Nepal government's control in countryside eroding: UN
DPA

Kathmandu, Sep 16 (DPA) The UN's chief representative in Nepal warned in an interview published Saturday that government control of the Nepalese countryside was "shrinking".

"The presence of the state is further shrinking in the countryside due to increased Maoist influence," Matthew Kahane, the UN representative and humanitarian coordinator, told the Kathmandu Post.

Kahane's comments came amid growing reports that the Maoists were running parallel governments in most of the rural areas of the country.

Kahane said the rebels were becoming more organised and were blocking government activities in the countryside.

"Presence of the state is very limited," he said. "The government was ineffective during the armed conflict, but it's shrinking now."

A ceasefire between the government and Maoist rebels took effect in April.

Kahane also said he had been told by some Maoist leaders that the rebels would permit development activities of "the UN and other bilateral donors, but not those of the government".

"What we see is the absence of effective presence of government institutions in the countryside," Kahane said, citing the increasing influence of Maoists.

The government has sought the return of village development committee secretaries, who represent the state in villages and who were driven away from their place of work by the rebels. But the secretaries cited "lack of security" and were not heeding the government's call, Kahane said.

This had badly affected government-run development and other activities in the countryside.

Rebels have also prevented the spending of government grants of NRS one million ($14,000) to each of the country's more than four thousand village development committees - another dangerous development, according to Kahane.

Kahane said his views were "based purely on what we are seeing at the operational level where I am concerned about development works".