Political parties have fielded candidates for the posts in the district headquarters' drinking water organization. The sixth session of the Sandhikharka Small Urban Drinking Water and Sanitation Project is being held on Tuesday.

Political parties have distributed the posts of the nine-member committee and three-member audit committee of the project and have whipped consumers affiliated with the party to vote. Most consumers have opposed party distribution in public institutions.

The joint alliance of Congress, UML, Nepali Communist Party and Rastriya Janamorcha has distributed the posts under the leadership of Yubaraj Khatri as the project chairman and has whipped consumers affiliated with their party to win by issuing a press release. Similarly, there is a team led by Baburam Bhusal in the name of independent civil society. It has been supported by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Gen-G group and independent individuals.

Complaints of murky and contaminated water being distributed to consumers in the district headquarters from time to time have not been resolved despite repeated complaints from consumers. Water is distributed to the entire district headquarters including Sandhikharka of Sandhikharka Municipality-1 and Chutraveshi of Ward 2. According to the party distribution, Khatri is the chairman from the Congress, Kamala Aryal is a member, and Gyan Bahadur Bishwakarma is a member of the Accounts Committee. Baburam Bhusal is the senior vice-president, Sumitra Mukhiya is the treasurer, Motilal Khanal is a member, and Kamal Dhakal is a member of the Accounts Committee. Bhesh Bahadur KC is the vice-president and Sumitra Belbase is the coordinator of the Accounts Committee from the NCP. Jivlal Poudel, joint secretary Kalpana Pokharel, and Navin Sunar are the candidates from the Rajmo. The four-party alliance has announced a common candidate. Sandhikharka Municipality Congress Acting President Tulsiram Poudel, UML President Kushal Bhusal, NCP's Dev Bahadur Rayamajhi and Rajmako Municipality President Govinda BC have issued a press release and appealed to their candidates to win. Those who have become candidates in the name of Independent Civil Society have organized themselves after the Gen-G protest on Bhadra 24. Baburam Bhusal, who announced that he had left the party along with the post of Congress Sandhikharka Municipality President after the Gen-G movement, is the candidate for the post of President. Similarly, Bedraj Ghimire, who left UML, is the candidate for Senior Vice President and Dil Bahadur Wali is the candidate for Vice President. Similarly, candidates have been nominated for all posts including Krishna Bahadur Shahi for Secretary, Sarita Mahat for Treasurer, and Shakuntala Bhusal for Joint Secretary.

The district president of the National Independent Party, Hari Prasad Bhusal, has issued a statement appealing to the residents of the city to vote for the Baburam-led team. He has stated that he supports independent candidate Baburam as partisanship in social organizations is not acceptable. Independent people including Gurudev Khanal, who led the Gen-G movement in Sandhikharka, have been going door to door asking for votes for him.

Both the teams led by Bhusal and Khatri are running around asking for votes from consumers. The district-level leaders of both teams are lobbying consumers to win their candidates, saying that they are protecting their existence. The project distributes drinking water to the taps of 2,000 consumers. Out of which, 1,731 consumers are eligible to vote in the elections.

Consumers have commented that it is wrong to give political cover to a social work like drinking water, saying that it is a condemnable act to give political cover to a social work like drinking water. Advocate Jagannath Bhusal says that it is wrong for the party to intervene and divide the shares when the consumers should be allowed to hold their conventions independently.

‘When there is division in this way, there is no one to watch,’ he said, ‘If some consumer raises an issue and is connected to some party, the party takes action against him.’

He said that the culture of division has led to a wrong trend of hiding and covering up financial irregularities and fraud in the organization for party reasons.