Kantipur Media Group organized 'Kantipur Conclave 2024' a few weeks ago. Chief Ministers including the Prime Minister were invited there.

Chief Ministers Hikmat Kumar Karki (Koshi Pradesh), Satish Kumar Singh (Madhesh Pradesh), Bahadur Singh Lama (Wagmati Pradesh), Surendraraj Pandey (Gandaki Pradesh), Yamalal Kandel (Karnali Pradesh) and Kamal Bahadur in a separate 'session' titled 'Chief Minister's Main Issues' Shah (Sudorpaschim Pradesh) was present.

Lumbini Pradesh Chief Minister Chetnarayan Acharya was out of the country and Bhumishwar Dhakal was present as acting Chief Minister. In that one-and-a-half-hour session, the Chief Ministers expressed their views openly. In the

program, there was extensive use of terms such as sanduk and gun, asan and governance in association with state-level authority. Such terms were raised by the participants of the interaction program organized by the "Federalism and Localization Center" in all the seven provinces last August-August, from the participants including the chief minister, former chief minister, party leaders of the provincial assembly. The views expressed by the Chief Ministers in the

program have been published in this column on October 15 under the title 'Questions of the State'. This article has been prepared by summarizing the views expressed by the Chief Ministers in the October 15th article and the 'Kantipur Conclave'.

In this process, the problems of the province are portrayed as regional issues. Although the questions of the Chief Minister, these are the demands of strengthening the federal government system. The walls of the constitution are dynamic. The sooner we dismantle it, the sooner development, prosperity, good governance and the rule of law as envisioned by the Constitution will be possible.

Centralized mindset

Federalism in Nepal has come as an important link in conflict management. The synonym of federalism is province. It is the backbone of the constitution. If federalism is weakened, the constitution will be weakened. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the federal government and political parties to clean it up. However, the federal government is not so willing to make the province viable. The outlook of

political parties is also not positive. Those sitting at the state level have not been able to perform the expected supportive role in solving the problems of the state while they are in different roles at the federal level. On the contrary, some of them are engrossed in suppressing the rights of the provinces.

Federal government and political leadership have the thinking and mentality that the subordinate body of the union is the state level. Chief Ministers cannot act according to their discretion. Even in small appointments, the instructions of the central leaders should be followed. They should also do as they say in the allocation and appointment in the parliamentary committee. The state committee of the party has no status.

Only in the statement of the right of state power

Constitution has given the power of the state to the state. The definition of state power is the authority related to the executive, judiciary and legislature in the section of the constitution. When it comes to the executive, the personnel administration is not under the control of the province. The police administration has not reached the level of implementation.

The police has not been adjusted in the province. The writing of the constitution is one thing, the practice is completely different. There is no right about the judiciary.

When there is no word about the judiciary in the state section, why is it necessary to write that the state has the power of the state? Provinces are also deprived of the rights clearly written in the constitution. The unclear should be made clear by constitutional amendment and the clear should be implemented literally.

depicted as an obstacle

Office of the Auditor General and the World Bank have mentioned that the condition of capital expenditure of the province is better than that of the federal government.

The constitution considers the province as the carrier of development. If the report of the General Account and the World Bank is to be considered as the basis, development can take a leap if the provinces are allowed to work smoothly according to the intention of the constitution. However, the federal government and the political leadership have seen the province as an obstacle rather than a helper. This is unfortunate.

Bakheda in the use of police powers

The constitution has given the province police administration and peace security powers to the provinces. This is the exclusive right of the province. However, the federal government has not yet allowed the states to exercise this right. The province does not have enough financial resources to proceed with the work of police administration on its own. Let's leave the talk of traditional parties like Congress and UML.

Yesterday, the government led by the Maoist party did not allow the province to exercise this right, saying that the army, courts, police, etc. of the 10-year armed movement belong to the province. He hesitated on various pretexts. The Maoist-led government brought eight laws through an ordinance called the

investment conference. But the law is not complete to accommodate the police. If he had the will, he could have brought an ordinance for this too.

There is a big gang that states should not be given police powers. The government is run by it. Bakheda is moving. In fact, the province has no personnel administration under its control. Provinces are deprived of the feeling of having a government due to lack of police, staff and financial resources.

Problems in office management

The federal government has not helped in building the institutional structure of the provincial ministries/offices. For example, the situation of the ministries of Madhesh province is very critical. There is no minimum infrastructure and facilities of government offices/buildings including ministers and secretaries.

Almost the same situation exists in some other provinces. Again, the government structures used by the province, including Madhesh province, have not yet been transferred to the ownership of the province. The province is worried that the auditor general and other agencies will raise questions about the expenses incurred on the maintenance of structures that are not owned by them.

Lack of staff

Staff management at the provincial level is challenging. There is shortage of staff in all provinces including Wagmati province. The federal government does not replace the secretaries of the ministries including the chief secretaries on time. Some of the transferred employees return on their own. There is also no motivation among the working staff. Why work? For whom? It is also said. There is a lack of accountability and responsibility.

The Minister of Economic Affairs of a province informed that the branch officer was talking to him face to face saying 'what can you do'. The province also complains that newly promoted and retiring employees are sent to the province.

The news has been published that three billion budget is stuck in an office in Karnali due to lack of a boss. There is a big problem of staff at the provincial and local levels. But Singha Darbar is sitting comfortably. There is no point. Is there a state structure like this? 

Without Civil Law

In the midst of great political turmoil, we promulgated the Constitution in seven years. It took a decade since the constitution was promulgated. However, the Federal Civil Service Act has not come yet. Provinces and local levels are affected by it. Federal civil service law should be harmonized with state civil service law, state with local level. However, all this work has not been managed.

Union employees don't want/want to go to the state. But they are looking for provincial posts to be promoted. increase the number. That too sitting in the lion palace. Previous decentralization/decentralization could not be successful due to high ranking officials revolving around the Prime Minister/Minister.

Now the work of seizing and failing federalism is also being done by those employees. Prime Minister/Minister everyone knows this. But the problem is you.

The fault of the ugly organizational structure

Most of the offices and agencies in the districts under the province are the structures that were created and sent by the federal government in the beginning. Provinces including Wagmati Province proposed a single-door organization structure in government service districts. However, due to the pressure of the federal government and leaders, the state was forced to accept the ugly organization structure sent by the union itself.

I myself am a direct witness of this when I am the Vice Chairman of Planning Commission of Wagmati Province. The province is saying that the local government should open offices for agriculture, livestock, tourism, drinking water, irrigation, urban development etc. However, the proposals of all these organizations are of the federal government.

However, the state has to answer this. However, even if they wanted to, the provinces cannot go back from this. When creating many organizational structures, issues such as promotion and demotion of employees are connected. If the province tries to improve a little, the leaders will call. Must be reprimanded.

Narrow financial scope

The budget of the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure of Singh Durbar is more than the total budget of seven provinces. Most of the ministers of the Singha Darbar spend extravagantly. Most of the ministry's budget goes to their constituencies. The plans and programs of some ministries are smaller than those of the provincial and local levels. It is not discussed much.

The financial scope of the province was narrowed in the constitution itself. Fiscal transfers including revenue sharing were also affected. Financial transfers, including equalization grants, are cut by one-fourth at the time of disbursement after completion of the scheme. Since the plans have been completed but the amount to be paid is not forthcoming. Fiscal federalism is weak. It should be seriously reviewed.

Attack on the spirit of the Finance Commission

The job of determining the limits of financial transfer is the Finance Commission. But there is a problem in the scope of the commission itself. 15 percent of the revenue distribution and 25 percent of the royalty should be given to the province as written in the law. This is a serious error. It is wrong to restrict the jurisdiction of the commission by writing in the law.

Likewise, it is not the job of the Ministry of Finance to determine the limit of the equalization subsidy. This work also belongs to the commission. There is a need for reform in all matters such as the scope of revenue of the province, the determination of the limits of financial transfer and the distribution process. 

The problem of land acquisition

Land acquisition is a major problem of the province. Due to non-availability of land, the work of some infrastructure sectors including building construction has not progressed smoothly. To attract investors to invest in the province, land is needed first. The meeting of the National Coordination Council decided to solve this problem of the province as soon as possible. This work has not been done.

Inactive inter-level coordinating organization

Inter-provincial councils are provided in the constitution for solving the problems of the provinces. The meeting held on January 3, 2075 identified 84 improvement activities within 29 subject areas under the federalism implementation action plan. Many activities decided by the meeting have not yet been implemented.

The meeting of this council, whose members include the Prime Minister, Chairman, Chief Minister, etc., has not been held since May 2076. The arrangement of the National Coordination Council chaired by the Prime Minister is in the Union, State and Local Level (Coordination and Interconnection) Act. The meeting of the National Assembly was held for the first time on June 16, 2080, due to the frequent requests of the Parliamentary Special Committee for Federalism Implementation Monitoring. The

meeting made 6 decisions including removing the ambiguity and duplicity seen in the implementation level between the three levels of government, speeding up law making, and solving the problems seen at the provincial and local levels. So far those decisions have not been implemented.

Similarly, there is a provision in the Interconnection Act that there will be a subject committee under the chairmanship of the ministers of the subject ministries of the Government of Nepal. However, thematic committees are also not functional. The functioning of inter-level coordinating organizations is necessary for the dynamics of federalism. However, the federal government is sitting with oil in its ears.

Indifference in the implementation of the report

The National Assembly's Federalism Implementation Monitoring Parliamentary Special Committee gave its recommendations in 11 thematic areas including financial, administrative, service delivery, inter-level coordination and cooperation. In the

recommendations, the duplication of work between the levels of government should be ended, the civil service bill should be issued, the police should be adjusted in the province, the staff problem should be solved in the local and the province, the number of employees of the lion palace should be reduced by half, the structures incompatible with the federal structure should be abolished, the province and At the local level, the financial selling grant of the financial meeting subsidy, the conditional grant of the state of the good subsidy, including the government of not sending the territory subsidy, the part of the three-tenth government. However, no readiness of the federal government has no readiness in the implementation of recommendation.