Locals in Saptari have been agitating against the new restructuring of local bodies in the district. The locals have demanded an alternative restructuring of local bodies. People from the five VDCs that were merged with Bode Barsain have demanded that they be separated from the municipality. The agitating villagers reached district headquarters Rajbiraj and submitted a memorandum addressed to the government, demanding secession from the municipality. Locals of Malhaniya, Belahi, Mauwaha, Rautahat, and Ram Nagar VDCs have also demanded that their VDCs be merged with Bihul Pashchim Rural Municipality. Coordinator of the struggle committee formed by these locals Chhatra Narayan Yadav said that these VDCs were very far from the headquarters, making it difficult for them to access services such as education, health, and road network. “We believe that we have to be merged with the rural municipality instead,” said Yadav. Locals in Rajbiraj Municipality have also been staging protest against what they term an unscientific merger of VDCs. The Rajbiraj Municipality Border Reform Struggle Committee is leading the agitation, and has submitted a memorandum regarding the same. Likewise, locals from Saptakoshi have padlocked the office of Saptakoshi Municipality for days to protest of the reclassification of their municipality as a rural municipality in the restructuring report. An all-party meeting of eight local forces had decided to change the municipality into a rural municipality.