Draft of New Standards Prepared for Adjusting Boundaries and Numbers of Local Levels

April 18, Kathmandu – The Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration has prepared a preliminary draft of new standards to regulate the process of altering the numbers and boundaries of rural municipalities, municipalities, and wards, as well as to review the classification of municipalities. The draft, titled ‘Standards for Adjustment of Numbers and Boundaries of Rural Municipalities, Municipalities, and Wards, Mergers, and Reclassification of Municipalities, 2083,’ has been formulated based on the provisions under Sections 3, 5, 6, 7, and 8 of the Local Government Operation Act, 2074 (2017), the ministry has announced. The ministry has circulated the draft with a three-day deadline for comments and suggestions from the Chief Ministers and the offices of the Council of Ministers across all provinces.

The draft emphasizes that any proposal to alter or merge the number and boundaries of local levels and wards must primarily consider factors such as population, geography, administrative convenience, the state of infrastructure development, economic capacity, availability of natural resources, as well as linguistic, cultural, and community composition. Additionally, the draft requires attention to service accessibility, population density, settlement growth and urbanization, market development, accessibility to transportation services, watershed management, social and economic impacts, and the preservation of cultural and linguistic identities.

According to the draft, during boundary adjustments of rural municipalities or municipalities, a local level must be confined within a single province and district. When adjusting ward boundaries, the draft stipulates that the former village development committee and municipality wards should not be split. Furthermore, the geography of a single ward must fall within the same electoral constituency for both the House of Representatives and the Provincial Assembly. To conduct studies on these matters, the draft proposes forming a study committee chaired by the Chief of the District Coordination Committee. This committee would include the deputy chairpersons or vice chiefs of the concerned local levels, assistant chief district officers from the District Administration Office, heads of Survey and Revenue Offices, and the chief administrative officers of the respective local levels. Based on the committee’s report and findings, the local assembly (either rural or municipal) must pass a proposal with a two-thirds majority, which would then be forwarded to the provincial government. If the provincial government finds the standards met, it will recommend the proposal to the federal government through the ministry. The ministry, in turn, will submit the proposal to the Cabinet for approval, as outlined in the draft.