The Local Level Restructuring Commission (LLRC)’s deadline to submit its report will expire in mid-November, but its technical committees in eight districts of Province 2 are yet to start work, largely due to obstruction from the Madhes-based parties. The deadline given to the technical committees in the districts to submit their reports expired on November 5. 

In such a situation, the hard-pressed LLRC, which only has three days to prepare and submit the final report, is set to mobilise staff from the central office to convince the Madhes-based parties as part of the last-ditch effort to make the technical committees complete their work. 

Taking exception to the criteria based on which the LLRC is carrying out its work, the Madhes-based parties have been demanding that the local level restructuring should be done only after ending the row over the provincial boundaries. 

They say the criteria is biased against the people living along the southern plains and that local level restructuring based on current criteria would disenfranchise Madhes and Madhesi constituencies.

Altogether 19 district technical committees are yet to submit their reports to the LLRC, which had on October 22 asked all the committees to submit their reports by November 5. 

With 11 districts in the final stage of submitting their reports, the LLRC is largely concerned about the eight districts of Province 2 which comprises Saptari, Siraha, Dhanusha, Mahottari, Sarlahi, Rautahat, Bara and Parsa.

The agitating Madhes-based parties have been saying that they would not allow the technical committees in the said districts to carry out their task. 

According to Madhav Adhikari, a member of the LLRC, all districts except those from Province 2 will be sending their reports by Monday. “An LLRC team will be visiting these eight districts within a week to hold consultations with the parties there,” he added. “If the Madhes-based parties boycott the consultation, we will take a decision after holding discussions with other parties.”

According to Adhikari, the number of local units in these districts will be decided by the LLRC itself in consultation with the parties and technical committees. Local development officers in the respective districts lead the technical committees which are mandated to fix the number and boundaries of local units (village and municipal councils) in consultation with the political parties and stakeholders. 

While revising the LLRC’s terms of reference for the second time, the government had asked it to submit its recommendations by mid-November. Adhikari, however, said it will not be possible for the LLRC to submit its report before the first week of December due the delay in the districts.  

The LLRC has decided keep number of local units across the country between 507 and 744.