District administration makes up the third level of government division in Nepal. The provision for a District Assembly, which acts as the legislature at the district-level, is mentioned in Part 17 of the

Constitution of Nepal Constitution of Nepal 2015 ( ne, नेपालको संविधान २०७२) is the present governing Constitution of Nepal. Nepal is governed according to the Constitution which came into effect on 20 September 2015, replacing the ...

. The 77 districts of Nepal each have their own district assemblies which in turn elect their own District Coordination Committees, which serves as the executive at the district-level. In addition to this each district also has a District Administration Office which oversees the general administration of each district.

District Administration Office

The District Administration Office ( ne, जिल्ला प्रशासन कार्यालय) is a general administration of government in each district of Nepal. The government of Nepal appoints a Chief District Officer in each district to function as a Chief Administration Officer. The Local Administration Act, 2028 (1971) was implemented to conduct local administration in accordance with the decentralized administration system to effectively operate peace and order. Section 5 of the Local Administration Act was constituted to be a district administration office in every district to conduct general administration of the district. The DAO in each district of Nepal works under

Ministry of Home Affairs An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministry ...

. The main function of the DAO is to maintain peace, order and security in the district and provide assistance in development activities run by the federal government,

provincial government A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonomy, ...

District Coordination Committee District administration makes up the third level of government division in Nepal. The provision for a District Assembly, which acts as the legislature at the district-level, is mentioned in Part 17 of the Constitution of Nepal. The 77 districts of ...

, urban municipality and

rural municipality A rural municipality is a classification of municipality, a type of local government, found in several countries. These include: * Rural municipalities in Canada, a type of municipal status in the Canadian provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, ...

Chief District Officer

The Chief District Officer ( ne, प्रमुख जिल्ला अधिकृत, abbreviation: C.D.O.) is an administrative rank under Ministry of Home Affairs in Nepal who is appointed by the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...

as the senior-most executive magistrate and chief in-charge of general administration of a district . The main guideline to C.D.O. for his/her administration is the Local Administration Act, 1972. The C.D.O. is responsible for proper inspection of all the departments in a

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, municipa ...

such as

health Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty ...

, security and all other government offices. In case of threatened public security conditions like riots, she/he can mobilize security forces and take other actions like imposing

curfew A curfew is a government order specifying a time during which certain regulations apply. Typically, curfews order all people affected by them to ''not'' be in public places or on roads within a certain time frame, typically in the evening and ...

order, fixing restricted area, arresting anyone according to law, hearing some cases as a quasi-judicial body. Distributing the Certificate of Nepalese

Citizenship Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection". Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...

, processing and recommendation for passports, maintaining peace and security, law and order, acting as a representative of government, enjoying the authorities provided by more than 90 prevailing acts make a Chief District Officer powerful. The C.D.O. is the most powerful position in Nepalese administrative service. Likewise, Assistant Chief District Officers enjoys almost all the authorities as delegated by C.D.O. and other laws.

District Assembly

The District Assembly ( ne, जिल्ला सभा) is composed of chairpersons and vice-chairpersons of each rural municipality and mayors and deputy mayors of each municipality within a district. The District Assembly coordinates between all municipalities and rural municipalities within the district. It elects a nine-member District Coordination Committee including a chief and deputy chief and at least three women and one member from the

Dalit Dalit (from sa, दलित, dalita meaning "broken/scattered"), also previously known as untouchable, is the lowest stratum of the castes in India. Dalits were excluded from the four-fold varna system of Hinduism and were seen as forming ...

or minority communities for a five-year term. Any member within the village or municipal assembly in local levels within the district are eligible to be elected to the District Coordination Committee and if elected their status as a local representative will lapse.

District Coordination Committee

The District Coordination Committee ( ne, जिल्ला समन्वय समिति, abbreviation: DCC) was formed on March 14, 2017, to replace the existing

district development committee The District Development Committee, popularly DDC, is a district level governing bodies in Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्र ...

. Each of the 77 districts in Nepal have their own district coordination committees in. The Head of a district development committee is elected by the district assembly. The government also appoints a Local Development Officer in each district development committee who heads the DCC in absence of an elected head or deputy head. The DCC acts as an executive to the district Assembly. The DCC coordinates with the Provincial Assembly to establish coordination between the Provincial Assembly and rural municipalities and municipalities and to settle disputes, if any, of political nature. It also maintains coordination between the provincial and Federal government and among the local bodies in the district. It also monitors development within the district.

List of district coordination committees with their heads

References

{{Reflist

External links

Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development (Nepal)
Local government in Nepal Districts of Nepal