NEPALGUNJ, Sept 1: In a bid to woo voters, the candidates of various political parties had vowed during the elections to bring the services provided by Singha Durbar to the villages. But that remains a dream even four months after the elections.
They were successful in persuading the locals and winning the elections. But now they have realized the bitter truth - being a people's representative is not an easy job. Now, they have realised that bringing the services provided by Singha Durbar to the villages is not as easy as delivering a speech. Being tired of waiting for change, even the locals have started expressing their disappointments towards the newly elected representatives.
According to the representatives, lack of enough manpower has delayed their projects further. They lament that they have not yet received the powers that they were promised in the constitution. Earlier, Sisne Rural Municipality of Rukum, had assured to provide drinking water to each home within a year. But even after four months of the elections that project has been limited just to paper.
Local reps term starts 7 days after poll results
Similarly, representatives of Musikot Municipality had promised to manage sewage of the market and stop road encroachment. But one can find piles of sewage and garbage in each nook and cranny of the market. Vehicular movement often gets obstructed due to road encroachment.
Dev Bahadur Chand, chairperson of Chingad Rural Municipality, says that the lack of law, guidelines and enough manpower have held them back. There are six wards in Chingad and two of the wards still re running without secretaries.
Though, the local units have already been provided with the budget for health and education, representatives have not been able to utilize that as they say they don't have the authority. “We got the chair that we wanted but have not been able to realize its power,” said Chand.
It has been quite hard for the representatives to face the locals due to the fear of being questioned about their achievements. Mahendra Bahadur Shah, chairperson of Barkot Rural Municipality, Jajarkot, is very much disappointed with himself for not being able to live up to the expectations of the people. But unfortunately he has no other option. He says he has made several plans but has not been able to implement them due to various reasons such as lack of banking services, technology and technical manpower.
Likewise, Krishna Bahadur KC, chief of Junichande Rural Municipality and Chandra Prakash Gharti, chief of Bheri Municipality, have spent their four months in office understanding various rules and regulations of their new roles. But like all others they are finding it hard to fulfill their promises.
(With inputs from our district correspondents: Nagendra Upadhyaya/ Surkhet, Ganesh Bk/ Rukum and Janak KC/ Jajarkot)
