The VDC´s office was set up in the district headquarters some one-and-a-half decades ago amid worsening security situation. Now that things have turned normal, the VDC secretary and other staffers are still reluctant to go back to the village.[break]
The locals took away the documents to force the VDC staffers to return to the village, said a local youth Tarkeshwar Yadav.
“The VDC office was constructed two years ago at the cost of hundreds of thousands of rupees but VDC staffers continued working from the district headquarters by renting a building at the cost of Rs 5000 per month,” said another local Chittanarayan Yadav.
“It is not appropriate of the VDC secretary to misuse the budget. So we decided to take away the documents and other office property back to the VDC office in the village,” he added.
Chittanarayan also informed that the village council had decided to restore the VDC office last year, but the decision could not be implemented. He said VDC secretary Jagadhar Thakur was the main obstacle in moving the VDC office back to the village.
The locals also complained that Thakur was unavailable even in the district headquarters when they needed him. “We would not find him even in the office set up at the district headquarters,” said another local Pramod Yadav. “ Moreover , it was necessary to bring the VCD office back to the village as the elderly and the disabled cannot go to the district headquarters to collect their social security allowance,” Pramod added.
According to technical assistant of the VDC Sitaram Raya, they are helping the locals to take the office back to village.
Most of the VDC offices in Saptari displaced during the conflict are still functioning from the district headquarters. VDC staffers have been ignoring orders from the District Administration office, District Development Office and the Local Development Ministry to move back to their respective villages.
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Narayankaji Shrestha, who also holds the portfolio of the Local Development Ministry, during his recent visit to Saptari, had also directed the VDC staffers to move back to their respective villages.
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