Elected people’s representatives from Likhu Tamakoshi Rural Municipality in Ramechhap have come to the District Administration Office seeking security from the local unit’s chairman.

Vice-chairperson Dipshikha Dahal, Chief Administrative Officer Bhupendra Rai and nine out of 15 executive members of the local unit said they fear for their safety insecure after Chairman Govinda Bahadur Khadka attempted to attack them following an executive committee meeting on Thursday.

The elected representatives met Chief District Officer Lila Kumari KC Pandey on Friday and informed her of the incident. Chief Administrative Officer Rai also lodged a written complaint against Khadka and demanded security. He said he would not return to the local unit unless the local administration assured them of a safe working environment.

According to the people’s representatives, Khadka tried to attack them after they stood against his proposal of allocating an additional budget of Rs 69.5 million to an electricity supply project in Duragaun.

“How can we allocate millions of rupees without monitoring the project? The chairman attempted to attack us when we said the additional budget could not be issued without project monitoring,” said Vice-chairperson Dahal, who is also the coordinator of the local body’s project monitoring committee.

Before Thursday’s meeting, the project monitoring committee had decided to allocate budget to the electricity supply project only after its monitoring.

However, expressing dissatisfaction with the decision, Khadka went on to have a heated argument with Rai in the latter’s office.

“The chairman attempted to attack me with a chair when I asked him to respect the system. If he had not been stopped by other people in the office, he would have surely hit me with the chair,” said Subash Bohara, an executive committee member.

However, Khadka refused any wrongdoing. “I had proposed to issue the additional budget required to complete the electrification project. I simply asked to monitor the project along with the Nepal Electricity Authority and the local administration,” said Khadka. He, however, admitted that there were legal flaws in the procurement process of the electrification project.

Both Khadka and Dahal were elected from the same political party—-the then CPN-UML. CDO Lila Kumari KC Pandey said the local administration would investigate into the incident and take necessary steps to resolve the issue.