First inter-provincial council meeting begins in Singhadurbar

Published On: December 9, 2018 12:08 PM NPT By: Republica  | @RepublicaNepal


KATHMANDU, Dec 9: The first inter-provincial council meeting has started at the Prime Minister’s Office in Singhadurbar.

Chief Ministers of all seven provinces have already arrived in Kathmandu to attend the first inter-provincial council meeting.

During the meeting, chief ministers of seven provinces are to share their issues with Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli. The ministers of the federal government are also taking part in the meeting.

“The meeting will dwell on the status of the implementation of federalism,” Oli’s Press Advisor Kundan Aryal told Republica Online. The chief ministers have a bundle of complaints against the federal government. 

Most chief ministers have common grievances with the center, such as lack of staff, federal government ‘prejudice’ in budget allocation to the provinces, delay information of a natural resources commission, and the center’s reluctance to formulate necessary laws, among others.

“We will put forth the issues we are facing in our day-to-day work, including the federal government’s delay in lawmaking, the blocking of provincial laws concerning matters such as police and public service commissions, shortage of staff, inadequate budgets for the provinces, confusion about which projects to oversee and dearth of cooperation and coordination between the center and the provinces,” said Chief Minister of Province 1, Sher Dhan Rai. “We have attached high importance to the meeting and have high hopes it will facilitate the province governments working in full swing.” 

Prime Minister KP Oli has convened the meeting of the inter-provincial council nearly a year after the formation of the provincial governments and he has done so only under incessant pressure from the chief ministers of various provinces. 

Earlier, in September, the chief ministers gathered in Pokhara, capital of Gandaki Province, and criticized the federal government for lack of cooperation, for not helping implement federalism, delaying the formulation of laws and not distributing adequate resources to the provinces. 


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