Amid reservation from officials, the Department of Education has deputed officers to more than half of the total number of local federal units in all the provinces.

The department has transferred gazetted third class officers to 391 rural municipalities, municipalities and sub-metropolitan cities across the countries, even in the districts of Province 2 where the elections are being held next week. There are a total of 753 local units across the country. The officials will lead the education unit in the rural municipalities while under-secretaries will head the unit in municipalities, sub-metropolitan cities and metropolises.

The Ministry of Education, which mobilises staffers above section officers has deputed 76 under-secretaries so far. But many of them have yet to reach the field, expressing their displeasure at having to work under junior officials from the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development as MoFALD officials head bureaucrats at the local bodies. The 484 under-secretaries from the Education Ministry have voiced opposition to the decision.

“The listed [391] staffers will have to work in their assigned areas unless another decision is made,” reads the notice issued by the Education Department. They will be paid from the respective local bodies. The Education Ministry will make the final deployment after the Act on management of government officials comes into effect. Its bill is under consideration in the State Affairs Committee of Parliament. The House Committee is preparing to finalise the bill within a week and table it in Parliament for endorsement on September 19. The Local Level Restructuring Commission has proposed 70 officials in each local unit on an average led by either an under-secretary or a section officer in rural municipalities, under-secretary in municipalities and sub-metropolitan cities, and joint-secretary in the metropolises.

Among the 83,200 civil servants, some 40 percent will be sent to the local level. Records at the Ministry of General Administration show that hardly 581 gazetted staffers have been sent to the local governments.