It has been a decade since the implementation of the provincial structure. The second term of the provincial assembly is in its final year. In the meantime, the government leadership has changed five times, the cabinet has been reshuffled several times, and many ministers have changed.

The exercise of changing the Chief Minister has been going on again since Tuesday. But there is still no decision on where the permanent capital of the province will be. There is no sign of a decision. Seven years have passed since the provincial assembly decided to designate Godavari in Kailali as the provincial capital by a two-thirds majority. But there is no indication of implementation.

The location of the permanent capital was decided in the first term of the provincial assembly. In the provincial assembly meeting of 2017, two-thirds of the decision was made to build the permanent capital of the Far West in Godavari Municipality-4, Teghari Godavari, Kailali. After the capital was declared, the provincial government had also allocated budget for the construction of the capital's infrastructure in two consecutive fiscal years.

In addition, at that time the government had also issued an order for the formation of the capital infrastructure development. But it could not be implemented . But even after seven years of the decision, the decision has not been implemented and is in a state of limbo  . Until now, work has been carried out from the offices that were temporarily managed in Dhangadhi, which is the temporary capital   

When the capital was to be declared, the decision was made by a two-thirds majority of the then NCP government in the provincial assembly. The Nepali Congress, which was in the opposition, had protested and boycotted the assembly that day  . At that time, 38 NCP MPs voted in favor, while 12 from the Congress and 2 from the RJP had boycotted the voting process, expressing their disagreement  

Immediately after the decision, a case was filed in the Supreme Court in 2075 against the decision to place the capital in Godavari, saying that the forest area would be destroyed    Manish Kumar Shrestha and Devi Kumari Joshi had filed a case in the Supreme Court, saying that the decision to establish the provincial capital was made by destroying the biological route   Thekendra Prasad Joshi, the chief advocate of the provincial government, said that the case is still pending.

According to him, after the initial arguments of both parties, the court had issued an interim order not to stay the implementation of the decision. After that, no further arguments have been held on the case. The then chief advocate Kulananda Upadhyay, who has been postponing the hearing of the case many times, says. ‘The court did not issue a stay order.’ In other words, the implementation of the capital was not hindered because the case was filed. The problem arose because the right of occupancy was not obtained,’ he said.

In the meantime, no one has shown effective initiative to decide on the permanent capital. In the provincial assembly meeting in Magh last year, some MPs had raised the issue of the capital. But the issue was dropped. At that time, MP Shiv Singh Oli had said that the implementation in Godavari was not due to his intention not to make the capital and that the capital should be decided even if it was in another place.

The then government had written to the Ministry of Forests and the Prime Minister's Office in 2017, demanding the right to occupy 444 bighas of land, including the survey and mapping of the Godavari area declared as the capital, as determined by the Provincial Assembly. Reminding that the jurisdiction to determine the capital lies with the Provincial Assembly constitutionally, the provincial government had written to the Ministry of Forests in the process of requesting the right to occupy only the necessary land out of the 444 bighas and to protect the remaining forest.

But the implementation process could not move forward as the federal government did not take any decision on the right to occupy. 'The implementation could not move forward because the Ministry of Forests did not grant the right to occupy,' said the then Chief Justice Kulananda Upadhyay, 'At that time, the provincial government made many efforts at various levels to obtain the right to occupy. As requested by the Ministry of Forests, all documents including the land revenue and survey offices were sent. But since the ministry did not take a decision, it was stuck.'

The Ministry of Forests has not taken any decision yet. "At that time, we met the Prime Minister repeatedly and demanded the land tenure rights," said the then Chief Minister Trilochan Bhatta. "If the Union government had granted the land tenure rights, the construction of physical infrastructure in Godavari would have started at that time." He said that the land tenure file was stuck in the Prime Minister's Office and the Ministry of Forests.

Since it was not possible to have a permanent capital in Godavari, the current government led by Kamal Bahadur Shah had also started the homework of establishing the capital in Dhangadhi last year. Social Development Minister Meghraj Khadka said, "Last year, an initiative was taken at the central level to decide to keep the permanent capital in Dhangadhi. Discussions had also started at the then top political level. But due to the changed political situation, it could not be finalized." Minister Khadka said that the government has started discussions about keeping it on the 13 bigahs of land spread from the Office of the Chief Minister and Council of Ministers to the Drinking Water Office.

In addition to Dhangadhi, there was informal discussion among the leaders about whether the capital should be located in the area where the fishery center is located in Geta. A two-thirds majority in the provincial assembly is required to declare the capital in another place. Currently, there is a joint government of the Congress and the UML. Two-thirds of these two parties are not enough. For that, the support of the opposition party NCP is also required.

Meanwhile, as soon as the discussion started about making the capital in Godavari, the buying and selling of land and the price increase in the surrounding areas, in the Attariya area and the area above Godavari increased. Land plotting work had also increased. According to businessmen in Attariya, the price of land in the Godavari area had doubled at that time. According to them, the land costing 30 lakhs per katha had increased to 60 lakhs after it was declared the capital. Now, amid uncertainty over whether the capital will be made in Godavari or not, Hari Bhattarai, a local of Attariya, said that the price of land has remained stable.

Chief Minister Shah has been repeatedly saying that he will change his previous decision on the capital. He says that the construction of physical infrastructure has not been able to proceed due to the unresolved dispute in Godavari and says that an alternative is needed. Chief Minister Shah says that he met the then Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and top leaders of other parties and made written and verbal requests to find a solution regarding the capital. But he says that there has been no hearing.

Crores spent on temporary office repairs
Crores are being spent every year on the repair of temporary structures in the provincial ministries located in Dhangadhi. According to the details of the Provincial Accounts Controller's Office, the government has spent 275.351 million in the six-year period from fiscal year 075/076 to 080/81. The highest amount of 102 million was spent in fiscal year 076/77. In fiscal year 081/82, the government had allocated 49.935 million for repairs to all ministries. In 082/83, Rs 128 million has been allocated for repairs.