KATHMANDU, JANUARY 23

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal today said he had proposed to cut expenditure burden and the number of ministries of provinces.

So, ministries of some provinces have been cut down accordingly, he said during a meeting with a team of ministers, lawmakers and political leaders of Sudurpaschim Province led by its Chief Minister Rajendra Singh Rawal.

The meeting was organised at the PM's official residence in Baluwatar today morning.

'Provinces themselves are autonomous. The constitution has clarified their work. The centre cannot interfere with their authority and we do not do so either.'

Stating that he was well aware about people's complaints that administrative expenditure of provinces had increased, and their fiscal good governance could not maintain due to large number of their structures, he stressed the need for making them impartial and economic.

'In the meeting of the ruling coalition partners, I have put the proposal to make provinces efficient and maintain good governance. All leaders including CPN (UML) Chair KP Sharma Oli have agreed on it,' he said.

It was also decided upon to allow only 10 percent of the total number of lawmakers in the respective provincial assembly to become a minister, he informed.

Some provinces have slashed the number of their ministries accordingly, he said. 'The act will keep fiscal good governance, and address people's complaints towards provinces.'

There should be competition among provinces at policy level and in the maximum mobilisation of resources, he viewed. 'We do have resources and potentialities in abundance. The trend of provinces being dependent on the centre should be ended. For that, there should be competition among provinces to manage policy, good governance, and efficient management and for the mobilisation and maximum utilisation of local resources.'

The PM said he would soon embark on a field-inspection of the national pride projects and other big ones.