SIRAHA, JUNE 30

Province 2 Chief Minister Lalbabu Raut has accused the federal government of not showing interest in implementing federalism effectively.

"As to how the central government is implementing even small projects worth just a few million rupees, it clearly shows that the government at the centre is not sincere about implementing federalism and is instead infringing upon the jurisdiction of the provincial and local governments," said the chief minister, while inaugurating Siraha's Bishnupur Rural Municipality's seventh village assembly today.

Raut also accused the federal government of discriminating against Province 2 while allocating budget.

"In federalism, budget should be allocated on the basis of population size and poverty level in provinces, but Province 2, which has high population density and is performing worse than Karnali Province in some respects has got less budget," said the CM, stressing the need for more budget for the province with high population and poverty level.

"No matter how good projects we have, they can't be implemented if we lack fund for the same," he said, also lamenting what he called non-cooperation from high-level staff deployed by the centre.

CM Raut expressed confidence that the Supreme Court would reinstate the dissolved Parliament. "As the House dissolution was unconstitutional, the apex court will revive the dissolved House and Sher Bahadur Deuba will become the prime minister," Raut said, hoping Sher Bahadur Deuba's accession to the post of prime minister would facilitate implementation of federalism.

The village assembly held today made public its budget worth Rs 350 million for the upcoming fiscal year.

A version of this article appears in the print on July 1 2021, of The Himalayan Times.