14 Council members, including 4 ward chairpersons, have padlocked the office of the Chair, vice-chair, and the administrative building of Kachakawal Rural Municipality on August 27 over a dispute about budget.

They had protested against the Chairperson Anjara Alam's decision of reducing the budget ceiling arbitrarily from Rs. 6 million to Rs. 1 million, and increasing the tax rate up to 3 times contrary to the decision of the Revenue Advisory Committee without holding an executive meeting.

Earlier they had submitted a memorandum on August 13 demanding that the budget allocation and the tax rate should remain the same as the previous fiscal year and had given an ultimatum of five days to rectify the decision.