Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Wednesday assured full support to chief ministers and principal secretaries of the provincial governments.

In their first ever meeting with the prime minister, the provincial representatives urged PM Oli to provide model laws immediately and cease offices of federal governments at the district and regional levels.

They complained to the prime minister that they set all ministries in one single building with no residence for the ministers because of lack of infrastructure.

The executive and administrative heads of the provinces drew prime minister’s attention to their problems. Lack of laws, human and financial resources crunch and shortage of infrastructure prevent them from working smoothly, they complained.

Further, the reluctance of the government employees to move to the provinces and the local governments stalled routine administrative work.

In the meeting that lasted more than six hours, KP Oli listened to all their problems and assured them of all possible help from the federal government.

Speaking to the media after the meeting, Province 2 Chief Minister Lalbabu Raut said, “While we continue to face the problem of lack of staff, even those deployed do not co-operate. Preparing the budget is another major problem. We have urged the prime minister to resolve these problems so that we can move ahead.”

The provincial representatives also urged PM Oli to facilitate co-ordination and co-operation between the central and provincial governments.

They were of the view that as they were working to set up the foundations for administrative structures and enact laws, the federal government should deploy talented officials who have expertise in specific sectors.

In response, PM Oli said a panel led by Attorney General Agni Kharel is working on model laws to bring uniformity in all the provinces.

Speaking to the Post, Prime Minister’s Office Secretary Khag Raj Baral said, “The prime minister informed that the panel would complete the draft laws within 15 days. While the Federal Parliament would endorse the federal Acts, the provinces would draft their laws based on the model they receive.”

PM Oli also directed Chief Secretary Lok Darshan Regmi to attend to the issue of staff mobilisation immediately. “Deploy staff to their respective duty stations,” he ordered.

Minister for Finance Yubaraj Khatiwada told the meeting that the ministry would table a white paper that would give a complete picture of the country’s present financial position. The ministry would allocate resources to the lower level governments after evaluating the status, he said.

The ministers of the Federal Parliament were of the view that as six were temporary headquarters, barring Surkhet, it would not be prudent to allocate huge resources to set up infrastructure before declaring permanent headquarters.

 “The government is positive towards addressing your concerns,” PM’s political advisor Bishnu Rimal quoted Oli as saying.

“As federalism is a new topic, we should work together to find the solutions.”

PM Oli also urged the CMs to compete for development. He said neither the federal nor the provincial government has excuse for not working for prosperity.