The Local Level Restructuring Commission (LLRC) has ruled out any revision in the report it submitted to the government on January 6 and told a ministerial taskforce that it “can go ahead as it wishes”.

Implementation of the restructuring report is a must for holding local level elections that are set for May 14.

The catch is: A few tweaks to the report by the government on its own could invite legal complexities, and the report in its current form is opposed by the Madhes-based parties.

Following objection from the Madhes-based parties, the ministerial taskforce formed on February 2 recommended an increase in number of local units in eight districts of Province 2. But to increase the number of local units—719 village and municipal councils have been proposed in the restructuring report—the recommendation has to be sent to the LLRC for approval.

But LLRC officials say the commission is in no mood to revise its report. They are learnt to have told the taskforce led by Minister for Federal Affairs and Local Development Hitraj Pandey that “it can decide on its own”

The government on Monday had given the taskforce a week to revise the report, increasing the number of local units in Province 2. According to Dormani Poudel, an LLRC member, the commission has clearly communicated that it won’t support any revision to the report. “How can the taskforce add more local units in Province 2 without revising the criteria?” he wondered. “The government has to legally justify even if one local unit is added.”

Of the 719 local units proposed by the LLRC, 34 percent fall in the Tarai region. Even if the number of local units is increased, only 25 can be added, as the LLRC had earlier fixed the ceiling at 744.

The Madhes-based parties have been demanding at least 45 percent of total local units in the Tarai-Madhes region where around 51 percent of the country’s population resides.