In an apparent defence of its decision to add new municipalities, the government has said that “the formation of a municipality is an important start of development”.

In a circular issued on Wednesday, the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development has instructed all the municipalities to celebrate the day of their formation, saying “citizens of a municipality benefit from economic, social, political and cultural opportunities”.

Last week, the Ministry had written to District Development Committees, asking them to recommend possible new municipalities. The decision taken in haste has drawn criticism from some quarters, terming it unscientific as the existing ones are struggling to carry out their duties effectively. The government has added 159 municipalities, bringing the total number to 217 over the past two years.

Khim Lal Devkota, expert on local governance and fiscal decentralisation, said the decision was ill-timed as the constitution has provisioned for a separate commission for the purpose. “The government has been declaring municipalities as per the demand from the ground. In the present condition, municipalities should not be created only on the basis of some old criteria like population and area. We’ve also got to take into account social, economic, cultural and communal factors,” he said.

The government has, however, instructed municipalities to celebrate Establishment Day to brush off such criticisms. The circular, signed by chief at the ministry’s Municipality Management Section Keshavraj Pardhe, says the Establishment Day is a medium for municipalities to publicise their glory and importance.

Earlier, chief of Municipality and Environment Management Division at the ministry Gopi Krishna Khanal had said that municipalities help manage rapid urbanisation in the country and that they bring holistic development in the area.

The ministry instructed the local bodies to request citizens to illuminate their homes at night, organise trade fairs and hold cultural programmes, among others to celebrate the occasion. The local bodies have also been asked to rope in all political parties, private sector and other government agencies for the purpose.

However, Devkota, who has also worked for government’s Local Governance and Community Development Programme, said that only half of the existing municipalities are able to sustain economically.

“There is no need to keep municipalities which are not financially viable. We should rather opt for downsizing or restructuring to make local bodies more efficient.”

The country now has one metropolitan city, 12 sub-metropolitan cities, 204 municipalities and 3,157 VDCs— considered the ultimate wing of the government at the local level. The new constitution has proposed restructuring the state into three tiers, with Village Councils and Municipal Councils being the government closest to the citizens.