Kathmandu, October 28 In the wake of criticism from provincial governments that the federal government has not provided human and other resources as well as umbrella laws, the latter is considering calling the first ever meeting of the Inter-provincial Council. The centre-province conflict came to the fore after the government of Province 2 got its own Provincial Police Bill passed by ignoring federal bureaucrats and ruling party leaders’ warning that the bill should not precede a related umbrella law. Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s Chief Adviser Bishnu Rimal told The Himalayan Times that the chief ministers had expressed grievances and the prime minister wanted to hold the first council meeting with them after Tihar festival (in the second week of November) to sort out problems. According to Rimal, PM Oli wants to do some ground work before the council meets. The council meeting is chaired by the PM. The federal home minister, finance minister and the seven chief ministers are ex-officio members of the council. The PM also wants to call the chief secretaries of the seven provinces to the council meeting. As per constitutional provision, the council shall, according to need, invite to the meeting, ministers of the provinces and experts related to the subject of dispute. The government is planning to call the provincial chief secretaries to the meeting on the basis of this provision. The meeting was planned for the second week of September, but the PM cancelled it after the chief ministers met in Pokhara to set their agendas for the council meeting. The PM, according to sources, viewed this gathering as an attempt to unite against the central government. According to the provision in the constitution, the federal Parliament shall formulate necessary laws defining the jurisdictions of the three tiers of government on concurrent powers. However, the Province 2 Assembly had passed the Provincial Police Bill before these laws were brought. “We have been building the road and driving ourselves. It will be better if the Inter-Provincial Council meeting is held at the earliest,” Shankar Pokharel, chief minister of Province 5 told THT. Sherdhan Rai, chief minister of Province1 had urged the PM to hold the council meeting soon. The council is a constitutional/political mechanism for resolving problems between the federal and provincial governments and among provinces. Sources said the federal government felt pressure to engage the provinces in political dialogue after Province 2 Assembly went ahead with the process of passing its provincial police bill. According to sources, the federal government is also planning to amend the Civil Servants Adjustment Act and Regulations to offer more incentives to civil servants choosing to work in the provinces and local levels. A government secretary told THT that the dilemma the federal government faced was that if it offered handsome incentives, all employees would be tempted to go to the provinces and local levels and if it did not, nobody would be willing. A source at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers said one-third of the required number of civil servants sent to the provinces and local levels were yet to report to work. The source said the federal government faced pressure to either immediately enact umbrella laws or allow the provinces through executive order to enact their own laws.