Submit your Article

Two persons died and three others were injured in a car accident on Friday.

District Police Range, Kathmandu deputy speaker Anil Adhikari said that the car (Ba 10 Cha 3546) was heading towards Chitlang from Kathmandu when the incident occurred near Panighat today.

The deceased have been identified as car driver Nawaraj Thokar Tamang (20) and Anil Tamang (45).

The reason behind the accident is yet to be ascertained, police said.

Police said that five persons were traveling in the four-wheeler.

Madhya-Pahadi Lokmarga Project Engineer Hari Kumar Pokharel has been arrested on the charge of raping a woman.

District Police Range, Kathmandu deputy speaker Anil Adhikari confirmed the arrest of Pokharel.

A few days ago, a woman of Ramechhap and currently residing in Kathmandu had filed a complaint at Women Cell of the Kalimati Police Beat saying that she was raped by Pokharel.

Based on the same complaint, police apprehended Pokharel.

Police said that they are looking into the case.

Among the 753 local governments, 33—11 municipalities and 22 rural municipalities—have failed to bring their budget for the fiscal year 2023/24 on time. According to Section 71 of the Local Government Operation Act, 2017, local governments are required to present their budget by Asar 10 (June 24/25) and have them passed by the end of Asar (July 15/16). 

On a positive note, Sudurpaschim province, which has 88 local units, has achieved a 100 percent record this year as all units passed their budget on time. In the fiscal years 2022/23 and 2020/21, Gandaki province had also set a perfect record. 

Meanwhile, Madhes province continues to have a poor track record. As the second largest province in terms of local units, Madhes has 136 governments, and 24 of them failed to pass their budgets on time this year. The number of local units missing the budget deadline in Madhes was 34 in 2020/21, 32 in 2021/22, and 28 in 2022/23.

Geeta Devi Mahato, the Vice-chairperson of Chandranagar Rural Municipality in Sarlahi district, Madhes, has accused Chairperson Raj Kumar Mahato of taking unilateral decisions without consulting others, resulting in the budget presentation delay. 

Raj Kumar, on the other hand, points finger at Geeta Devi and her team for the delay, claiming they refused to attend numerous meetings convened to address the issue concerning budget allocation. “They have been boycotting the executive committee and village council meetings without providing any valid reasons,” he says.

Disagreement between municipal heads and their deputies is the main reason behind the delay in budget presentation.  

ApEx reached out to many representatives from the local units that had failed to bring their budget on time, and they all had the same excuse, where mayors or chairpersons blamed their deputies and vice versa.

Four local units in Gandaki province, two in Lumbini and one each in Koshi, Bagmati and Karnali provinces also failed to meet the budget presentation deadline.

Ram Chandra Joshi, mayor of Kushma Municipality, Parbat district of Gandaki province, says that the budget process was obstructed because several ward chairpersons wanted more budget allocations for their areas. “There is no other reason to obstruct the budget presentation process other than to exert political pressure on me.”

Joshi says he lacks a majority in the executive committee and council, but the Local Government Operation Act, 2017 has not imagined a majority or minority provisions for local executives and councils. “Despite being aware of the law, the obstruction from executive committee members prevented us from presenting the budget on time,” adds Joshi.

The Municipal Association of Nepal (MuAN) says that the general public should not suffer due to the power struggles among local representatives. “A law should be passed so that those local units that fail to bring the budget on time are prohibited from spending even a single rupee from the state coffers,” suggests an official from the association.

Currently, the only repercussion faced by municipalities for delayed budget submissions is receiving reduced subsidies from the National Natural Resources and Fiscal Commission. 

“The commission allocates subsidies to local units based on their performance, with timely budget presentation and approval carrying weightage of five points each in the total score of 100 points,” says Gyanendra Paudel, the spokesperson for the commission. “In other words, higher scores lead to increased subsidies.”

Federalism expert and lawmaker Khim Lal Devkota, suggests redirecting the reduced subsidy of local units that fail to meet the budget deadline to neighboring municipalities.

“This measure could foster healthy competition among local representatives and encourage better performance,” he says. “Locals will also pressurize their representatives to perform their responsibilities if they see their neighboring areas doing well.”

Devkota highlights that this approach has been successfully implemented before Nepal adopted federalism, when District Development Committees (DDC) was in charge of budget allocation. Under the system, the government would reduce the subsidy of poorly performing DDCs and allocate it to more efficient and hardworking ones. The strategy significantly enhanced the work of most of the development committees.

“It is the only way I see to hold the elected local representatives accountable,” says Devkota.

Approximately 33 percent or one-thirds of the total federal budget, equivalent to around Rs 600bn, is allocated to the local level for this fiscal year. Untimely budget allocation negatively impacts local employment, income, and ultimately hampers the overall economic growth of the country.

Economist Chandra Mani Adhikari is opposed to the idea of reducing subsidies for non-performing local units, and suggests introducing other forms of punishment. “Why should the public bear the brunt of the representatives’ corrupt actions?” he says. “People should file a petition at the Supreme Court, as these actions are an assault on our system and a violation of the Local Government Operation Act, 2017.” 

Adhikari also warns that consistent failure of the local government to do their job well could fuel people’s resentment toward federalism.

Officials at the federal affairs department of the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration say local governments are not under the ministry’s jurisdiction, that they are an elected entity chosen by the people. They say the ministry just facilitates the local units, and it is the job of the people to hold their municipal governments accountable.

Laxmi Devi Pandey, chairperson of the National Association of Rural Municipalities in Nepal (NARMIN) and the chair of Hupsekot Rural Municipality, claims that the association has repeatedly reminded local units and their representatives to do the job for which they have been sent by the people. “There is no need to obstruct the executive committee and council meetings because the failure to present the budget will harm the local economy and community.” 

Kamal Prasad Bhattarai, joint secretary and the spokesperson for the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration, is hopeful that the local governments will get their act together in the coming years.

“The number of local units failing to submit their budget on time has decreased over the years, and this improvement is a result of adopting a ‘learning by doing’ approach,” he says. 

Between 2020/21 and 2023/24, there has been a decreasing trend in the number of local units failing to submit their budget on time. The figures for non-compliance were 46, 53, 42, and 33, respectively.

Bhattarai says the ministry has been guiding and training local representatives to execute their roles effectively by adhering to a fixed set of protocol.

Bhunti Sadaya is 68 years old now. As someone from the Dalit community, she is eligible for a social security allowance from the age of 60. But her name isn’t enrolled for the scheme because she doesn’t have a birth registration and citizenship certificate.

Her mother Mugiya and father Madhuwa passed away when she was very young. As they didn’t have citizenship certificates, Bhunti also doesn’t have any documents. Bhunti’s husband Palta and their four sons, however, have citizenship by descent. But her daughter Bina hasn’t been able to get a citizenship certificate. Since Bina hasn’t been able to prepare birth registration certificates for her children, they are deprived of education as well as the child nutrition allowance.

“My daughter is living with her husband in Harinagara of Lahan-20. Officials are asking for my citizenship to make my daughter’s citizenship,” Bhunti said. Bhunti, however, possesses a voter’s ID card.

Dipin and Mamata Sadaya are also suffering from the administrative formalities. Since the couple doesn’t have citizenship certificates, their children Om (11), Prakash (9), Sita (6), and Gita (4) do not have birth registration certificates. “Although I furnish all the documents, they ask for my father’s citizenship. The process is too cumbersome. When can I become a citizen of this country?” Dipin questioned.

According to Dipin, officials have asked him to change his father’s photo in his citizenship certificate, stating that it’s not clear. “I went to the Area Administration Office in Lahan to change the photo, but they asked me to go to my village in Siraha,” Dipin said. “I don’t have that much money to visit government offices every day, and it's difficult for me as my father has physical disabilities.”

Dipin added that the future of their children appears bleak just because they don’t have citizenship certificates. “They say five-six people will have to be called to the ward office for a public inquiry, and that it would cost Rs 3,000-4,000. As our daily wage can only feed the family, we have stopped preparation to get citizenship certificates,” Mamata shared.

In another case, Asharam Sadaya and his wife Amrita haven’t been able to get a birth registration for their children Kiran (5), Raja (2), and one-month-old Rinku because Amrita doesn’t have a birth registration certificate. “The process is very complex. The ward office keeps asking for Amrita’s birth registration certificate. We can’t feed our family if we keep visiting the ward office everyday because we don’t have land or money,” Asharam said. “That is why we have stopped asking the ward office for the birth registration of our children.”

Amrita said she hasn’t been able to send her children to school due to the lack of a birth registration certificate. “The school asks for a birth registration certificate, but the ward office doesn’t provide us. It keeps asking for one document after another,” she added.

Not only these people, but almost all the households in the Musahar settlement in Lahan Municipality-14 do not have citizenship and birth registration certificates. Many of them even do not approach the concerned offices, thinking that it would cost a lot of time and money. As a result, most of the Musahar children have been deprived of school education.

“Many Dalit families have been deprived of government documents because of the troublesome process. A birth registration certificate should have been issued even if the father and mother don’t have a citizenship certificate provided that the applicant has a citizenship certificate. But it is not happening,” Dalit right activist Raj Kumar Paswan said. He said that Dalit children are deprived of education, health, and child nutrition allowances. “Even after providing all the required documents, the ward secretary does not listen,” he said, suggesting that the government take a mobile unit to the village to resolve the problem.

Ram Lakhan Sah, ward secretary of Lahan-14, said the online system doesn’t accept the application if all the documents are not furnished. “But we are preparing to hold a public inquiry in the settlement to facilitate birth registration even if parents don’t have a citizenship certificate,” he added. “But it is becoming difficult to facilitate those who have already reached old age.”

Chairman of Ward-14, Dhanik Lal Yadav, said the ward office has directed the ward secretary to facilitate the birth registration process. “It’s the ward secretary’s prerogative. We have requested him to provide the necessary facilitation as per the existing laws,” Yadav said. “If needed, I will participate in the public inquiry to facilitate them.”

What’s in the law?

Birth registration is the first proof of a person’s existence in the state. Therefore, birth registration is the basic and solid evidence to create a legal identity of a person in the state. Article 39 (1) of the Constitution of Nepal states that “every child shall have the right to be named and registered with his/her own identity”. However, the children of the Musahar settlement haven’t been able to enjoy this fundamental right. The Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989, also states that the child shall be registered immediately after birth and shall have the right from birth to a name, the right to acquire a nationality, and, as far as possible, the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents. Similarly, Article 6 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948, states that everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.