Although the local governments are required to make public the decisions made in the executive and the work done at the local level, most of them have not done so. Some of the local levels have not made the decision public but posted it on their website, but that has also stopped.
As a result, citizens have been deprived of the information they need despite the provision of making public the policies and decisions made at the local level. There is also a provision to appoint a spokesperson to convey the policy-decisions made by the local level in the executive to the citizens.
Although the work of the spokesperson is to inform the general locals about the work done by the local government, no local level has been able to clarify the role of the spokesperson even at the end of their four-year term.
Tikapur Municipality has appointed Dirgha Bahadur Thakulla, Ward Chairman of Ward No. 8 as the spokesperson of the municipality. He said that the leadership of the municipality selected him as the spokesperson only to follow the due process. complained that the role of the spokesperson could not be fulfilled as the leadership of the people’s representatives and the leadership of the municipal employees were not interested in the role of the spokesperson within the municipality.
Bhajani Municipality Deputy mayor Chhaya Devkota said that the municipality has not appointed a spokesperson and the decision of the executive has not been made public. “We have not selected a spokesperson. I do not think it is necessary to make public the decisions of such an executive,” Devkota said.
Even the Janaki municipality could not appoint a spokesperson. Stating that the village municipality office administration would make public the decisions made by the village executive committee meeting, mayor Pradip Kumar Chaudhary said that the spokesperson was not appointed as he did not feel the need. The work of the spokesperson has been done by the administration branch of the office.
Most of the local levels have not appointed a spokesperson and the role of the spokesperson at the designated local level is nil. The spokespersons have not been able to carry out the work for the purpose for which the spokesperson has been appointed and the people’s representatives have not been able to feel the need for it at some local levels.
The legal officers of the local level judicial committee say that the local government is a strong government in itself and it is necessary to give responsibility to the official person to take the activities in the municipality to the citizens. Keshar Bahadur Thapa, legal officer of Tikapur municipality, said that it would be better for the local government to give responsibility to one person to inform about its activities.
