The post of secretary in 36 of the 66 wards of 10 local units in Makwanpur district are still vacant.  

This has greatly affected the people visiting their ward offices for services such as document attestation and issuance of recommendation letters.

Sunita Gurung, a resident of Kailash Rural Municipality-2, has been frequenting her ward office to obtain a citizenship recommendation letter for days now. She was told that the secretary from the neighbouring ward would issue her the recommendation, but the officer did not show up.

 “I need the recommendation from the ward secretary to apply for citizenship, but there is no secretary in my ward. A secretary from different ward has been assigned to oversee the essential works in my ward, but he is already overwhelmed with other responsibilities,” she said.   

Many secretaries are looking after up to four wards as the government has failed to fill the vacancies.

Susmita Thing, another resident of Kailash-2, said service seekers are not pleased with the way the ward office is operating.

“One cannot expect to get a swift service in ward offices that are without secretaries,” she said.

In Bagmati Rural Municipality, social campaigners have been looking after the ward offices of 1, 2, and 3 and office assistants are handling the affairs of the wards 5, 7, 8 and 9.

In Raksirang Rural Municipality, of the total nine wards, only four wards have secretaries.

Among five wards of Indra Sarovar Rural Municipality, only one ward has a ward secretary.

Jeevan Lama, chairman of the rural municipality, said people have been deprived of easy access to essential services as the government has failed to appoint secretaries.

“Our repeated requests to fill the vacancies have fallen on a deaf ear,” he said.