Province 2 to appoint own CDOs, cites constitution

Published On: March 22, 2019 07:29 AM NPT By: Suresh Yadav


JANAKPUR, March 22: Unhappy with the federal government deputing chief district officers (CDOs) in Province 2, the government of the province is introducing a bill in the provincial assembly to counter this. If the bill gets endorsed by the provincial assembly the provincial government will have its own chief district administrators to do its bidding. 

A new bill on maintaining law and order drafted by the federal government, currently under discussion in parliament, has entrusted the CDOs with the task of mobilizing Nepal Police and the Armed Police Force (APF), overseeing the overall security situation in the districts and maintaining law and order.

As the CDOs take their orders from the home minister in the central government with regard to mobilizing the police forces, the chief ministers and ministers for internal affairs in the provinces don’t have any role in these matters. 

In a move to counter the powers and responsibilities of the CDOs, the Province 2 government in its bill proposes to appoint its own administrative chiefs in all eight districts of the province. 

The move was initiated by the provincial government concluding that federal law excessively empowers government officials deployed in the provinces. Province 2 Interior Affairs and Law Minister Gyanendra Kumar Yadav informed that the bill titled Province Administration Bill is almost ready and will be tabled soon at the provincial assembly.

Province 2 Chief Minister Lalbabu Raut had strongly objected to the federal government’s decision to deploy CDOs as its representatives. Also, he had warned that he would appoint parallel CDOs under the provincial government. The provincial government was demanding that it should be mandated to mobilize all civil servants in the province as per provincial law. 

Province 2 argues that the CDOs deployed by the federal government should be answerable to the central government only for two things—distributing citizenship and passports, and maintaining border security. Minister Yadav said the provincial government can’t accept the role of CDOs deployed from the center in maintaining internal law and order and acting as heads of the province civil servants. 

“We are appointing separate CDOs in the district on behalf of the provincial government as the federal government tried to mobilize CDOs in its own way, going against the spirit of the constitution,” said Yadav.

Stating that Annex 6 (1) of the 2015 Constitution empowers the provincial governments to mobilize its police and civil servants on its own, Yadav said, “We actually wanted to coordinate with the federal government but the federal government continued to ignore us. So we want to exercise full powers as enshrined in the Constitution.” 

The provincial assembly of Province 2 has already endorsed the Provincial Police Service Bill despite objections from ruling Nepal Communist Party lawmakers.


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