Federalization and Democratization In Nepal

Federalization and Democratization In Nepal

Siddhi B Ranjitkar

Federalization and Democratization have been taking place in Nepal after the first-phase local election and the presentation of budget for the fiscal year 2017 (2074). The local elected officials have already smartly started of taking some actions to please voters but others have been interested in constructing office buildings for the local units, and purchasing cars for the elected officials. The history of the local elected Panchayat officials selling even pati-pauwa (hangout public structures), public ponds, and public land during the Panchayat period from 1960 to 1990 would not be repeated, as the free media, opposition parties, and independent judiciary would be effectively working at the local level, too.

The newly elected mayor of the Pokhara metropolitan city decided to add ten percent to the senior citizen allowance. The mayor must have done so in appreciation of the senior citizens voting for him. This might be the great achievement for the senior citizens that had been fighting for years for making the allowances for them to be at least NPR 5,000 per month so that they could have two square meals a day without depending on anybody. Currently, the senior citizen allowance is set at NPR 2,000 per month. It shows how the local elected officials are accountable to the common folks.

The newly elected mayor and deputy mayor of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City swept the streets on camera probably immediately after taking the oath of office, as they have been still wearing the auspicious scarf on their necks and red tika on their forehead. This might be the symbolic gesture of committing to clean up the Kathmandu City that has been living in the clouds of dust vehicles and occasionally the strong wind kicked up in the air. Poor traffic police have been always covered with dust. Motorcyclists have to drive in the clouds of dust. Pedestrians have to wear mouth masks to keep the dust away from their lungs. 

Some other recently local elected officials have been interested in constructing office buildings for the local units, and purchasing vehicles for them, Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya: Secretary to the Ministry for Federal Affairs and Local Development said while talking to the anchor of the Radio-Nepal Morning program called “antar-sambad” on June 3, 2017.

Any logical thinking folk would say that the local elected officials needed to construct health posts, health centers and schools rather than office buildings and purchasing cars so that the common folks would not need to walk for hours to have simple healthcare service, and children would not need to walk hours to reach schools. The local elected officials could use rented buildings or makeshift buildings to set up their offices.

Secretary Thapaliya also said that the local elected officials could increase the allowance to the senior citizens, they could construct the office buildings, and they also could buy cars and other vehicles as might be required for them from their own resources; that is fine, and there is nothing wrong in it.

However, the local elected officials could not spend even a single penny the federal government has granted to the local units on any of those things other than on those matters intended for, as the federal grants are for the specific purposes and specific projects and programs. So, they need to use the federal money for that stuff nothing else, Secretary Thapaliya said.

The Ministry for Federal Affairs and Local Development intends to construct a community building for the senior citizens to assemble and interact among them at every ward; to build a park for the senior citizens to walk around, and then rest in the fresh air at every ward, Secretary Thapaliya said.

The federal government has allocated more than 11 percent of the total budget to the local units. Finance Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara has committed to send the amount to the local governments as soon as the parliament passes the budget. However, the money would be for the specific purposes or projects or program at the local areas. So, the local elected officials could not spend the federal grant on any other purpose other than intended for, according to Secretary Thapaliya.

The news in “gorkhapatra” of June 3, 2017 stated that the process for amending the law has been started to transfer the cultural authority in addition to the political and economic authority to the local elected officials making the local units responsible for running the cultural events at the local level. The Guthi Samsthan Act is being amended to transfer the responsibility for running the festival of Rato Matsyendranath, Seto Matsyendranath, and the Bisket jatra in Bhaktapur to the respective local unit.

The transfer of the authority over the cultural activities to the local elected offices would insure the preservation of cultural and cultural heritages at the local level. Some of the cultural events have been either suspended or even disappeared due to the lack of resources, and the local people could not afford to run the festivals and other cultural events. For example, the Katik Nach: the famous annual dance performed in Patan had been suspended for several years; only recently, it has been revived partially. The Bhaktapur Nava Durga dance troupe has been facing the credit crunch to run the annual programs. The local units need to be responsible for preservation and continuation of such cultural heritage otherwise Nepalese would lose their identity.

Pati-pauwa (hangout public structures), chaitays (Buddhist shrines) and matha-mandir (religious homes and temples) have been gradually disappearing, as the resources from the land revenues have been drying up. These structures were not repaired and renovated because the land allocated to these structures have been either transfer to the Guthi Samsthan or to the individuals thus denying the much-needed revenue required for repair and maintenance.

Public stone water spouts, ponds and public open areas built for the community uses at the local level have been vanishing particularly in Bhaktapur. Some of the stone water spouts, and ponds have been disused and filled in, others were narrowed to small sizes. Probably, newly elected local officials would be concerned with such vanishing cultural heritages and revive them to the extent possible, as they would be responsible to do so and accountable to the local folks.

Some of these structures have been the victims of the road-widening programs. The Town Development Board has been aggressively pursuing the widening of the roads disregarding the preservation of the local cultural heritage, and the sufferings of the common folks. Most of the folks did not receive the compensation for the houses and land taken for the road widening because they had built the houses without the authorization from the municipality or encroaching the roads, according to the Town Development Board. Once, the authority to preserve these structures passed on to the local elected officials probably then, the local folks would receive the fair compensation for their houses and the land they had to give for the road widening. And then these remnants of cultural heritage might have new lives.

The period of Panchayat, King Mahendra introduce in 1962, had been the notorious period when the local elected officials called Panchas managed to sell Pati-pauwa (hangout public structures), and transfer the public land to the individuals. Probably, even the then kings must have done so otherwise how come King Birendra had so much of land elsewhere in Nepal as recently published in “Kantipur saptahik” of June 12, 2017. The then family rulers Ranas had managed to keep the Shah kings in poverty.

http://saptahik.ekantipur.com/news/2016-06-11/20160610155334.html

The kings and elected Panchas could misuse the national resources, as Nepal did not have the independent directly elected parliament, independent judiciary and the most important the free and independent media. So, the rulers could do whatever they would like to, and they did everything possible excessively keeping the common folks in destitute and poverty.

Today, Nepalese have been strong; they removed the despotic king; they have free media, independent judiciary, independent parliament and the government accountable to the people.

No elected officials whether they are at the local units or at provinces or at the federal government and parliament, would be able to escape from wrong doings. Nobody could do anything wrong without retribution. In addition, elected officials are directly accountable to the voters. Periodically, they have to go to the voters for getting fresh mandate to be in office.

If the government does something not exactly following the rules and regulations, then, the court immediately stops it. For example, recently, the government decided to increase the local units but the Supreme Court issued an interim order not to enforce the decision. This is not the first case and would not be the last one, too. Such things would continue in the future.

The opposition parties would be always vigilant, and would be seeking to find any clue for smacking down the officials in office. The opposition parties try to blow up even a minor mistake into a huge incident to seize the chance of discrediting the ruling party. For example, currently, CPN-UML: the opposition party in the parliament has been obstructing the regular proceedings of the parliament to force the coalition government to meet its demands for continuing the counting of ballots in Bharatpur Metropolitan City suspended due to some of the volunteers participating in the ballot counting tore up some ballots.

The “gorkhapatra” of June 3, 2017 published the news about the arrest of Director General of the Department of Internal Revenue: Chudamani Sharma from the office with his picture on the front page with the eye-catching headline. Commission on Investigation into Abuse of Authority (CIAA) arraigned Director General Sharma on June 2, 2017 on the charge of irregularities in setting the tax, and of some private companies were excessively exempted from the taxes they needed to pay.

Two former ministers had served jail terms for corruption and abuse of authority. CIAA filed the cases against them at the Special Court that had been set up for the fast track delivery of justice to the State criminals. Other State employees and officials of the State-owned corporations have served and some have been serving the jail term for the corruption and abuse of authority.

Such things could not be imagined during the Panchayat period. The Panchas, State employees, and surely the kings could not do wrong. They were kept clean no matter what dirty things they had done. Kings were even projected as the incarnation of Lord Vishnu. So, they were exempted from whatever sins they had committed including the killings of the opponents.

So, the local elected officials could not repeat the history of selling of Pati-pauwa (hangout public structures), and transferring the public land to the individuals, as the opposition parties would be watching the officials, and also the local folks would be monitoring the activities of the elected officials. In addition, the independent judiciary, and the free media would be working at the local level, too. So, the political situation has been drastically different from what used to be at the time of the monarchical rule in the past. The local folks have been powerful unlike at the time of the royal rule when the common folks were repressed to the extent possible, and everything was done to the interest of the royals and their servants.

June 3, 2017