Chiefs of local governments who don’t have a majority in the executive council of the municipality or rural municipality find it difficult to steer the local council. Stories from Gauradaha and Gauriganj in Jhapa, Urlabari in Morang, Phatuwa Bijaypur in Rautahat and Bahrabise in Sindhupalchok
Chiranjibi Ghimire: Centre for Investigative Journalism-Nepal
Gauradaha: Deputy mayor reigns supreme
At the executive council meeting of Gauradaha Municipality in Jhapa, Mayor Rohit Kumar Sah tabled more than a dozen proposals on November 19, 2018. A majority of elected representatives including Deputy Mayor Gita Bhetwal expressed their disagreements with the proposals. Sah then put the meeting on hold. Another meeting of a majority members chaired by Bhetwal immediately afterwards decided to table the authorization procedure of the executive council’s decisions, orders and charter of rights and the meeting procedure at the municipal assembly.
The decision on authorization procedure stated that the deputy mayor would validate the decisions and orders if the mayor did not authorize them within three days. Provisions of the authorization procedure decided by the majority of the executive council contradict the Local Government Operation Act-2017. The Act has it that the deputy mayor can be the acting mayor if the local government chief is absent for more than a week. Because of this dispute, the decisions were not tabled at the town assembly.
Following continued disagreement, the municipal assembly made a deal in Gauradaha on January 19, 2019 about the acting chief of local government authorizing decisions in the absence of mayor if she or he did not do so within 15 days. “The mayor is an executive post but the majority was used in an attempt to make it ceremonial,” said Mayor Sah. “The working procedure has sought to curtail the executive mayor’s powers.”
Sah won the mayor election for the Nepali Congress. The local federal unit has a majority of Nepali Communist Party (NCP) office bearers including Deputy Mayor Bhetwal. Sah complains that even the employees don’t take him seriously. “I usually don’t know where the staff members go,” said Sah.
Deputy Mayor Bhetwal alleges that the chief has a monopoly over the municipal affairs even if her party has a majority. “The mandatory monthly meeting of the executive council also takes place only because of our pressure. The mayor is often not found in office. The employees are also not happy with him,” said Bhetwal.
The majority-minority row affected development works in Gauradaha. The municipality had received Rs 5 million through the District Coordination Committee for drinking water supply. As the mayor had been preparing to form a consumer committee to execute the project, supporters of the deputy mayor formed the committee before Sah could do so. Work is going on there now despite the mayor’s disagreement.
Balaram Kharel, chairman of the ward where the water supply system is being built, claimed that all the works were guided by rules. “Work began after forming the consumer committee according to the rules. The mayor was away for training when we formed the committee. So all the tasks were done in the presence of the deputy mayor,” he said.
Kharel alleges that the mayor’s dissatisfaction is about his failure to assign the works to his men. “The District Coordination Committee also directed us to do works after forming the consumer committee. The mayor expressed dissatisfaction since he could not award the tender to his people,” said Kharel.
Due to the dispute between the mayor and his deputy, payment has not been made for the iron bridge over Geuriya Khola that connects wards 1, 3 and 4 of Gauradaha. The municipality owes more than one million rupees to contractor Yubaraj Banstola, who built the bridge.
He has also not received Rs 700,000 for constructing gabion walls to check soil erosion by the Kisne, Sukuna and Geuriya streams in Gauradaha-7 and Rs 150,000 for building the road to Masanghat in the municipality. “The works were completed one year ago but the budget has not been released yet. I haven’t been able to pay workers and the dealers for cement, sand and boulders,” said Banstola.
Taking benefits from the dispute in the local government leadership, the chief administrative officer often remains outside his office. As a result, contractors who have completed works were not paid. “Usually, the mayor, deputy mayor and staff are not available. Even if they are around, they present excuses that the process is going on,” said Banstola.
Purna Bahadur Karki of Gauradaha-3 said the local residents have been denied effective service delivery due to the political dispute. “People have been troubled by the dispute between the mayor and deputy mayor. People said Singha Durbar had come to the villages but it is far from us,” Karki said. “At the municipality, mayor and deputy mayor have their own staff. They don’t know who does what. When we go to the office, staff and elected officials don’t like our presence.”
Gauriganj can’t spend
Baburaj Shrestha of Rastriya Prajatantra Party was elected chairman of Gauriganj Rural Municipality in Jhapa. But Nepali Congress members command a majority in the executive council and the village assembly together with the vice-chairperson. In the initial days, the Congress-elected representatives and the chairman had a conflicting relationship. Accusing the chairman of not involving the Congress party in forming the educational, fiscal and social committees, among others, the party commanding the majority warned of boycotting the village assembly.
The village assembly slated to be held at the start of the new fiscal year in 2017 was delayed by six months. The failure to hold the assembly on time affected development works and service delivery in the fiscal year 2017-18. According to Chairman Shrestha, only Rs 70 million was spent in the local federal unit in the fiscal year. “The fight between us over authority is the main reason. They argue that the decision taken by a majority should be accepted by all. I call for unanimous decisions involving the chairman rather than majority and minority,” Shrestha said. Since he is in a minority, Shrestha mostly entrusts ward chairpersons with development works and powers. “Representatives of the party commanding a majority show pride obviously. Therefore, there is the need to devolve some power to the lower level too,” he added.
Ward 6 Chairman Badri Narayan Yadav, who won the election on a Nepali Congress ticket, said problems were seen immediately after the election due to misunderstanding but there was no dispute anymore. “First, there was no chance of understanding between him [chairman] and us. There was dispute in thematic committees too but the dispute was resolved later.”
Phatuwa Bijaypur: Cash is king
Phatuwa Bijaypur Municipality in Rautahat was long embroiled in disputes over minority and majority. Mayor Gopal Raj Yadav, a Nepali Congress member, is in a minority. Kanta Devi, the deputy mayor elected on the erstwhile Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) quota, commands a majority in the municipal council. Mayor Yadav says that development works have been obstructed in the municipality due to the problems created by a majority of elected office-bearers.
The mayor alleges that parliamentarian and Nepal Communist Party (NCP) member Prabhu Sah has mobilised people’s representatives from his party to create troubles in the local government. “His [Sah’s] party runs the government at the Centre. He transferred the chief administrative officers frequently as he did not like them. The meeting was held only after Ranjana Sah, who is close to him, was given the officer’s responsibility,” said Yadav.
The dispute in Phatuwa Bijaypur was settled after collaboration in the budget. Following an agreement to assign a 20 million rupee project to the deputy mayor, not only was the stalled municipal assembly held, other pending works of the municipality were also done. Mayor Yadav says: “I kept with me projects worth Rs 30 million. She [deputy mayor] was given projects worth Rs 20 million. There was simply no option since the work was stalled,” said Yadav.
Deputy Mayor Devi admitted that all the problems had been resolved. “In order to fulfill my electoral promises, I kept with me projects worth Rs 20 million,” said Devi.
Barhabise: The tool of boycott
Nimphunjo Shrepa and Sushila Pakhrin of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) are the mayor and deputy mayor respectively of Barhabise Municipality in Sindhupalchok. But the Nepali Congress holds majorities in the executive council and the municipal assembly. Partisan conflict is rife here too. Mayor Shrepa, who is in a minority, experiences problems in executing works also due to the role of Mohan Bahadur Basnet, who represents the town in the Nepali Congress central committee as its member.
On June 30, 2018, the municipal assembly unanimously passed the rules, working procedures and directives necessary for the local unit. But the Congress representatives objected to the decision soon afterwards saying that the mayor had tricked them into passing them. On that issue, they also boycotted the meetings of the executive council repeatedly.
Approved by the municipal assembly, the grant and financial assistance directive stated that all types of grant would be disbursed only by endorsement through a full majority of the executive council while the Market Monitoring Directive-2018 provisioned that the coordinator of the Consumer Welfare Protection Committee had to be designated by a majority of the executive council. Putting forth these demands, the Congress boycotted the fourth municipal assembly announced for February 10, 2019.
While the staff did not get salary and development works were stalled as a result, the Congress party agreed to hold the municipal assembly on March 15. “We let the municipal assembly convene following assurances of the municipality of amending the working procedure as per our demand,” Gyanendra Shrestha, who was elected the ward 4 chairman on a Nepali Congress ticket.
Mayor Sherpa, however, said he had made no any assurances. “We have formulated our rules and working procedures according to the Local Government Operation Act. They tried to weaken the mayor by stripping him of his powers,” he said.
Urlabari: Proposals don’t pass
Congress leader Khadga Phago was elected the mayor of Urlabari Municipality in Morang. However, the erstwhile CPN-UML holds a majority in the local federal unit. Since he is in a minority, Phago has failed in the past seven months to pass from the executive council meeting programmes on sports, capacity development of journalists, and upliftment of indigenous communities, among others.
Mayor Phago has the bitter experience of development works and service delivery facing several problems due to the conflict of minority and majority. “Even as development works are essential, plans of lesser importance get priority for want of majority approval,” he said.
Deputy Mayor Laxmi Devi Bhandari complains that problems were created in the municipality since the mayor tried to ignore the majority. “How will the working procedure favouring oneself pass? He doesn’t respect the majority. He has a tendency to not take others into account. When he’s told to accommodate all, he complains that he was cornered by the majority,” said Bhandari.
Since the local governments carry the legacy of the central government in Kathmandu, which functions according to the parliamentary majority-minority equation, they are not free of disputes. Pitambar Sharma, an expert on federalism, says: “Party politics of the centre reflects on the provincial and local levels. Even if the country exercises federalism, provincial and local governments look unitary. The spirit of federalism was not followed.”
The mother parties of the local people’s representatives have not taught them the techniques of running the local federal units. Federal procedures have not been followed as the elected officials act upon their knowledge and learning. Dr Shyam Bhurtel, an expert on federal affairs, says: “Disputes are everywhere at the local level. Disagreements persist even within a party but they don’t come out in the fear of consequences.”
According to Bhurtel, such disputes are based on the fight for rights while at places problems are created as a political party flaunts its majority. “There is no option, however, for the chief to working in consensus where their party holds no majority,” he said.
The federal government has also not assisted the people’s representatives in working free of the majority-minority issue. This has added to the local leaders’ confusion. Secretary at the Federal Affairs and General Administration Ministry Yadav Koirala says the disputes over strength came due to the lack of legal knowledge among the local government office-bearers. “The law does not pit local people’s representatives as ruling and opposition. All the locally elected officials exercise power.”
