Kathmandu

PM Oli meets chief ministers, senior officials of all seven provinces

PM Oli meets chief ministers, senior officials of all seven provinces

By Arjun Poudel

Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers.

KATHMANDU: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli today held a meeting with chief ministers, principal secretaries and chief attorneys of all seven provinces. In the meeting held at Singha Durbar, PM briefed the chief ministers and senior officials on the official policy of the federal government about development, its internal affairs and international relations. The PM also told that all governments—local, provincial and federal- shall work on behalf of the people and country, according to PM Oli's Political Advisor Bishnu Rimal. Likewise Rimal said that today's joint meeting of the PM with chief ministers and senior officials of all seven provinces was an important step towards implementation of federalism. 'There should be positive competition among the provincial governments in development works,' Rimal quoted PM Oli as saying. The PM also underlined the need of coordination between the federal government and the provincial government for prosperity and development of the country. Prime Minister Oli also asked to ensure uniformity in the works of all the provinces. Oli also told that the government would take help of all international partners, including southern and northern neighbors in the development works. He also asked to ensure that no one shall see death due to cold in the districts of Terai region and directed the officials to work for achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), which the country has committed to international communities. Defence Minister, Ishwor Pokhrel, Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa, Finance Minister Yuba Raj Khatiwada, Federal Affairs and General Administration Minister, Lal Babu Pandit were also present in the joint meeting. Likewise, Chief Minister of Province-2 Lal Babu Raut said chief ministers of all seven provinces have complained that provincial government lacked resources--human, economic, laws- and coordination with the federal government. 'We have discussed with the PM about overall problems which we have encountered,' said CM Raut. He said that all chief Ministers had drawn the PM's attention about crunch of technical manpower especially legal manpower to formulate laws in the provinces and resource crunch which have affected day to day work of the provinces. CM Raut said that he has also drawn PM's attention about citizenship issues in districts of Terai. CM of Province-5 Shankar Pokhrel said that today's joint meeting was crucial for implementation of the federalism. 'I hope today's meeting will help implement the constitution and federalism in a new way,' said Pokhrel. Likewise, CM of Province-7 Mahendra Bahadur Shahi said that the PM informed that the federal government will unveil white paper soon and committed to sort out problems encountered by the provincial governments.