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Local governance is not only the devolution of electoral representation to the grassroots but also the cornerstone of a functioning democracy. As opposed to provincial and central governments, local governments recognize local issues that are addressed at the local level.

Local governance embodies the true spirit of federalism, for it deals with socio-economic problems, including urban and rural civic facilities, with an active participation of commoners. In fact, local governments are key players of service delivery and the adjudicator of local disputes. From maintaining the natural environment to waste management to registering individuals’ life events like birth, death, marriage, we see the presence and importance of local bodies everywhere.

Legal mandates

As local governments are critical for a democracy to thrive, the Constitution of Nepal recognizes this institution under Part-17. Article 214 envisages vesting local executives with executive powers of the local government while Article 217 deals with Judicial Committees empowered to settle disputes by way of alternate dispute resolution at the local level. The Local Government Operation Act, 2074 BS (2017) under Section 47(1) empowers the Judicial Committees to dispense as many as 13 types of disputes, including that of petitions regarding non-payment of daily wages, matrimonial disputes and trespassing. Section 27 of the Act, 2074 lays down a solemn duty on every person to get a proposed design (map) of the house passed from the concerned local body before its construction. Section 37 confers power on local bodies to take action against the person constructing a permanent structure without taking approval for a proposed design. These legal mandates are sufficient to conclude that local governments have a huge legal mandate and they are the lifeline of Nepal’s federal democracy.

The municipality’s development efforts, as articulated by the laws, need to be modified in the light of new realities. The legal mandate has to be acknowledged in a true and material sense.

For instance, the Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2018 vests local bodies with a responsibility to ensure that parents send their wards to school. Kids can hardly get an education if their guardians don’t have a job and sufficient means of livelihood. Our constitution, under Article 33, guarantees the right to employment to every citizen as a matter of fundamental right. Yet, our youths are toiling abroad for a ‘better future’.

As per the mandate of the Right to Employment Act, 2075 BS, local bodies are required to prepare a list of unemployed youths. The Employment Service Center (ESC), formed by the Government of Nepal, is given the authority under Section 11(2) of the Right to Employment Act to compile a list of “actual” jobless people from the list of all applicants and provide them temporary jobs. Details like when and for how long the applicants will be hired are not specified in the Act.

According to Section 11(3) of the Employment Act, ESC must also submit its reports to the provincial government. Section 10(2) states that the ESC will act with the help and advice of the central government. As a result, the central government has a lot of discretionary power to give shape to the employment policy. This goes against the federal fabrics. The central government’s myopic vision is to blame for non-enforcement of this law.

There is nothing to put a stop on the outmigration of workers. Our youths are toiling in the Gulf for a better income. Due to extreme temperatures in the Gulf countries, they suffer from different diseases. At old age, they have no option but to spend the rest of their hard-earned money on treatment and become poor, once again. 

Job creation is the only solution to unemployment problems. Our education system should be updated in the light of changing realities to produce human resources compatible with the job market.  

Even praiseworthy legal mandates will continue to fall short unless they are implemented in a true and objective manner. Take an example of Janakpur, an ancient place with the legacies of Mithila’s capital city and the birthplace of great philosophers like Gargi and Yajnavalkya. But pollution in the capital city of Madhes Province often upsets the people and this unpleasant atmosphere is causing harm to its identity as a great place of historical significance.

Local government’s efforts to make Janakpurdham a cleaner and greener place will be in vain unless local communities support the efforts. As a first step toward restoring the glory of Janakpur, tourist attractions like Janaki Temple, Ram Temple, 12-Bigha, Rajdevi Mai Temple and religious ponds should be cleaned up. A ban on public and private vehicles may be imposed in and around historic places to curb pollution and maintain their beauty. Janakpur Municipality can take a leaf from Kathmandu Metropolitan City, which has imposed a ban on the use of public and private vehicles at historic places like Hanumandhoka and Basantpur.  

Take an example of waste management. The local government of Janakpur has deployed its staff to broom, pick up the wastes and keep the streets clean. Because of their active role, Janakpur appears a bit cleaner. In the early morning, streets appear cleaner but after 10 AM, it’s a different story. The shopkeepers, hotels, and even local people have developed a tendency of throwing garbage and solid wastes on the streets. They believe that their duty ends up with maintaining cleanliness of their respective places/residences. Feast and function organizers are no different. They splurge on feasts, but don’t spend much on waste management. Government and private hospitals also do not care much about waste management. Given this situation, we need joint cooperation from every walk of life to fight against environmental menace and to launch a cleanliness drive in Janakpurdham.

For proper management of unattended cows, of which the streets of Janakpurdham had no dearth, the municipality has developed a “Gaushala”. Other local units can replicate this practice. In addition, the municipality has developed a parking place and a stadium. These attempts of the municipality are indeed praiseworthy.

The way forward

A nationwide effort is a must to strengthen the local governance system for promoting social harmony, fostering the concept of welfare state and speeding up local development. Sustainable development goals like quality education, clean water and sanitation, gender equality, and sustainable cities and communities will remain on paper unless we succeed in translating legal mandates into reality. It’s high time we lived up to people’s expectations. Our laws should be implemented in letter and spirit for the cause of local governance and federal democracy. 

After the restoration of democracy in 1990, investigating corruption scandals and major crimes through high-level probe panels has been a recurrent practice in Nepal. These panels have ostensibly yielded reports advising government action, yet these documents have largely remained hidden from the public eye, and their recommendations conspicuously unheeded.

In some disconcerting instances, these very panels have appeared to function as protective shields for high-profile individuals entangled in corruption and other ignoble scandals.

This prompts a glaring question: why form such so-called high level probe commission and to what end? Also, what is the point of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), the constitutionally mandated body meant for probing corruption cases?

On Wednesday, political parties represented in the Federal Parliament decided to form yet another high-level panel, this time to investigate all known and unknown gold smuggling incidents. The decision is connected with the gold trafficking incident that took place via Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu last month. 

The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police is tasked with the investigation of the case, but the main opposition, CPN-UML, looks askance, insisting on a separate high level commission for a fair inquest. The party resorted to obstructing the parliamentary proceedings to press its demand, and the ruling coalition parties led by CPN (Maoist Center) eventually relented.     

Prominent legal figure and former Supreme Court Justice Balaram KC has emphatically criticized this cross-party consensus, deeming it a grievous misstep that threatens to establish a harmful precedent. He says formation of a high level probe commission must be reserved in the case of an unprecedented and complex incident. “Gold smuggling is not a new event in the annals of crime that have taken place in Nepal.”

KC fears that this approach of forming high level probe commissions might be applied to even minor issues in the future. And since this time-honored practice has repeatedly failed, he casts doubt on the prospects of this fresh commission diverging from its predecessors.

The latest agreement to create a new commission comes with the appointment of a sitting judge to lead the inquiry. The commission, formed under the legal purview of the Commissions of Inquiry Act of 1969, is slated to commence its operations on 22nd September.

Section 3 (3) of the Commissions of Inquiry Act provisions that the Judicial Council will recommend a sitting justice to lead the commission. Section 4 of the Act elaborates on the commission's functions, duties, and powers. 

As per the Act, the commission can be given more authority if required. According to Section 5 (a), if the commission has reasonable grounds to believe that any item or document pertinent to the investigation is in possession of a person or situated in a specific place, it can conduct searches, adhering to prevailing laws. The commission can authorize a gazetted officer to execute searches and, if located, seize relevant items or documents, or procure full or partial copies of such documents.

The commission also holds the prerogative to penalize non-compliance with its directives or extend clemency.  Notably, the commission's mandate pertains not only to gold smuggling through Kathmandu airport but also encompasses a separate case involving the illicit transportation of gold concealed within e-cigarettes. In the latter case, former Home Minister and Vice-chairman of CPN (Maoist Center), Krishna Bahadur Mahara, and his son Rahul have been implicated. It was revealed in the investigation carried out by the CIB of Nepal Police that the father-son duo had repeatedly held telephone conversations and met the Chinese national involved in gold smuggling.

The formation of this commission, operating under the imprimatur of the Commissions of Inquiry Act, vests it with considerable jurisdiction. Beyond influencing policy matters, the commission possesses authority to conduct rigorous investigations, encompassing inquiries, depositions, and searches relating to gold smuggling offenses. Earlier, the ruling parties, particularly the Maoist Center, was reluctant to form the inquiry commission, fearing its authority to summon even high-ranking officials, including the prime minister and ministers, for statements.

The Maoist-led coalition government had to acquiesce to the demand for a powerful commission to probe the gold smuggling case, after the opposition UML and primary coalition partner, Nepali Congress, pressed Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal. 

UML and Congress are not pleased with the arrest of their senior leaders and former ministers—Top Bahadur Rayamahi and Bal Krishna Khand respectively—in connection to another case. Now with one of the Maoist senior leaders implicated in the gold smuggling incident, UML and Congress want the prime minister to take strong action, even if that means arresting his own party leader.  

These developments have also engendered a palpable schism between the coalition partners Maoists and Congress. However, skeptics argue that the latest commission formed to investigate the gold smuggling incident will not bear any fruit. As history has borne witness, a litany of investigative commissions has been convened to scrutinize diverse incidents and irregularities, without any action.

These encompass tragic occurrences like the Dasdhunga accident and the Royal Palace massacre, as well as inquiries into procurement discrepancies, medical supply mismanagement, land allocation issues, and the procurement of wide-body aircraft. Despite the painstaking efforts of such commissions, the ultimate fate of their reports has invariably been obscurity.

However, retired police officer Hemanta Malla Thakuri contends that the prudent course would be to constitute high-level panels following the culmination of Nepal Police investigations. 

“While police investigations are primarily concerned with criminal dimensions, multifarious bureaucratic and political intricacies necessitate a broader investigative ambit,” he says.

Major political parties have led a number of movements for the establishment and re-establishment of democracy in a space of eight decades. Successive generations of Nepalis have taken part in these movements, offering blood, sweat, toil and tears in their perennial struggle for cherished ideals like democracy, human dignity, the rule of law and good governance. 

Despite waves of change, popular aspirations have remained unrealized, by and large, with the leaders behind these waves of change themselves grossly misusing the organs of the state to fulfill their vested interests. 

Every now and then, the top brass of the big parties remind the public of their struggle against tyranny, including years spent behind bars and torture meted out against them, forgetting completely that one cannot live on their past laurels forever.
But the people often find in the statements and acts of their erstwhile heroes tell-tale signs of dictators donning the garb of democracy. 

Their deepening impression is that the more things change, the more they remain the same—in Nepal. 

Democracy is a culture and a way of life. Who knows this better than the leaders at the forefront of democratic movements?  

But then how many of our ‘champions of democracy’ have been living by their ideals after their victory against tyranny? Select figures of the big parties, for example, have been holding leadership positions for decades on end instead of making way for transfer of power by grooming their successors. Granted that transfer of power to the younger generation was easier said than done during the decade-long insurgency and the royal rule with democratic processes largely on hold. 

But even in the post-conflict scenario, practices aimed at promoting democracy within the respective parties continue to be a rarity.    

Such is the situation that the parties do not even bother to hold their central committee meetings, leave alone general conventions and policy conventions. That’s why, a party holding a meeting becomes big news and so does another party planning its jamboree, in a democracy! 

Having helmed party leadership positions for decades and discharged their duties as the chief executive of the country, it’s time our seasoned politicians did some serious soul-searching and started adopting democracy as a way of life. 

Freeing themselves from the coteries of their kith and kin can help boost internal democracy and so can regular party meetings. 

It’s time for our leaders to practice what they preach, if they really want to protect democracy from the specter of autocracy.