The government is all set to register a new Federal Civil Service Bill in the Parliament after getting it endorsed by the Cabinet. Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal told the National Assembly the other day that the Federal Civil Service Bill together with the School Education Bill would soon be registered in the Parliament. It's been eight years since the new constitution was promulgated in 2015, which required that all laws related to the implementation of federalism in the country be enacted within three years. Nepal's constitution has restructured the government into federal, province and local levels, but due to the absence of laws to devolve administrative power to the provincial and local levels, the country continues to function very much like a unitary state. It is a fact that the provincial governments have largely failed to deliver, raising questions about whether federalism is suitable for this country. The provincial and local governments accuse the federal government for the poor service delivery for lack of the necessary administrative staff.

Adjustment of government employees is a major component in the implementation of federalism. But adjustment of government employees in the three tiers of the state has been problematic. As many as 47,920 government employees were to be adjusted in the federal government, and another 22,755 in the provincial government and 67,503 in the local level.

The government has adjusted the employees without giving them an option to choose from the three tiers of government. Employees seem disinterested to join the provincial and local level administration away from the capital, worried as they are about their promotion, career opportunities and financial re-wards. The adjusted employees are reluctant to work in the places deployed because the adjustment seems to have been politicised on many occasions. The government employees have been adjusted in accordance with the Employees Adjustment Act, even though the Federal Civil Service Bill should have been enacted by the Parliament prior to the employees' adjustment.

If the government is serious about implementing and strengthening federalism in the country, then the federal civil service bill and education bill should be endorsed in the true spirit of the constitution. After Nepal became a federal state, the district-level offices looking after education, forestry, agriculture, health, urban development, for instance, were done away with. However, they have appeared under a different label at the provincial level, such as the Division Forest Office, Water Supply and Sanitation Division and the like. Under the new constitution school education up to class 12 now falls under the jurisdiction of the local level. oHHowever, the federal government's attempt to revive the District Education Offices in the guise of Education Development and Coordination Units has met with stiff opposition from the local levels. Such arrangement not only curtails the rights of the local level, as provisioned by the constitution, but also goes against the spirit of the Local Government Operation Act 2017. Any tendency to prop up centralism at this stage by hoodwinking the people will be counterproductive.

Complete the project

Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Shakti Bahadur Basnet has instructed the concerned contractor to complete the multi-purpose Bheri Babai Diversion Project within the deadline. Initiated in 2015, the irrigation project is scheduled to complete within 2023. The project has already completed the construction of a 12,208-metre-long tunnel to channel water from the Bheri River to the Babai River to irrigate 51,000 hectares of land in Bardiya and Banke. It also aims to generate 46MW of electricity from the multi-purpose project, whose estimated cost is Rs 30 billion.

However, the project has completed only 50 per cent of the work in the last eight years. Construction of the project was delayed due to the earthquake, border blockade and spread of COVID-19, which led to a halt of all construction activities for over a year. The issue of compensation to the affected people has yet to be resolved. Minister Basnet directed the concerned authorities to settle the compensation issue at the earliest. The delay in completing the project will not only lead to massive cost overrun, the country will also lose economic benefits from the project, which aims to provide irrigation facility in Banke and Bardiya throughout the year.

A version of this article appears in the print on September 06, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.