Amid increasing grievances from the provincial government over various inter-governmental issues, the federal government is sending three secretary-led panels to study ways to resolve the issues by forming the Inter-State Council.

On Friday, the Prime Minister’s Office will send the three teams to different provinces to study and organise meetings of the inter-provincial councils as per the constitutional provision of Article 234.

The PMO Spokesperson Binod Kunwar said, the PMO is sending three teams led by secretaries of the PMO to provinces including representatives of National Planning Commission (NPC) and ministries including Home, Finance, Federal Affairs and General Administration and Law, Justice and Parliamentary affairs.  

Secretary Laxman Prasad Mainali will lead the team to Province 1 and 2; Secretary Lal Shankar Ghimire’s panel will visit Provinces 3 and Gandaki Province and Secretary Kedar Bahadur Adhikary’s team will visit Provinces 5, 7 and Karnali.

“All three teams will submit their report by August 7,” Kunwar said.

The teams would consult with the offices of head of the provinces, chief ministers and councils of minister and other ministries wherever necessary to carry out their studies.

They will study organisational management, policy, law, acts, rules, work procedure, process, standards and directives and whether they have implemented the model laws sent by the federal government.

Besides they would also study the situation of resources management, budget (revenue and expenditures), human resources, accepted positions, existing civil servants, vacant positions, and those appointed by provinces; infrastructure and other logistics (existing situation and budget allocation for the same) and coordination between Federal, Provincial and local governments and the problems they are facing.

Article 234 of the constitution stipulates an Inter-State Council to settle political disputes between the federation and a state and between states.

The council comprises the Prime Minister as Chairperson, Minister for Home Affairs of the Government of Nepal, Minister for Finance of the Government of Nepal and Chief Ministers of the concerned states as members.

The Inter-State Council may convene as often as required and the Council could invite a minister of the Government of Nepal and a minister of the concerned state who is responsible for the matter of dispute and a concerned expert to the meeting.

The Inter-State Council shall determine the rules of procedures of the meeting, according to the constitution.