Rs 100,000 a month in car rentals

 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.