Work as mayor, 2017 to 2022
Four areas of work carried through the full term at Palungtar Municipality. Some were started earlier and continued, some began in 2017.
A plan first, then the ordinary work
The municipality was new in 2017 and had almost no systems of its own. The first year went into a long term development plan built around one line, a prosperous, beautiful and cultural Palungtar, so that ward budgets could be checked against a single set of targets instead of being decided scheme by scheme.
After that came roads, taps, school repairs, a disaster committee in each ward and health insurance for families who could not pay a hospital bill.
Four areas of work
Schools
Community schools were the first area he put money into. Amar Jyoti Janata Secondary School in Luintel, where he sat his SLC in 1988, received computers under a handover programme he led.
- Computers and digital learning in community schools
- School building repairs and upgrades
Health insurance for poor families
He donated one full year of his mayoral salary and allowances to pay health insurance premiums for poor families in every ward of the municipality.
- Ward by ward enrolment of low income households
- Health camps and support for local health posts
Roads, water and the local economy
The bulk of the municipal budget went here. Rural roads were built and upgraded, the network inside the municipality was extended, and drinking water schemes were run at village and tole level alongside sanitation work.
- Rural road construction and upgrading
- Drinking water schemes and sanitation programmes
- Support for farmers and local market linkage
- Follow up with contractors on delayed stretches
Disaster planning and housing
Gorkha was the epicentre district in 2015, so this was not abstract. A disaster risk reduction strategy was prepared and ward level committees were formed and trained, with support from international partners.
- Municipal disaster risk reduction strategy
- Ward disaster management committees
- Collective housing project for landless earthquake affected families
The 2074 BS mayoral result
margin
Palungtar is the home municipality of Dr. Baburam Bhattarai, so the 2074 race drew attention well beyond Gorkha. It was read as a test of whether the Maoist vote there would hold after he left to form Naya Shakti Nepal.
The Naya Shakti candidate led the count until the last two wards came in, then finished third. Across Gorkha the Congress won eight of the ten local units declared at that point, which put the party back to roughly where it had been in 2056 BS.
He contested again in 2079 BS and finished second.
Source: local election results, Palungtar Municipality, 2074 BS
