Kathmandu, October 3   

Nepal Administrative Staff College has established Federalism Study Centre. The study centre has been established to carry out study, research and capacity enhancement on federal governance system by building the capacity of public administration and governments of various levels.

The centre has the objective of functioning as a resource centre for conducting research on various aspects in the implementation of federalism. It aims at increasing the capacity of civil servants and people’s representatives, analysing international practices, borrowing knowledge, organising workshops and conferences, and documenting and preserving works related to federalism.     The Constitution of Nepal has allocated tasks and responsibilities of the federal, province and local levels by specifying their specific rights and duties.

Experts are of the view that problems have started to surface in the federal structure due to lack of uniformity between the vision of the constitution and the practice.

National Assembly Chair Ganesh Prasad Timilsina, speaking at a discussion programme on various aspects of the future course of action of the centre and federalism implementation, urged supporters of federalism to be proactive to protect the federal system in the context of various unnecessary comments on the concept of federalism itself. Former minister Rekha Sharma stressed on the need to strongly articulate the division of work among the three levels of governments.

Chair of the National Natural Resource and Fiscal Commission Balananda Poudel said the Staff College had been active for implementation of the statute and federalism. He assured the commission’s cooperation to the centre.  Expert on federalism Pitambar Sharma called for strengthening the relation among federal, provincial and local governments as per the constitution’s spirit and provisions. He also stressed on improving the performance of public administration.

Constitution expert Bipin Adhikari suggested to move forward by coordinating all issues of the provinces as per the spirit of federalism.

Joint Secretary Baburam Shrestha at the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration, Secretary Bharat Raj Gautam at the Parliament Secretariat, Bishnu Adhikari of The Asia Foundation, federalism expert Khim Lal Devkota and Nepal Administrative Staff College’s Executive Director Punya Prasad Neupane expressed their conviction that the study centre would play an important role in leading the country ahead on the path of prosperity by consolidating the federal structure.