At a time when local bodies have come under criticism for failing to solve local problems, there are a few shining examples of how good governance can be delivered.
-Rudra Pangeni : Centre for Investigative Journalism-Nepal
It’s been a year since local elections were held in all 6 provinces except province 2. In the past one year, media have been awash with reports of local representatives being embroiled in disputes, abusing power, engaging in corruption and their offices out of order. In the midst of negative news from local bodies across the country and despite inexperience in public offices as well as lack of staff, there are silver linings in the dark clouds.
No more pension scams
It may be hard to believe, but until a year ago, the civil servants of Kshireshwar Municipality in Dhanusha district stole the old age allowances of people no longer alive. Despite their death, the elderly remained listed as beneficiaries of the allowance because their family members failed to register the death. The civil servants swindled the old age allowances. They routinely took the allowances meant for elderly people who had already died.
The family members began registering the elderly death after the municipality offered 10,000 rupees for last rites. After this initiative, the municipality saved 10 million rupees, the expense which would have gone under old age allowance. In the current fiscal year, the municipality has spent 50 million rupees for social security.
Yogendra Pajiyar, the mayor of Kshireshwar Municipality, said, “Last year, we decided to provide 10,000 rupees for last rites to the family who have lost their elderly member. Since then, there has been an uptick in registration of deaths. It has prevented the scam, in which staff took the pensions.” After the local representatives started their work, irregularities surrounding allowances have lessened. The local bodies have also been able to save the amount, thanks to the initiative.
Other local bodies have also cracked down on corruption related to old age allowance. Nawarajpur Rural Municipality of Siraha has saved 4 million rupees from old age allowance, according to Bishwa Mohan Yadav, the chairman. This is possible after officials delisted the beneficiaries after their death.
English classes
Across rural areas, there are only a few English-medium schools. Even those remain far from settlements. But parents want to send their kids to English-medium schools. Many left villages after finding it hard to enroll their kids to English-medium schools. When a growing number of parents began to leave the village, Phalebas Municipality in Parbat district was confronted with the challenge of preventing the mass migration.
“Parents want to send their children to English-medium school, but we didn’t have it here. The village’s population started to shrink because of that. So we have started to teach students in English,” said Padma Mani Sharma, the mayor. In order to prevent migration, local officials ordered 57 schools in the municipality to teach grade-one students in English. The municipality has provided 283 primary teachers with a four-month training to tackle the problem. They received training from teachers of higher secondary schools. After the training, those who passed basic English exam were allowed to teach English. Those who failed the exams were required to join the training again.
Many families have migrated to Kathmandu, Pokhara and towns of the district, where their children can study at English-medium schools, said mayor Sharma. English should be taught up to higher secondary level to prevent families from migrating to other places, according to him. “We are considering implementation of this at upper classes as well,” he said.
Balananda Sharma, the chairman of Local Level Restructuring Commission, said Phalebas Municipality’s initiative was an example of how local bodies can solve problems using their own resources. “When local bodies were vacant, their problems remained unaddressed. But now they are turning to issues that the federal government could not pay attention to,” he said.
Promoting businesses
The Youth Self Employment Programme initiated by the federal government hasn’t been effective. But two municipalities—Galyang Municipality of Syangja district and Devghat Rural Municipality of Tanahu—have shown the possibility. They have initiated ‘business promotion program’ to increase agricultural production. They have provided loan to farmers who are wary of high interest rates from banks and cooperatives. This scheme now helps farmers increase production in agri-businesses such as milk, vegetable farming, lemon and orange orchards.
Thamsara Pun Magar, the chairwoman of Dhualagiri Rural Municipality, inaugurating the 102-metre bridge over the Myagdi River on June 27, 2018. (Photo courtesy: Dhaulagiri Rural Municipality)
Galyang Municipality has issued loan to livestock farmers to buy buffalo for milk at 5 percent interest with 4 percent subsidy in interest from Small Farmer’s Cooperative. A decade ago, the Municipality was famed for milk production, but it had declined over the years. The Municipality has promoted milk production by prioritizing the business.
The Municipality has made the livestock insurance free for farmers. Last year, it bought a chilling vat machine to check the quality of milk in 6 million rupees. “This year, we have allocated 8 million rupees to promote milk production. And, that aside from the subsidy on interest,” Bhupraj Adhikari, the mayor, said. For every purchase of an improved breed of buffalo, the Municipality will provide a subsidy of 20,000 rupees to the farmers, he said.
Devghat Rural Municipality has set up a seed money fund of 5 million rupees to provide farmers loans with low interest to promote milk production. The Municipality plans to provide loans between 30,000 rupees and 2 lakh rupees for businesses that generate self-employment. The interest on loan is 6 percent, the cheapest. Three years ago, big farmers had benefited from the federal government’s scheme to provide 6 percent subsidy on interest, but smallholders were deprived of it because banks were not interested in issuing loans to them.
“Since last year, we have trained 300 youths on how to make business plans. We provide people selected from the program with training and loan for livestock farming, vegetable farming, orange and lemon orchards,” said Durga Bahadur Thapa, the chairman. He said his office had provided a 2 lakh-rupee subsidy to a dairy run by a cooperative and 50 percent subsidy on seedlings of orange and lemon. The scheme is ongoing.
Reform of government schools
Like government schools across the country, the quality of education at schools in Hariwan of Sarlahi had deteriorated. Teachers didn’t regularly attend classes. Those who showed up were often late. The schools rarely conducted all the classes. The management was in disarray. As a result of this, parents and students had negative views about the government schools.
But now things have changed. Teachers reach all 20 schools on time. In Mid-April, the Municipality installed an electronic attendance machine to ensure teachers’ attendance. They are paid based on their attendance. As a result of this, attendance is regular. After this initiative, the schools education significantly improved, which made parents happy.
“We have revived the faith on the school, which we had lost earlier,” said Mayor Ganesh Prasai. “We have demonstrated that even government schools can be good enough.” Mayor Prasai is leading a campaign to improve education at government schools. Teachers are working together with parents to improve schools’ management and education system. With Municipality turning its attention to schools, teachers have also been encouraged to perform their job well. The campaign also covers maintaining cleanliness at school and set up a small garden at its premises. At least one fan has been installed in every room.
At a time when schools elsewhere suffer from low attendance, it was different in Hariwan, there’s a 15 percent increase in students’ enrollment. Even those who enrolled private schools following the deterioration of education at government schools have now returned. For example, a total of 21 additional students including those transferred from private schools enrolled at Deurali Primary School in Hariwan Municipality-9. Twelve students who enrolled at preprimary level had also previously attended private schools, according to Principal Yamanath Uprety. “The new leadership at local level has not only boosted the teachers’ willpower, it has also helped improve the school through monitoring and managing resources,” he said.
Four bridges in one year
In September 2015, Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli announced plans to replace ropeway crossings across the country in two years. It’s been six months since Oli became prime minister for the second time, but people in remote areas still make the perilous journey through temporary river crossings, dilapidated bridges and ropeway crossing called tuin in Nepal.
In Dhaulagiri Rural Municipality of Myagdi district, people were forced to cross the rivers using ropeway crossings and dilapidated bridges. People had to cross flooded rivers on foot. In less than a year after local level election, local officials of Dhaulagiri built four bridges including a truss bridge, two suspension bridges and a temporary motorable bridge. Since June, people of Dhaulagiri use a 102-metre suspension bridge to cross the Myagdi River at Jeltungghat.
Prior to that, the bridge over Myagdi River was dilapidated. People of Simkosh and Bagar were forced to take risk while using the bridge to reach the office of rural municipality. A flood had swept away another bridge last year. Since then, locals had faced trouble crossing the river. After the bridge was destroyed, the villagers of Simkosh had walked for 5 days through a circuitous road and complained at the office a year ago.
“The area where they came from didn’t even have a mobile coverage. They had suffered a lot. We started building the bridge following their complaint,” said Thamsara Pun, chairwoman of the rural municipality. The bridge was built with technical and financial aid from Swiss government. The total cost was 4.31 million rupees. The rural municipality spent nine hundred thousand rupees and the local contributed their labor.
An 18 meter motorable bridge connecting Dhaulagiri with Malika Rural Municipality came into operation in June. With this, nearly half of the district has been connected with roads. The rural municipality had funded for the bridge, whose cost was 3.58 million rupees.
Other projects include 32 meter truss bridge over Kharikhola and a suspension bridge over Darkhola at ward no 2. The Swiss government had supported for the construction of the two bridges, with the rural municipality providing matching funds.
