THE YAKHA: CULTURE, ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT IN ...

King Mahendra in 1960 after he accused the Congress party of
mismanagement, abolished parliament, and in 1962 established the
partyless pancayat system of local government to take its place,
A panc6yat was an administrative unit of approximately 5,000 people.
The pradhan pa-c was elected, and was assisted by a deputy and by a
pancBvat secretary (a government appointment). Each of the nine wards
into which the panciiyat was divided up was headed by a varD adhyaksha
(' chairman' ) , assisted by 'members' (sadasya,. In terms of
administrative areas, above the pancayat came the ilFtk6, a group of (in
our case four) panc6vats and the basis for the divisions of the pol ice.
Above this was the district (ji116) led by a government appointed Chief
District Officer and above that the 'zone' (aflcal). A rFts.Triya
panc6vat assembly existed in Kathmandu made up of e!ec ted
representatives one from each ilBkB. At the local level, pancavat
meetings were held roughly once a month, and p8u--sabhB (village
assemblies) once a year, when the r8s.Triva ~ancfivat member was supposed
to be in attendance.
While the king claimed the pancayat system was true democracy,
opponents argued that the system merely served as a vehicle for the
abuse of power by loca! elites, and that there could be no democracy
without pol i t ica! part ies, which were banned under the pancayat system.
Speaking at a practical leve!, it was difficult to imagine a person who
was not weal thy becoming a pradhBn pa-c (cf, becoming president of the
United States), not just because of the money which might have to be
expended to secure election, but also because the responsibilities of
the job required the bulk of the pradhgn pa-c's time to be fu!fi!!ed,
and the job carried no salary. There were no expenses paid even for the