The government has formed a local body restructuring commission under the leadership of former government secretary Balananda Paudel, as per the constitutional provision of forming a commission to determine the number and borders of Village and Municipal Councils within six months of the promulgation of the constitution. Tuesday marks the six month anniversary of promulgation of the Constitution of Nepal 2015 on September 20.

A Cabinet meeting on Monday night formed the nine-member commission with Paudel as the coordinator while Shyam Bhurtel, Dormani Poudel, Madhav Adhikari, Pabitra Shrestha Subba, Sunilranjan Singh and Dhiraj Shah have been appointed as members. Government spokesperson and Minister for Information and Communications Sherdhan Rai said that a current government joint-secretary will be appointed as member secretary of the commission whereas one further member will be appointed in future.

Article 295 of the constitution states, “Government of  Nepal shall form a commission for determination of number and borders of  the Village  Council, Municipal Council and Special, protected, or autonomous regions to be formed... within six months from the date of commencement of this constitution and the term of office of such commission shall be of one year.”

Earlier on January 28, Development Committee of the Parliament had instructed the government to immediately form the commission. As the country has opted for a federal administrative model, restructuring of the state, including local bodies, is one of the major tasks that need to be completed. According to Article 56 of the new constitution, the state will be restructured into three levels—federal, provincial and local. At the local level, the constitution outlines Village Councils, Municipal Councils and District Assemblies which will replace the existing Village Development Committees, municipalities and District Development Committees respectively.

Currently, there is one metropolitan city, 12 sub-metropolitan cities, 204 municipalities and 3,157 VDCs in the country.