prasad Acharya of the Praja Parishad Prime Minister on January 1956.

The acceptance of premiership by Tanka Prasad was taken as a petrayal of the tri-partite memorandum presented to the King earlier. The adage ‘politics is a dirty game’ proved correct when Tanka Prasad Acharya headed the government.

Tanka Prasad Acharya was an honest man and there was no question as to his clean character. Nevertheless he lacked the leadership in the cabinet in which the independent ministers, Gunjaman, Purendra B.K. Shah and Anirudra Pd. Singh who were the chosen men of the King. Balchandra Sharma, Chanda Prasad Sharma and Pashupatipath Ghosh were ministers of the party.

Tanka Prasad had no earlier ministerial experience. The important portfolios of Finance, Defense and Parliamentary Affairs were occupied by the independents who were besides being the royal advisers were not politically motivated persons. Besides they were not in favour of giving freehand to the prime minister so that he might smoothly run the government at ease.

At the very outset of his premiership he began to speak of high sounding programmes to be implemented in the country without heeding to the concrete problems facing the country.