Orientation to Peoples’ representatives

SOCH Nepal facilitated an orientation program to the elected members of entire Okhaldhunga district on May 4-5, 2018. SOCH Nepal together with District Coordination Committee(DCC) of Okhaldhunga  organized one and half day orientation among 1  Federal member of parliament, 2 provincial parliamentarians, 7 Palika’s chairs, 8 Palika’s vice-chairs, 63 ward chiefs, media persons, NGOs and local people. Bureaucrats, leaders of local political parties, media persons and other CSO members also joined the program.

The secretary of Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development (MoFALD) Mr. Dinesh Thapalia facilitated the orientation. Mr. Thapalia oriented the local representatives on legal, procedural and governance issues of local government. He oriented on procedure of formulation of new Acts and guidelines including Education Act. The roles and responsibilities of Federal, Provincial and local government oriented and shared authorities discussed.

 The orientation brings hope among people to formulate effective Act and guidelines of local level. Further, the orientation also helped to away the confusion of local authorities regarding formulation of policies and other collection and mobilization of revenue. He highlighted the Federal government’s plan to implement e-governance within one year in all local, provincial, and central government and he requested to all to work effectively establishing e-governance to promote governance in the local level.

Before the orientation, local representatives were concerned about their authority and responsibilities,  and required Acts and Guidelines to operate local activities. This orientation helped to reduce their confusion on exercise of authority and responsibilities in local level.

Federal member of prarliament from Okhaldhunga Mr. Yagya Sunuwar emphasized on every representatives to work collectively for effective outcome. He also told every participant to work in unity for prosperous Okhaldhunga. Additionally, he encouraged all to identify and mobilize local resources rather than depending on resources from central level. He highlighted Okhaldhunga district has high potentiality of agriculture, tourism; hydro therefore local authorities must take initiation to utilize those resources for the development of their locality.

Province members of parliament Mr. Ambirbabu Gurung and Mr. Mohan Khadka asked all ward chief and CSOs to bring issues on written form based on that the both parliamentarians committed to raise the concern issues in the parliament.

At the end of the program, all elected representatives announced an Okhaldhunga declaration with the priorities to work for five years in education, health, agriculture, Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), tourism, Forestry, and other prioritized areas. SOCH Nepal took leading role for drafting the declaration.