WORRISOME SITUATION

The Kathmandu Post

12 January 2018

WORRISOME SITUATION

Naming temporary capitals of seven provinces has been a headache for the government. Demonstrations by the local people demanding that their respective districts name the capitals of their provinces are being carried out in several parts of the country. The government has the constitutional responsibility of fixing temporary capitals until the respective state assemblies name their capitals. However, the government seems to be in dilemma when it to taking this step considering the sensitivity and emotions attached with this issue. 

Nonetheless, the government does not seem to have other options besides naming the temporary venues at the earliest to help move along the process of federalisation soon after the completion of the national assembly which is scheduled on February 7, 2018 (“Govt to fix temp ‘meeting venues’, not state HQs” January 10, Page 3). Earlier, the government was thinking of inviting all the provincial parliament members to Kathmandu to take their oaths. This was widely criticized as being against the spirit of federalism. 

It seems that the major parties did not do proper homework on several key issues concerning federalism which is creating difficulties now. Allocating a budget to run local and provincial governments, assigning human resources, naming temporary capitals, appointing governors and identifying appropriate infrastructures are some of the crucial things which need immediate action. According to a recent article, the government is facing difficulty in securing necessary budget to run the provincial governments. Looking at these worrisome situations, it seems that the federal structure for a poor country could be very expensive.

Rai Biren Bangdel

Maharjgunj   

http://kathmandupost.ekantipur.com/printedition/news/2018-01-12/worrisome-situation.html