Chief ministers from two provinces have blamed the centralised mindset of the top leadership and bureaucrats as a major factor hindering them from performing well as executive heads of the provinces.

Although the country has adopted federalism, the bureaucracy has yet to get out of the old mindset and the central leadership is “unwilling” to delegate powers to the lower  level governments, the chief ministers said while sharing their views during a roundtable organised by the Kantipur Media Group in the Capital on Thursday. “The provinces would have been functioning properly by now if the previous central government had done some preparations in this regard,” they said.

Lack of required laws, resources and infrastructure is holding them back, said Province 2 Chief Minister Lal Babu Raut. “Even the ministers are compelled to stay at hotels. The bureaucrats don’t follow our orders and it is the same case with police and the local administration,” Raut said, adding that dependency on the central government for resources was stopping them from working independently.

“What can you expect us to do under these circumstances?” he wondered.

Province 1 CM Sher Dhan Rai said: “People have high expectations from us and we don’t have excuses for non-performance. Therefore, we have asked Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli to resolve these problems.” Rai urged the federal government to immediately endorse necessary laws and provide model laws to the provinces.

The law related to the shared authority between the federal and provincial governments and between the three tiers of governments should be in place immediately, he said.

The provinces need 22 Acts, while the local level needs six for their full-fledged operation.

The provinces have not even endorsed a single law due to the lack of cooperation from the federal government, according to CMs.

As provinces have limited scope for raising taxes, Rai suggested that the federal government take proactive measures to broaden their jurisdiction for generating revenues.