For eight years, the divided Rukum East has been divided over where to place the headquarters, and this issue has come to the fore again. The latest controversy started - after the statement of Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal who came to Rukum East on 7th June. He confidently said that his party's official opinion is that the district headquarters will be in Rukumkot.

You have to go back to the year 2074 to understand where the dispute of the headquarters started. After the administrative reorganization of October 27, 2074, the headquarters of Rukum East district was designated as Rukumkot. Four months after that, on 15 January 2074, the then Cabinet led by Sher Bahadur Deuba decided to move it to Puthauttarganga rural municipality-12 Golkhada, which is 20 km away from Rukumkot. A writ was registered in the Supreme Court on January 17 against this decision. The Supreme Court gave an interim order not to implement the government's decision and to keep the status quo. After such an order, Rukum East is not calm . Golkhada partisans and Rukumkot partisans are protesting here at different times.

The dispute over the headquarters and the retupper in the Supreme Court on August 17, 2080, the constitutional bench with the then Chief Justice Vishwambhar Prasad Shrestha issued an order in the name of the government saying that 'the previous decision of the government has been invalidated by the order of dispatch' . In the said order, it is said that the government should designate the headquarters again based on the sufficient basis and criteria, and when the headquarters is designated, the headquarters should be shifted or designated based on the criteria.

This decree of the Supreme Court has settled the issue of Rukumkot or Golkhada as the headquarters, but the option of where the headquarters will be has been left open . After this, especially the citizens of Puthauttarganga and surrounding areas have started to advance the idea that Rukumkot should be looked for as the headquarters. 

Due to the ongoing headquarters dispute, the construction of the administrative structure has stalled. Similarly, most of the government offices are operating from rented buildings or dilapidated government structures. Who are directly affected, the service users .

After the Supreme Court's latest decree, the matter of Rukumkot or Golkhada as the district headquarters is almost over, but there is still room to think about Rukumkot as the headquarters. At this time, with the statement of Maoist Chairman Dahal, the debate about where the district headquarters will be again started. Dahal said at a program held in Rukumkot that day, "There is a lot of work to be done on this matter". Friends don't have to take tension . I have been trying to make a political agreement on this issue since I was the prime minister until now.' He did not stop there. He added, "Even now, I have spoken to the Home Minister twice." I have requested . After I leave here, I will add more emphasis on it.'' The members of the state assembly started raising questions on this matter to the government. Chief Minister Chetnarayan Acharya, while answering the questions raised during the discussion on the policies and programs presented by the Lumbini state government on May 10, revealed that all the procedures have been reached from the district regarding the district headquarters to be in Rukumkot.

Chief Minister Acharya not only said that the decision of two meetings of the district coordination committee was considered as the basis for keeping the headquarters in Rukumkot, but also that the chief and deputy chief of all the three municipalities were physically present in the meeting and decided twice. He added, ``Based on that, after receiving the application, we returned that the political parties in Rukum East also need an official decision  . The political parties there, Congress, UML, Maoists and United Socialists wrote on their letter pads and sent the decision and it was considered as the basis.' He also explained the fact that the state government submitted its opinion to the federal government after receiving the letter from the district.

Purvi Rukum has become divided by this talk of the Chief Minister . In the meantime, a photo of a petition that said that Rukumkot had been agreed to be made the headquarters was made public through social media. In which 23 people have signed, including Provincial Assembly Member Dhan Bahadur KC, Deputy Chief of District Coordination Mohan Bahadur KC, Chairman, Vice Chairman of Sisne Rural Municipality, heads and representatives of various political parties and stakeholders.

After the consensus, the state government said that the union would keep the headquarters at Rukumkot, but Bhume rural municipality president Homprakash Shrestha issued a statement last Sunday and claimed that the agenda of where to keep the headquarters was not included in the meeting of the district coordination committee. He said, "After the decision to move the headquarters to Golkhada was overturned by the Supreme Court, Bhume Rural Municipality has decided to play the role of mediator and meeting point between Puthauttarganga and Sisne Rural Municipality.

The topic of the headquarters dispute did not stop there. On Monday, various levels of leaders of CPN, Congress, United Socialists, UML, Maoist, Janata Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Prajatantra Party issued a joint statement and accused that the recommendation to designate the headquarters is a 'one-sided selfish fraud'. In the statement, they said that Maoist Chairman Dahal and Chief Minister Acharya had given unilateral statements about the headquarters and they have drawn their attention to it.