Think locally

Jan-6th-2012
The all-party political mechanism, that was making decisions at the grassroots level, has, according to the Commission for the Abuse of Authority (CIAA), been illegally formed and it has asked the Ministry of Local Development to immediately scrap them within 15 days. There are many cases of irregularities by the all-party political mechanism with those calling the shots often engaging in corrupt and unethical practices. These were by no means conducive for development at the local level and the budget allocated for various development projects were misused and embezzled by the all-party political mechanism, which facilitated graft. Furthermore, the budget that was supposed to be utilized for the local bodies did not reach those who were supposed to benefit from them. This happened as the all-party mechanism allowed those involved in it to find loopholes and misuse the funds that was to be used for development works to be carried out in a manner that was not transparent, and they got away with it so far. Now, as the all-party political mechanism has been scrapped, the probability is that the allocated budget for development will see judicious use and transparency will be maintained. Accountability was also missing in the previous arrangement.

Now, there are plans to appoint local body chiefs endowed with the responsibility to carry out works that were meant to be done by elected representatives. It has been many years since local elections were held, and that is the reason why the local-level development works are being carried out in an ad hoc basis, with the political party representatives reaping undue benefits. Hence, there is a need to hold elections for local bodies as soon as possible for the local development activities to get the much needed direction. In this transient phase, the government and the political parties have agreed to alternative arrangements instead of the all-party political mechanism. The four options identified in this regard are holding the local elections; nominating representatives based on the CA election votes; forming an all inclusive mechanism as per the votes in the CA election; or forming a mechanism that would consist of a government official, representative of the civil society, a journalist and also representatives of the political parties, while the party representative receiving the highest CA election vote would be the chief.

Still it would be better if we had elected representatives who would have the necessary authority to act decisively. In the meantime, we have to do with local development officers who would be at the head in the districts, as would the executive chief in the municipals and the VDC secretaries who would be empowered to make the appropriate decisions. In the absence of the elected representatives in the local bodies, much of the development funds remained stagnant or misappropriated, and the local development activities are lopsided, depending on the whims and fancies of those manning the now scrapped all-party mechanism. So, there is every reason to welcome the scrapping of the all-party political mechanism at the local level.

Good initiative

As the law and order situation in the Kathmandu valley is not up to the mark, the police are always looking to ways and means to clean up their act. For one, the police have found from their investigation that many crimes have been committed from rented rooms. It is seen as justified to scrutinise the landlords as well as the tenants. In fact, with an easily availability of information on the landlords and their tenants, the police can have access as to their whereabouts and that makes tracing those involved in crimes easier.

It is good that the landlords are requested by the police to keep tabs on their tenants and report any suspicious activity of the tenants to the police. This will prove useful in foiling any terror plot or planned crimes in advance and the police can swoop down on the criminals before they can carry out their activities. This also means that the police will have to build the rapport with the landlords to enhance trust between them. Moreover, the landlords too will have the necessary information on their tenants which can be useful for them in case of non-payment of rents or other expenses.