The Local Body Restructuring Commission has formulated its working procedures, which will serve as its basis while preparing a preliminary concept for restructuring. The commission is mandated to determine the number and borders of Village Councils, Municipal Councils and Special, protected, or autonomous regions to be formed within one year of its formation. As the country has opted for a federal administrative model, restructuring of the state, including of local bodies, is one of the major tasks that needs to be completed.

The Cabinet has approved the Terms of Reference of the nine-member commission formed on March 14.

According to Member Secretary Hari Poudel, the commission will prepare a rudimentary draft on the numbers and borders of local bodies by mid-August and hold district-level discussions on the draft by early September. After that alternative proposals will be studied and a final report will be prepared by mid-March, Poudel said.

To assist the commission, Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development has already formed Local Level Restructuring Technical Assistance Committees in all districts.

According to Under Secretary Gopal Prasad Aryal, each committee will be coordinated by the concerned Local Development Officers while the representatives from the District Administration Office, District Technical Office, Land Revenue Office, Survey Office and District Development Office will serve as members.

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

As per the commission’s guidelines, local bodies should be created in such a way that they become viable administrative units and their residents have fair access to natural and financial resources. The commission has been asked to decrease the current number of VDCs by merging them and increase the number of municipalities.

Likewise, a Village Council should have a minimum of five and a maximum of 21 wards while the number of wards in a Municipal Council should be between nine and 35.

In the past few years, the government has increased the number of municipalities from 58 to 217 and slashed the number of VDCs from 3,915 to 3,157.