The Himalayan Times
22 September 2022
Federalism-a white elephant?
Nepal, as a Federal Republic state, completed its five years period following the completion of three tiers of elections held in accordance with the 2015 constitution. It is now entirely up to the political parties and their leaders to thoroughly and sincerely contemplate their acts in the past five years related to social, economic and political impacts on the nation and the people after adopting the federal structure in the country. This is the time for them to be seriously engaged in such deliberations keeping in mind the upcoming provincial and federal elections and considering the growing dissatisfaction of the general public towards the federalism and its ineffective operation in delivering the desired level of services to them as promised by the major political parties.
There are some issues and concerns which need to be seriously discussed among the stake-holders of the federalism with the objective of whether it should be continued or discontinued considering Nepal’s geographical size, location, number and scattered pattern of ethnic groups, dependency on migrant workers’ remittance and foreign aided development projects and the overall economic situation. Was the in-land revenue generated by the government sufficient enough to meet both the developmental and operational expenses of the country? Had it been effective in service delivery in the country, including education and health services? Were the provincial and local governments able to identify years of hardships of the local communities and effectively and appropriately address them? Was not the central level government reluctant to devolve its some power to the provincial governments?
Rai Biren Bangdel
Maharajgunj
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