A village development committee (; ''gāum̐ vikās samiti'') in

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

was the lower administrative part of its Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development. Each

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

had several VDCs, similar to

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

but with greater public-government interaction and administration. There were 3,157 village development committees in Nepal. Each village development committee was further divided into several wards () depending on the population of the district, the average being nine wards.

Purpose

The purpose of village development committees is to organise the village people structurally at a local level and creating a partnership between the community and the public sector for improved service delivery system. A village development committee has the status of an autonomous institution and the authority to interact with the more centralised institutions of governance in Nepal. In doing so, the village development committee gives the village people an element of control and responsibility in development, and also ensures proper utilization, distribution of state funds and a greater interaction between government officials, NGOs and agencies. The village development committees within a given area discuss education, water supply, basic health, sanitation and income and also monitor and record progress which is displayed in census data..

Organization

In a village development committee, there was one elected chief, usually elected with an over 80% majority. A chief was elected from each

ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

. With these, there were four members elected or nominated. To keep data and records, and to manage administrative work, there was one village secretary. The position was a permanent appointment by the government, from whom they received a salary. The ward members, ward chief, and VDC chiefs were not paid a salary, but they obtained money according to their presence. VDCs were guided by the district development committee, headquarters, and the chief of DDC was a local development officer (LDO). Population and housing details of VDCs in Nepal were provided by the National Population and Housing Census, in

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and

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Dissolution

The village development committee structure was dissolved on 10 March 2017 to be replaced by

gaunpalika A gaunpalika ( ) is an administrative division in Nepal. The Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development (Nepal), Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development dissolved the existing Village development committee (Nepal), village developm ...

. Previously, the Panchayat was dissolved and turned into village development committees by the constitution of Nepal in 1990.

Wards and electoral divisions of Nepal

Previous village development committees were either merged with existing

or combined to create a new rural council. Most village development committees were turned into wards of new or existing municipalities without any changes, some were split and created two wards, and others were split in many pieces and merged into other village development committees to create new wards in different municipalities.

References

{{Articles on fourth-level administrative divisions of countries 01 Nepal, Village development committee Local government in Nepal Subdivisions of Nepal Village development committee Village development committee

Purpose

Organization

Dissolution

Wards and electoral divisions of Nepal

See also

References