Rationale of District Coordinating Committee

The municipality president/chief and vice president/deputy chief are Zilla Sabha members within the district. Those members elect a district coordination committee with a maximum of nine members from among the members of the village assembly or municipal assembly, including one head, one deputy head, at least three women and at least one person from the Dalit or minority community.

Union, state and local levels can make laws, budgets, policies and plans in their jurisdiction. Even though it is a local level, it has not got the right to make laws. Jurisdictions of all three levels are mentioned in the schedule of the constitution. But there is no mention of Jesus' authority. The constitution has given executive powers to municipalities under the local level, but according to the name of Jesus, it is limited to the role of coordination. Therefore, it only has the authority to monitor the balance of development and construction work within the district, to coordinate between federal and provincial offices in the district as well as rural municipalities and municipalities.

Jesus' work, duties and rights are according to provincial laws. All the seven provinces have already created these two laws in accordance with the constitutional provisions of the Zilla Sabha operation method and the facilities that the members of JISUS will get according to the provincial laws. In the laws created by the provincial government, the work, duties and rights of Jesus are included in the provisions of the Local Government Operation Act, 2074. For example, Jesus has been given the responsibility of coordinating the identification and management of development issues between the municipalities, monitoring the development and construction conducted by the government and non-government sectors, coordinating and facilitating the resolution of any disputes between the rural municipality and the municipality.

monitoring is Jesus' main responsibility. But the local level has not easily accepted Jesus' monitoring. According to the Local Government Operation Act, there is a monitoring committee at the local level. The committee, which has a deputy chief coordinator, monitors the programs at the local level. In addition, JESUS ​​has also increased the possibility of conflict between the local level and JESUS ​​while monitoring. Likewise, Jesus' main responsibility is to coordinate, which is confirmed by his name. Jesus seems to be trying to play a coordinating role in disputes between municipalities. However, there are few examples of effective coordination among municipalities. Although coordination is the main responsibility, whether it is coordination between municipalities or coordination with provinces and federal offices, it has not been able to show a significant role.

In this way, the political point of view is the main factor behind Jesus being roleless and weak. The debate on whether districts are necessary in the federal structure was held in the Constituent Assembly. It is easy to find the reason for the weak structure of Jesus through the light of the debate on how the district structure was placed in the constitution. There were two opinions on whether or not to keep the district structure in the constitution. The Maoists were of the opinion that the district structure should be abolished and a strong local government should be formed. But when Congress, UML and other parties wanted to keep the district structure, Jesus was kept with limited powers in the constitution.

That is why the structure of Jesus with very limited powers has been created by arranging the union, state and local levels with legislative and executive powers and it is considered as the local level. Jesus was envisioned as a coordinating structure with three governing units operating due to the spread of geography and population. Likewise, it was also given the right to monitor with the recognition that implementation and monitoring should be done by a separate party. But since no law has been made to clarify those rights in the constitution, even after about eight years of its establishment, Jesus seems to be looking for a clear role. During this period, no one has been able to do any effective work.

The constitution itself has empowered rural municipalities and municipalities over local levels. Therefore, for leaders who want to become people's representatives, rural municipalities and municipalities are preferred over Jesus. Since there are many resources and also legislative and executive powers, political parties are more interested in the municipality. There is a provision in the local level election regulations that only members of village councils or municipal councils can be elected officials of Jesus. This is where the problem is created. Political parties make a lot of effort and preparation to select representatives in other levels of elections.

They select capable and talented candidates in the elections of that level. However, the position of Jesus head is decided at the time of nomination filing without much preparation. Therefore, except for a few exceptions, the junior person in the political party gets to lead Jesus. The role of Jesus has become harmless because the people's representative of Jesus is politically weaker than the municipal head/deputy head with an executive role. To make its role effective, political parties and Jesus officials also have an equal role. It is the political party's responsibility to send competent people as office bearers. But he has used it only as a place to hold workers.

Even in the laws of the province, Jesus is only given the role of coordinating and submitting the results of monitoring to the relevant agencies. There is no legal obligation to implement the suggestions given by Jesus to any level of government or its agencies. Union and state governments are indifferent to make laws and policies to make it easy for Jesus to implement his rights. When federal and state government agencies and local levels do not give any importance to the monitoring of Jesus, the question has been raised about its role. Therefore, Jesus officials are dissatisfied and disappointed with their own role. About 13 million rupees are allocated annually for each Jesus. Even though about 1 billion is spent every year, the results are not visible.

In the unitary governance system, the District Development Committee was a powerful development center that had the authority to allocate the budget and monitor the development work. Due to the mentality of considering the current JISUS as a continuation of the District Development Committee, it is also believed that it should be empowered. But the opinion that Jesus is not needed in the federal structure is equally strong. There was a debate in the state assembly and the federal parliament that Jesus is not necessary. The debates about these two types of votes have not yet taken a solid shape.

Although the opinion to abolish roleless Jesus is getting stronger, this process can only be done through constitutional amendment. But there is no consensus on the need for Jesus among the major parties represented in Parliament. It is too late to resolve this confusion by objectively reviewing the various dimensions of its role. But this confusion about Jesus and its justification is not being seriously debated.

It is an ironic reality today that there is no proper debate about this within the Nepali media, civil society, academics and political parties. In the context of the ongoing debate on reviewing the constitution and amending its various provisions if necessary, it is necessary to have a debate about Jesus. Therefore, it is appropriate to make a decision to create or cancel Jesus with resources and rights based on an objective review.

– Manandhar is a fellow of Democracy Resource Center Nepal.