The Madhes-based parties have refused to take ownership of the works being carried out by the Local Level Restructuring Commission (LLRC), saying that the government should first agree to revise criteria to determine the number of local units. 

The agitating parties have been boycotting the discussions called by district wings of the LLRC, arguing that they were never consulted on such an important issue. 

On Saturday, cadres of the Samyukta Loktantrik Madhesi Morcha (SLMM), an alliance of seven Madhes-based parties, disrupted a meeting on restructuring in Saptari. 

The LLRC is yet to start work in several Tarai districts, including the eight districts of Province No. 2 even as the extended deadline of the district level technical committees to submit their report expired on Saturday.   

“We don’t recognise the legitimacy of the LLRC or its works. The disputed issues of the constitution should be resolved first before working on local level restructuring,” said Sadbhawana Party Chairman Rajendra Mahato, adding that the regional parties will boycott elections if they are held under the existing circumstances. 

He accused the government of taking forward works on the restructuring despite Morcha’s repeated requests to postpone them until there was a deal on redrawing of provincial boundaries. 

Mahato told the Post that local level restructuring was a political matter and that it should be resolved accordingly.

Madhes-based parties have particularly objected to the criteria set for the LLRC to fix the boundaries and number of local units. 

They claim that the current set of criteria seeks to disenfranchise Madhesi population and insist that the population should be the sole basis for determining the number of local unit in the Madhes region. 

According to existing criteria, there would be a minimum of 507 to a maximum of 744 village and municipal councils across the country. The LLRC has also fixed the ceiling for each district. 

Under the existing criteria, there will be around 219 local units in Madhes. 

Madhes-based parties insist that there should be no less than 300 local units in Madhes taking into account the density of the population. 

“But that alone is not our concern. We believe that the boundaries of the federal units should be determined first before determining the boundaries of local units,” said a Morcha leader, adding that the disputes over the local level restructuring should be resolved along with other contentious issues.