The Nepali Congress is holding a two-day meeting of its district presidents from Sunday in Kathmandu to discuss restructuring of the local bodies.

The largest party in Parliament is organising the interaction to prepare its official position at a time when a commission formed by the government is working to restructure the local government units.

Central Executive Committee members and presidents of all the NC district committees will attend the meeting to be held at the party headquarters in Sanepa.

An all-party meeting called by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal last week gave the Local Level Restructuring Technical Assistance Committee of the Local Bodies Restructuring Commission (LBRC) 15 days to resolve the differences.

Three major parties—the CPN (Maoist Centre), the NC and the CPN-UML—and the Sanghiya Gathabandhan, an alliance of Madhesi and Janajati forces, had agreed to expedite discussions for finding consensus on the matter within two weeks.

The parties have objected to the LBRC proposal of carving out 565 local units across the country.

Most of the political forces have objected to the plan arguing that reducing the number of local bodies goes against the spirit of federalism and autonomy.

The Gathabandhan has demanded that the commission halt its work until contentious issues of the constitution are resolved.

“We have some concerns about the LBRC work, which we will share with the district presidents,” said NC leader Shekhar Koirala.

The KP Oli-led government in May formed the 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.

No dialogue with Deuba for picking ministers: Poudel

BHARATPUR: Nepali Congress senior leader Ram Chandra Poudel has said that party President Sher Bahadur Deuba has not consulted with him for selecting ministers from the party. “There has been no discussion with the party president to select ministers till date,” Poudel told journalists in Chitwan on Saturday. He expressed his readiness to help Deuba in the matter if the latter solicited support. (PR)