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Incident-1

As many as 56 community forests in Gulariya, Bansgadhi, Barbardiya, Thakurbaba, Madhuwan, and Badhaiyatal rural municipalities of Bardiya were preparing to process forest resources after getting their respective forest management plans approved. However, Praveen Bidari, the District Forest Officer (DFO) at the Division Forest Office in Bardiya, was transferred before the forest resources harvesting process could begin. The newly appointed DFO, Bijay Subedi, put a halt on the process, insisting that the plans needed to be redrafted.

“Once a management plan is approved, the transfer of a forest officer should not have made any difference,” said Gopal Prasad Chaudhary, president of the Bardiya chapter of the Federation of Community Forest Users Nepal (FECOFUN). “Preparing one plan costs the forest user groups at least Rs 50,000–60,000. Under the new guidelines of the Forest Promotion System, 2023, as asked by the new DFO, it will cost Rs 300,000–350,000. Where are the users supposed to get this money?”

About 20 percent of the 281 community forests in the district have been affected by the new DFO’s instructions. The affected forest user groups have sought help from their umbrella organization—the Bardiya District Chapter of FECOFUN. Although forest consumers made both written and verbal requests to the Division Forest Office, the DFO did not relent. This forced forest user groups to stage a sit-in at the Division Forest Office. They protested for four hours each day on December 5 and 6. The protests were suspended after two days when the DFO expressed a commitment to resolve the issue through dialogue.

FECOFUN formed a negotiation team under its district president, Gopal Prasad Chaudhary. Vice President Rama Kumari Paudel, members Bhumi Raj Lamichhane and Baijanath Kamath, Shanta Gyawali (President of FECOFUN Gulariya), Meena Rijal (President of FECOFUN Bansgadhi), Lal Bahadur Khatri (President of FECOFUN Barbardiya), and Ram Prasad Kafle (President of FECOFUN Badhaiyatal) were also in the team. The committee held its first meeting with DFO Subedi last week, but the DFO remained firm in his stance.

Responding to a query about why forest user groups were protesting, the DFO said it was not clear whether their forest management plans were truly approved. “Every page of the management plan must have a signature, but the so-called approved plans have signatures only on the first page. How can such plans be considered valid?” Subedi said.

FECOFUN officials say DFO Subedi is trying to integrate community forests into the Forest Conservation System. While he argues that incorporating elements like maps and statistical data from the old plans would reduce the cost of preparing a new plan, forest user groups are not convinced by his arguments. He has also promised to assist them in drafting the plans.

Meanwhile, Praveen Bidari, who was transferred from Bardiya shortly after approving the plans, insists that all procedures were followed. “If my signature is the only issue, I am ready to return and sign the documents at any time. But it is not just about signatures. The individuals involved in drafting the plans, like Tanka Gurung, who is now in Banke, and Pankaj Jha, who is with the forest ministry, can verify the process,” he clarified.

DFO Bardiya has already persuaded 18 of the 55 community forests to prepare new plans. At least six of them are said to be in the final stage of preparing their new plans. Officials of FECOFUN Bardiya say the protest has only been suspended, not stopped. The forest user groups argue that redrafting plans approved under the prior guidelines not only wastes financial resources but also stalls crucial forest-related activities.

Incident-2

A conflict between the community forest user group and the Tansen Municipality over the management of the Srinagar Hill forest in Palpa has resulted in the freezing of a budget of Rs 18m allocated for activities like stone paving on trails, repairing cottages, constructing swings, and other beautification works.

The dispute revolves around the ownership and revenue rights of Srinagar Forest, spread over 113 hectares. Six community forests—Lower Srinagar, Ukale Pipal, Bhusal Danda, Chandi, Kailash Basanta, and Srinagar Ganesh—merged in 2001 to form the Integrated Srinagar Ecotourism Forest Users Group. However, disagreements between the municipality and the committee over control of the forest and its earnings have heightened in recent years.

According to Bishnu Basyal, a member of the committee, while the Srinagar Ecotourism Area belongs to the community forest, the municipality unilaterally started charging entry fees under the guise of ecotourism. Tourists visiting Srinagar Hill are charged Rs 20 as an entry fee. They are also required to pay vehicle parking charges and additional fees for other activities. In the last fiscal year alone, the municipality collected Rs 2.6m in revenue from the Srinagar Hill.

Kalpana Bhandari, chairperson of the FECOFUN Lumbini Province, argued that the municipality has no authority to collect fees from community forests. “The income generated within a community forest belongs to the user group. The municipality should stop collecting fees,” she added.

Tansen Mayor Santosh Lal Shrestha, however, defended the municipality’s actions, claiming that the local government has been maintaining the area since the 1950s. “This area falls under our jurisdiction. Which law states that local governments cannot charge fees?” Shrestha questioned.

The municipality’s involvement only began after local representatives assumed office in 2022. The forest was previously managed by the user group.

Srinagar Hill has become a popular attraction for domestic tourists, particularly from Butwal and Bhairahawa, for its scenic views and picnic areas. The increased revenue potential has heightened the interests of both the user group and the municipality, leading to the current standoff.

The FECOFUN Lumbini Province and its central body have been pressuring the government to resolve the issue. The Butwal High Court last year ruled that operations in the Srinagar Hill area should be conducted in compliance with the law. However, the local government has been interpreting this ruling as giving them ownership, while the Forest Act stipulates that ownership lies with the user group.

In March of last year, the central committee meeting of FECOFUN convened at Damkada of Palpa and passed an 18-point declaration. It called for the implementation of an interim order of the Supreme Court to halt illegal fee collection by provincial governments.

Additionally, FECOFUN Lumbini Province has prepared a four-year strategic plan (2023–2027). According to Kalpana Bhandari, the plan identifies taxation by all three tiers of government as the major challenge facing community forests in the province. This plan underscores the urgent need to clarify roles and responsibilities in forest management to avoid overlaps and disputes that hinder community forest programs.

Incident-3

Tansen Municipality Office on November 17 sent a notice to all community forest user groups within the municipality, demanding their approved annual work plans and 10 percent of their forest product sales revenue from the past eight years within seven days.

“Community forest user groups within Tansen Municipality are hereby directed to submit their approved annual work plans within seven days and deposit 10 percent of the revenue from forest product sales since fiscal year 2017/18 into the municipal consolidated fund,” reads the letter issued by the municipality’s Chief Administrative Officer Hari Ram Nagila.

Section 62 (B)(1) and (2) of the Local Government Operations Act, 2017, states that community forest user groups must have their annual forest product sales and utilization plans approved by the municipality and deposit 10 percent of the revenue into the municipal fund.

However, none of the 129 community forest user groups in Tansen Municipality has submitted their work plans, deposited the funds, or responded to the municipality’s letter.

Prem Shahi, secretary of the Integrated Srinagar Ecotourism Forest User Group, termed the municipality’s decision as a ‘dictatorial’ policy.

Mayor Shrestha, however, defended the decision, arguing that existing legal provisions require community forest user groups to deposit 10 percent of forest product sales revenue into the municipal consolidated fund.

These three incidents are only representative cases of growing disputes between community forest user groups and local and provincial governments across Lumbini Province. Since the constitution has placed natural resource revenue in the shared jurisdiction of federal, provincial, and local governments, community forest user groups have been saying that they are overburdened with taxes across all three tiers of government.

Thakur Bhandari, central chairperson of FECOFUN, said forest user groups have been forced to pay 10 percent of forest product sales revenue to local governments, 10 percent of the revenue on internal sales, and 25 percent for exports to provincial governments, as well as 13 percent VAT, 15 percent advance income tax, and 25 percent income tax to the federal government. “Community forests, as non-profit organizations, are being unfairly taxed by all three tiers of government,” Bhandari added.

Bhandari said community forest user groups are suffering the most in Lumbini Province. “It seems that the Lumbini government does not even recognize the existence of community forests. They are treating us as for-profit enterprises by imposing excessive taxes,” he added. “The provincial government has continued to disregard a Supreme Court ruling that barred such taxation.”

According to Article 60 (1) of the Constitution of Nepal, 2015, the distribution of revenue from shared resources should follow federal guidelines. Likewise, Section 62 (B) of the Local Government Operations Act, 2017, states that community forest user groups are required to deposit 10 percent of the revenue earned from the sale of forest products into the consolidated fund of the respective municipal bodies. Similarly, Sections 22 and 23 of the Forest Act, 2017 outline the rules governing the annual expenses of user groups. Moreover, Section 12 (A) of the Value Added Tax Act, 1995 imposes VAT on timber auctions.

On 4 Oct 2023, a constitutional bench of the Supreme Court comprising Chief Justice Bishwambhar Prasad Shrestha and Justices Ishwar Khatiwada, Anand Mohan Bhattarai, Prakash Kumar Dhungana, and Sushmalata Mathema issued a stay order on the collection of taxes by provincial governments, questioning the constitutionality of taxes imposed under their forest and financial acts. The bench ruled that such provisions are negatively impacting the operation and management of community forest user groups.

Despite the apex court’s ruling, Lumbini Province has continued to collect funds from community forests under the guise of ‘service charges’ instead of taxes.

Lumbini targets Rs 1.33bn in forest revenue

Lumbini Province boasts 974,381 hectares of forest—134,710 hectares in the plains, 424,200 hectares in the Chure hills, 32,360 hectares in the mid-hills, 85,640 hectares in the high hills, and 6,470 hectares in the Himalayan region. Community forests form a significant portion of the province’s forests, covering 20 percent of the total forest area and managed by 4,052 community forest user groups. The highest concentration of community forests in Lumbini is in Palpa with 701 community forest user groups, followed by Rolpa (605), Dang (534), Gulmi (458), Pyuthan (449), and Arghakhanchi (445). Districts with the fewest community forests include Parasi (58) and Kapilvastu (72).

The Lumbini Provincial Forestry Directorate has set ambitious targets of collecting 1,408,066 cubic feet of timber and firewood from community forests, 71,014 cubic feet from protected forests, 234,750 cubic feet from partnership forests, and 1,686,071 cubic feet from private forests in the current fiscal year. The province government is aiming to generate Rs 1.33bn in revenue solely from forests in the current fiscal year.

Mohan Kafle, secretary of Lumbini’s Ministry of Forest and Environment, said the provincial government has been collecting a 10 percent service charge on internal sales and 25 percent on the export of forest products. “Previously, we were collecting taxes from forest user groups. But after the Supreme Court ruled that provinces cannot levy taxes without specific laws, we rebranded it as a service charge,” explained Kafle.

In the previous fiscal year, the provincial government collected Rs 160m from forest products. It has already mobilized Rs 70m in the first quarter of the current fiscal year. “Due to legal ambiguities and differences with community forest user groups, revenue mobilization has not been satisfactory this year,” he added. “Community forest user groups have been saying that they are being forced to pay taxes to all three tiers of government.”

Community forest user groups have already drawn the attention of Lumbini’s Chief Minister to abolish the service charges imposed under the Lumbini Province Financial Act, 2024.

Acting Provincial Forest Director Dadhi Lal Kandel has suggested that consolidating revenue collection into a single-window system and distributing the proceeds among federal, provincial, and local governments could resolve the issue. This approach could streamline the taxation process, eliminate overlapping charges, and create a more transparent system for managing forest revenues.

Advocate Dilraj Khanal, who filed a petition at the Supreme Court regarding triple taxation, said that the federal law permits local governments to collect 10 percent of revenue from forest product sales. The Office of the Auditor General has also drawn the attention of local bodies toward uncollected taxes. This prompted local governments to demand dues from forest user groups dating back to 2017.

The Supreme Court’s interim order, however, bars provincial governments from levying taxes, including service charges, on community forests. However, Lumbini, Bagmati, and Sudurpashchim provinces have continued to defy this order.

“If provincial governments continue to impose taxes despite the apex court’s ruling, we will file a contempt of court case,” Khanal said. Community forest user groups are determined to challenge what they view as unjust and excessive taxation policies, which jeopardize the sustainability and autonomy of their operations.

‘Collecting fees under the same heading is illegal’

Juddha Bahadur Gurung, member, NNRFC

The Constitution of Nepal, 2015, in Schedule-9, Clause 7, mentions forests, wildlife, birds, water resources, environment, and biodiversity under the shared list of the federal, provincial, and local governments. However, governments at all three levels have been arbitrarily interpreting this provision to collect royalties, taxes, revenues, or service fees from forest resources. 

Juddha Bahadur Gurung, a member of the National Natural Resources and Finance Commission (NNRFC), explains that taxes under the same heading should only be paid once at a single point. “If one government has already collected the tax under a specific heading, another government should not collect it under the same heading. It is illegal for another government to collect taxes, royalties, or fees under the same heading.” 

Since federal laws have not yet been enacted, local and provincial governments may be collecting money under various names. “This anomaly will persist until federal laws are clearly enacted,” Gurung said. 

After the Supreme Court’s ruling against such collections, the provincial government has passed laws to collect money under the name of service fees instead of royalties, circumventing the issue through indirect means, particularly from forest user groups. If such laws conflict with federal laws, they will be nullified. Laws made by local governments that conflict with provincial and federal laws will be overridden by the federal law. 

Similarly, laws made by provincial governments that conflict with federal laws will be considered invalid. Forest users argue that the provincial government’s law to collect money contradicts the federal forest law, and as such, the collection should not occur.

This story has been produced with the support of the Internews Earth Journalism Network through the Media for Inclusive Green Growth project

Farmers of Narainapur in Banke district suffered heavy loss after unseasonal rains destroyed their harvest-ready paddies last October. It took just a few days of downpour to down the rice plants standing ripe on 3,600 hectares of land. The damage was assessed at Rs 57m but the government announced an assistance package of only Rs 20m. Distribution of the pledged relief started only a couple of weeks ago. Narainapur farmers are not optimistic about this year’s harvest either. Only 15 percent of rice fields here saw plantation this season because of late rainfall. Local government officials say the farmers are already staring at a crisis. The District Disaster Management Committee, Banke, has already declared Narainapur as a drought-stricken area and asked the provincial and federal governments to come to the farmers’ rescue. Finance Minister Janardan Sharma recently visited the farming community of Narainapur and promised them federal emergency relief. Narainapur’s problem mirrors the challenge faced by thousands of farmers throughout Banke, says Rupan Gyawali, of District Emergency Operation Center. “Nearly 40,000 farmers in all eight local units of Banke were affected by unseasonal rains last year, ” says Gyawali. “We had requested the federal assistance for at least Rs 387m to support the farmers, but got only Rs 100m.” To date, only 36 percent of the federal aid has been distributed. Farmers in Raptisonari, Kohalpur and Baijanath rural municipalities are still awaiting the aid that was announced last year. As per government policy, an individual farmer can get no more than Rs 55,000 as disaster relief. There are no other groups in Nepal who have been more affected by climate change than farmers. Meanwhile, the government’s lack of climate policy and unpreparedness, as well as slow response to farmers’ plight is contributing to potential food insecurity. Sagar Dhakal, former chief at Agriculture Knowledge Center, Banke, says prolonged dry spell and unseasonal rainfall are becoming regular occurrences and farmers are facing their direct impacts. “Our crop yields are falling, and with government complacency and delay, the situation could get worse in future,” says Dhakal. A crisis is brewing in Nepal’s farming belt that the government is not acknowledging in a right manner. Government coming up with paltry relief packages after farmers have lost their crops to climate-related disasters is not a permanent solution. In Bardiya district, thousands of farmers who were affected by last year’s unseasonal rains are yet to get the government pledged aid. This year, too, rain-swollen Karnali River breached its banks and damaged a large quantity of rice crop being dried out in fields after harvest in the Rajapur area of the district. Santosh Pathak, of Agriculture Knowledge Center, Bardiya, says the damage assessment in the area has still not been conducted, and as a result, farmers there have no chance of getting government assistance anytime soon. “Climate change-related disasters have become more frequent in Bardiya in recent years,” says Pathak. “And it is not just erratic rains and drought farmers have to contend with. They are also dealing with an increase in crop diseases.” In Banke, rainfall arrived late and continued for an unusually long period this year. Rice planted on over 7,000 hectares of land got flooded. The actual picture of the damage caused by this year’s rain is yet to come. “We are still assessing the crop damage in all eight local units of the district,” says Gyawali, of the District Emergency Operation Center. Once the assessment is complete, there will be another request to the federal and provincial governments for a relief. The affected farmers don’t know if or when that succor will arrive, as many of them are yet to get the aid for last year’s devastation.

On Feb 8, police arrested Abdul Rashid, a 25-year-old man from India’s Bahraich, with 200 grams of brown sugar. Rashid was car­rying the drug in four plas­tic bags concealed inside his helmet.A joint patrol of Nepal Police’s Narcotics Control Bureau and Area Police Office Jamunaha had nabbed Rashid on his motorbike at Jamunaha near the border. He was on his way to the western Nepali town of Nepalgunj.

According to Police Super­intendent Bir Bahadur Oli, Rashid was a regular smug­gler of the contraband. He was planning to send half of the confiscated amount to Pokhara and half to Kath­mandu. When local online portals broke the news, his buyers went out of contact. “I don’t know their where­abouts. They fled when the news about my arrest sur­faced,” Rashid told the police.

The Narcotics Bureau had opened its Nepalgunj branch in 1994. The amount seized on Feb 4 was the largest to be confiscated from a person in a day since the establishment of the branch, according to Oli.

Police records show that confiscation of illegal drugs has increased in the district since 2011. Also on the morn­ing of Feb 4, Bishnu Giri from Tikapur Municipality-1 of Kailali district was caught along with his brother, carry­ing 18 grams of brown sugar. A police patrol on the highway had nabbed the duo.

On 8 December 2012, Indian national Mohammad Salman Khan was arrested from erst­while Bhawanipur VDC in possession of 110 grams of brown sugar. After that, on 30 October 2018, another Indian national, Sahare Alam, 19, was arrested from Chaulika Chowk of Nepalgunj along with 89 grams of the contraband.

Among the people arrested with large quantities of brown sugar in the past few years, most are Indian nationals. They are all traders of the con­traband.

According to police inspec­tor Bir Bahadur Thapa, chief of narcotics branch Nepalgunj, 200 grams is a big quantity to be confiscated from a per­son. “The Feb 4 arrest is sig­nificant,” he told APEX. The district police in Banke have already seized 2,163 grams of brown sugar since 2016/17. This fiscal year, 2019/20, the police have already seized 608 grams of brown sugar.

The police have arrested 1,025 persons in the past four years for their involvement in the trade. Court cases have been filed against 639. Accord­ing to SP Oli, “The police are serious about controlling nar­cotics trade. All those guilty will have to face action.”

As per the Narcotics Control Act 1976, a person trading up to 25 grams of any contraband will face imprisonment from 5 to 10 years, or a fine ranging from Rs 5,000 to 25,000, or both. Those trading 100 grams or more will face 15 years to life imprisonment, or a fine ranging from Rs 500,000 to 2.5 million, or both O

In past six months, District Police, Banke has docu­mented the cases of 159 missing women, 52 of them minors. There is a common cause behind their disappear­ance: elopement.“Most complaints are related to girls eloping. As those below 20 years cannot legally marry, they run away from home to get hitched. Par­ents lodge complaints when their daughters go missing,” says Superintendent of Police Bir Bahadur Oli, chief of Banke Police. “They return after turning 20, many with their babies.”

The girls and young women cross the border and reach Indian towns where they get married, according to Oli. Police records show that fam­ilies do not accept the mar­riage at first, but gradually, short of options, they start doing so.

“As parents oppose mar­riage, children run away,” Oli adds. “Fearing punishment for underage marriage, many parents do not report to the police even when their chil­dren return.”

Banke is a district where child marriage is rampant. According to the 2011 Popu­lation Census, 66.08 percent marriages in Banke involved underage participants. Mean­while, another survey of a local non-profit Social Aware­ness Concern Form showed that the underage marriages in 2019 involved 80.79 percent of all girls and 60.92 percent of all boys.

The survey showed that in the Nepalgunj Sub-metropoli­tan and in Rapti Sonari Village Council as many as 83.16 per­cent of the marrying women were underage.

The police have stepped up efforts to control child mar­riage in the district. There are many child and teenage girl clubs that report to police when they come to know of any child marriage. Acting on those reports, the police last year stopped 35 marriages in Nepalgunj Sub-metropolitan City and Janaki Rural Munic­ipality. But this year, no child marriage has been reported yet.

Maiti Nepal, an organiza­tion working to stop traffick­ing-in-person, had received complaints of 869 missing women last year. Of them, 239 were under 18. Keshab Koirala, an official with the organization, suspects most of them run away to marry, as many of the girls rescued from the bordering areas and Indian towns were found to have married before age. “They are at risk of being sold in India,” Koirala says.

The organization had res­cued 347 girls last year. “We rescued 21 girls in a single lot at Jamunaha border point. They were mostly between 14 and 18, and from Salyan and Rukum districts,” Koirala adds.

Three of the girls rescued by Maiti Nepal in India were sold by their boyfriends. “They lure uneducated girls with a promise of marriage, and the educated ones with nice jobs,” Koirala says. “When the girls go to India without their parents, there is a greater risk of them being sold”

 On April 26, 2018, Ramch­abi Barma of Duduwa rural municipal­ity’s Naya Chauferi lost his 18-month-old daughter Rita Barma. District Public Health Office Banke’s focal person for nutrition Jageshwor Bas­net says Rita died because of severe malnutrition. Accord­ing to the office, Naya Chauferi is the second most malnutri­tion-afflicted area in Banke district. The nearby malnutri­tion outpatient treatment cen­ter (OTC) of Betahani health post is currently treating 44 undernourished kids, includ­ing some from Naya Chauferi.In the past 14 months, seven newborn babies have died in just one ward of Banke’s Janaki rural munic­ipality, the worst-affected area in the district. Gagan Singh Saud, in-charge of the local Indrapur health post, informs that most of these babies were between 28 days to six months old. “Most were born premature and under­weight,” he informs.

Even though the local health posts have given different reasons for infant mortal­ity, most were in one way or another victims of malnutri­tion. According to the District Public Health Office, 92 children are suffering from malnutrition in Janaki rural municipality alone.

In the past one year, 34 women gave birth in their own homes in Indrapur of Janaki rural municipality. The locals lack awareness about nutrition, says Munic­ipality Health Coordinator Gir Bahadur Gurung. “While they sell spinach grown in their farms and milk from their cows they feed their children noodles and biscuits. No wonder they are malnour­ished,” Gurung says.

All local level units of Nepal­gunj sub-metropolitan and Kohalpur municipality have elevated levels of malnutri­tion. District malnutrition focal person Jageshwor Bas­net informs that in the past six months, 279 undernourished children have already been treated for malnutrition in the district.

Public health records show that in the past one year 270 children have died in Banke district, mostly from malnutrition.

It looks like the problem of malnutrition is getting worse. Nepalgunj’s Bheri Zonal Hos­pital has treated 1,358 under­nourished kids in the past one decade after it opened its Nutrition Rehabilitation Cen­ter. Most of the 150 malnour­ished children it treats every year on average are from Banke district.

The District of Public Health Office’s Family Planning Super­visor Basant Gaire reveals that among 12,472 children whose weights were measured last year, 1,011 were found under­weight. Among them, 423 were extremely underweight and could be considered malnourished while 588 had moderate weight. To reduce the problem of malnutrition, Banke district has partnered with various NGOs, including Helen Keller International, for better implementation of its integrated nutrition food program.

Helen Keller Internation­al’s Nutritious Food Program Coordinator Indra Auji says the state of malnutrition in the district is dire.

“Under-5 child mortality from malnutrition is acute among the local Madhesi and Muslim communities,” says Auji. “Parents are not much bothered when their children are underweight or even mal­nourished. Malnourished girls are particularly neglected.”

 The chairperson and his deputy at Banke dis­trict’s Rapti Sonari rural municipality have not talked to each other for six months. The reason for their mutual dislike was a dispute over who should get to ride a municipal vehicle. In August 2017, the munic­ipality chairperson Lahu Ram Tharu was given a car for which the municipality had to pay a monthly rent of Rs 110,000. Another Rs 30,000-35,000 a month was spent on petrol while an addi­tional Rs 5,000 was set aside for repairs.

Deputy chairperson Dhani Kumari Khatri complained that she was unable to ride in a car, even though it was paid for by taxpayer money. Last year, the municipality wanted to buy a vehicle. But Khatri insisted that two vehi­cles should be bought instead of one, and the procurement plan was shelved.

On August 1, Khatri com­plained with the Minister for federal affairs Lalbabu Pandit that she was having a hard time getting around to mon­itor development programs without a vehicle. “The deputy chairperson refused to sign official papers until a vehicle was arranged for her,” says an officer at the rural municipal­ity. A vehicle was eventually procured at a monthly rent of Rs 110,000, with another Rs 40,000 set aside for petrol.

“They initially discrimi­nated against me because I am a woman. But now that I am getting the same amounts of rent and petrol, equality has been achieved,” Khatri says.

The rural municipality is spending over Rs 300,000 a month on two vehicles, which are used as private vehicles by the chairperson and deputy chairperson. Chief adminis­trative officer of Rapti Sonari rural municipality Topendra Bahadur KC informs that the process to buy a new vehicle worth Rs 5 million has been started as the rents are prov­ing to be high. “A new vehi­cle will be bought within a month,” he says.

It is not just Rapti’s Sonari rural municipality where money is spent recklessly on rented vehicles. The chairpersons of Narainapur and Janaki rural municipal­ities are also spending over Rs 100,000 each on rented vehicles. The same is the case in Janaki rural municipality.

Nepalgunj sub-metropoli­tan’s Chief Dr. Dhawal Sham­sher Rana, Deputy Chairper­son Uma Thapa Magar and Chief Administrative Officer Toyanarayan Subedi also ride government vehicles. Munici­pal officer Sharad Kumar Pau­del informs that Rs 4.5 million a year is set aside for petrol. Likewise, Kohalpur municipal­ity has set aside Rs 1.65 million for petrol for its vehicles.

Frugal officials too

There are also people’s rep­resentatives who are more frugal. Khajura rural munic­ipality’s Chairperson Kis­mat Kumar Kakshyapati and Bajainath rural municipality’s Chairperson Man Bahadur Ruchal ride their personal vehicles. Both of them how­ever claim fuel cost. “I use my own motorcycle to serve the public. The motorcycle serves me just fine. Why do I need a car?” he asks.