Kamal Bahadur Rana of Tule in Chingad Rural Municipality-3, Surkhet, has to go to the local unit’s administrative centre in Awalching for various works. He should walk for about seven hours to reach the administrative centre and takes almost as much time to return home. Kamal, who was treasurer of Satejara Drinking Water Project’s consumers’ committee, visited Awalching 10 times last year.

“If we set off for the administrative centre at 5 am, we would reach there only around noon. And it is almost impossible to return home after completing work the same day,” said Kamal, complaining that the administrative centre is not somewhere that is accessible to everyone in the local bodies due to political wrangling among the elected people’s representatives.

It takes nearly seven hours for Gobinda BK of Batasal in Chingad-5 to reach the administrative centre. “We need to go to the centre occasionally for one or another work. There is no alternative to stay in the area while visiting Awalching,” Gobinda said. According to him, the locals of Daha, Chyarkule, Pakhapani, Gogane, Lawan, Rajena, Kaule, Kotila, Parilekh and Rahakul, among other villages of Chingad Rural Municipality, have to walk for hours to reach the administrative centre.

Awalching is the temporary administrative area of Chingad Rural Municipality and the centre is not at the accessible places for all the wards. The local unit has not yet designated the administrative centre even after six years of the formation of the rural municipality.

The villagers complained that the issue of the administrative centre could not be resolved so far due to the political interests of the people’s representatives. “The administrative centre is yet to be designated. The local people have to pay the price for the disputes and responsibilities of the people’s representatives,” said Rom Bahadur Rokaya of Chingad-3.

The Nepali Congress had a clear majority in the rural municipality during local elections in 2017. The then chairman of Chingad Dev Bahadur Chand had announced Awalching as the permanent administrative centre of the rural municipality based on the majority. However, the then vice-chairperson Manamaya Acharya challenged the decision in the court. The case is pending in the High Court in Surkhet.

The construction of the administrative building and other structures has been halted due to the issue of the administrative centre. “The issue of the administrative centre will be resolved by the court. Around Rs50 million meant to construct administrative buildings have been frozen as of now,” said Bodha Bikram GC, the chairman of Chingad Rural Municipality.

Day-to-day administrative as well as development works have been greatly affected due to the dispute over the administrative centre. When the country switched to federalism, most political parties and their local leaders rode on the talks of transfer of power from Singha Durbar, the country’s administrative centre, to the local bodies. It’s been more than six years since the local governments have been formed, but locals of Chingad Rural Municipality haven’t felt the impact of local governance yet.

“The people’s representatives are working as per the partisan interests rather than providing facilities to the people,” said Sandesh Giri of Chingad-2. He argued that the people’s representatives should shift the administrative centre to Dhadkhet from Awalching.

Soru Rural Municipality in Mugu has a similar problem. The rural municipality has not yet designated the administrative centre due to the longstanding disputes among the people’s representatives. The elected representatives of six different wards are in favour of making Jima Kulaha the administrative centre while the representatives of five other wards have been lobbying for Sorukot, the temporary administrative centre.

The dispute of the administrative centre has delayed in constructing physical infrastructures of the local unit. The rural municipal office is running from the dilapidated building of the Area Forest Office in Sorukot.

“Construction of the physical infrastructures of the local unit has been affected due to the dispute. The representatives are sharply divided to make decisions regarding the centre,” said Dharma Bahadur Shahi, chairman of Soru Rural Municipality. “It seems that the issue should be resolved from the political level.”