Unwilling and reluctant

The Himalayan Times

1 August 2019

Unwilling and reluctant

Following the promulgation of the new constitution in 2015, Nepal has entered the federal structure, with elected governments in all the three levels in place. Federalism was greatly talked about, using very fancy words by all the political parties, especially the three major political parties, namely, the then UML, the NC and the then NCP-Maoists. On the other hand, political critics used to heavily criticize them for pushing forward this undoable concept and cast doubts about whether the federal structure could be implemented in the real sense. 

It’s been almost two years since all the three levels of governments have been working in line with the federal structure. However, the provincial and local level governments seem to be struggling in performing their functions as envisaged by the constitution and in meeting the high expectations of the people. They have not been able to function fully due to lack of a clear organizational set-up, inadequate laws, limited staff and resources “Flint, federalism and way forward” (THT, July 30, Page 6).  There seems to be reluctance and an unwillingness of the federal government to devolve power to the provincial governments. 

The provincial governments seem to be functioning on their own due to lack of proper laws and haphazardly spending their budgets on luxurious and other non-productive items, may be, due to over-enthusiasm of the elected officials, raising questions about their roles and responsibilities. People opine that federalism in Nepal seems to have localized corruption to a significant level. So, the time has come for the centre to be sincere and serious in devolving power with necessary laws to the provincial and local governments as envisaged by the constitution. Otherwise, the implementation of federalism will remain incomplete.

Rai Biren Bangdel

Maharjgunj