National
Chief ministers lament lack of laws, resources
A two-day conclave of provincial chief ministers ended in Pokhara on Friday, concluding that the implementation of federalism would be impossible without effective functioning of provincial governments.Lal Prasad Sharma
A two-day conclave of provincial chief ministers ended in Pokhara on Friday, concluding that the implementation of federalism would be impossible without effective functioning of provincial governments.
Saying that the provincial governments have failed to live up to the expectations of people due shortage of resources, physical infrastructure, necessary human resources and laws, the chief ministers called for the support from federal government to make the provincial government strong and effective.
The gathering has issued a nine-point common view paper that stresses on the need for decentralisation of legislative, financial and administrative powers The first point of the paper has demanded the formation of a high-level body chaired by Prime Minister for the implementation of federalism.
The chief ministers have also recommended forming a permanent secretariat of Inter-state Coordination Council that could work as a bridge between federal and provincial governments.
The other key recommendation is making arrangements at the council secretariat to ensure that the suggestions and proposals forwarded by the provincial cabinets get timely response.
The chief ministers have suggested that senior government secretaries should be appointed the chief secretaries of province governments, and, once they have accumulated enough experiences on the job, they should be considered as candidates for the post of chief secretary at the federal government.
They have also proposed that job experience as province secretary should count when promoting a joint secretary to the post of secretary.
The chief ministers have called for integration of bureaucrats, saying that the senior-most joint secretaries should be assigned the post of province secretaries, and the candidate for secretary must have the experience of working as a province secretary.
The meeting has recommended setting criteria through provincial law to form the civil service commissions to hire employees. Before the provinces have formed the commissions, the chief ministers have suggested hiring temporary staff.
The chief ministers have also demanded the government to enact necessary federal laws to form provincial police.
The conclave has called on the government to make the district administration offices accountable to their respective province governments, as the tasks related to issuing citizenship certificates and passports, and border security come under the jurisdiction of chief district officers.
The chief ministers have also asked the federal government to urgently approve and deploy the staff and office units as per the recommendations made by each province.
The conclave lamented that there has not been scientific distribution of natural resources, though the Article 250 of the constitution has the provision for formation of National Natural Resource and Financial Commission for proper distribution of natural and economic resources.
The meeting has demanded the formation of a commission a system for precise, scientific and transparent distribution of national financial resources.
It has demanded a system for sharing the revenue based on equitable principle whereby 40 percent of the national resources go to federal government and 60 percent go to province and local levels.
Saying that the formulation and implementation of budget has been mired in confusion as the development projects to be undertaken by three tiers of government has not been classified, the chief ministers have demanded for sorting the projects.