I favour proportionate development, not proportionate distribution

Province 3 Chief Minister Dormani Paudel wants to develop his province as a model province in the federal set-up with the aim of having in place integrated services. He wants to focus on agriculture, tourism, energy, cooperatives and connectivity. In the agriculture sector, Paudel is focused on plotting and collective farming. Ram Kumar Kamat of The Himalayan Times talked to him about his plans to achieve the goals of overall development in Province 3. Excerpts:

People want you to develop this province as a model province. Do you think that is achievable?

We will be completing two years in office in three-and-a-half months. We have faced multiple challenges since day one, but we have overcome them and what we have achieved thus far is not less significant.

In the past, those who were at the helm of affairs, tended to allocate resources to their favourites, but I am in favour of distributing resources on the basis of need. In fact, I am in favour of proportionate development, not proportionate distribution. Our system and style of functioning is traditional. This needs to change to meet the challenges of modern times. All tiers of government should be confined to their jurisdictions, which must be clearly defined. The federal government should not be concerned about small projects such as canal and irrigation projects in rural municipalities. We have seen federal budget allocated for rural areas. This should not happen. Neither the federal nor provincial government should interfere in small projects that fall under the local governments’ jurisdiction.

Recently there were instances where the federal government took control of provincial government projects. What are your views on this?

We are still in transition. It is because of the old mentality that those in power are not ready to give all the powers to local governments. This is happening because the old system has been in place for the last 200 to 250 years. We have 602 road projects for which we needed around Rs 4.5 billion, but we have received only Rs 1 billion. The federal government handed over some projects and when we asked the government to give us fund for those projects, it started saying that it would build those projects with its own money. When the federal government transfers projects to us, it should also be ready to give fund for the same.

I think it is more important to carry out development work than to talk of rights and powers. My view is that if the federal government wants to complete any project, it can do so. If local governments want to build certain projects, they too can do so. We should not squabble over projects. Provinces do not have necessary means and resources to implement all the projects.

We have not formed our Provincial Public Service Commission. If we want to fill all the vacant posts, we will need one more year. At present, we have employees sent by the federal government under the adjustment plan, but some of them lack experience and expertise. We are bound to rely on the federal government for employees at least for sometime. This is also one reason why we have failed to do the work people expect from us.

Many friends tell me that the federal government is interfering in provincial governments’ jurisdiction, but given the lack of staff and resources, I think we should not blame the federal government. But if provincial governments have the means and resources to successfully complete projects, and if the federal government still interferes in the provincial governments’ jurisdiction, then we must oppose. At present, we cannot blame the federal government and when I say this, I do not mean that everything is fine.

What plans do you have to develop projects during your tenure?

I have some dreams. I think our major focus should be agriculture. We always said that we should commercialise agriculture and revolutionise production methods by mechanising it and using scientific methods, but what we did was just the opposite. We need to depart from the current modes of agriculture. We exported our products to foreign countries in the past, but today we are importing those products from foreign countries. This situation must end because we are predominantly an agricultural country. We must increase agro products. Despite the federal government’s slogans of modernising the agriculture sector, we have not seen any positive results. We will modernise agriculture, promoting plotting and collective farming. It is a well-known fact that farmers have to throw their products due to lack of market. This should end. We have said we will take new agriculture programmes to all 13 districts, 66 electoral districts and 119 local levels of our province. There will be some big projects at the district level and middle type projects in constituencies and local levels, but they will be for collective farming. We have already started it in our province. In Sindhuli, we have started collective farming in 121 bigha land. We have also started fisheries in more than 400 places. We have finalised our plan to start collective farming in around 10,000 ropani land in Nuwakot district. We are trying to build cold storage in all 13 districts of our province. We also have a plan to build small cold storages in various pockets of our province to help farmers keep their produce fresh for days so that they won’t have to see their produce go waste due to lack of cold storage. We also have a plan to provide integrated service to farmers. For example, in places where we start sweet lime or kiwi farming, we will provide all kinds of related services. This means we will provide cold storage, transpiration, irrigation, drinking water, road and other services to those areas.

We are also trying to help maintain a balance between demand and supply of agro products. Let’s take the example of Kalimati vegetables and fruits market. If this market only needs 500 tonnes of products but is supplied 10,000 tonnes that will create a situation where farmers will have to sell their produce at very cheap prices. Our government is trying to change this situation. Within a short span of time, Province 3 has become self-reliant on fish and meat products. In order to discourage flower import, I publicly said that if anybody wanted to offer me flowers in any event as a gesture of respect, I would prefer domestic flowers and I think because of my stance, we are almost reliable in the flower business these days. Eighty per cent of flowers are being supplied by the domestic market in my province and only 20 per cent is imported. I think we will be able to produce enough flowers very soon and we will not have to import any flower from any foreign country. During Tihar, we did not have to bring flowers from foreign countries.

We are going to make it our policy to use our own local products as far as possible. Local governments should also bring a policy for promoting their own products.

Another important aspect of the economy is cooperatives. The government has said that cooperatives are also one of the three pillars of our economy, but the contradiction is that the government has prohibited cooperatives from investing in industries and businesses.

We have enacted laws allowing cooperatives to open any business they like. We have seen across the world that cooperatives have run big industries. In India, Amul Dairy company is run by cooperatives. Cooperatives are also running vehicle factories. We need to use our cooperatives’ money to build our nation.  Unused funds of cooperatives should be used in nation building programmes. Our model should focus on PPPC approach.

We have signed a memorandum of understanding with NRNs to carry out agriculture programmes in the districts of Province 3. We have also appealed to our youth forces to bring experience and technological skills learned in foreign countries. We are now able to produce enough milk needed for the population of the province.

How do you plan to develop industries in your province?

We have problems in acquiring land for industries. Land prices have sky-rocketed to such a level that those wanting to set up industries cannot buy land for the purpose. The government has not been able to provide land to new industries because the government also does not possess land. Most of the land plots under government ownership actually belong to forests. We cannot easily use forest land.

We are trying to negotiate with the federal government on providing government land to industries. We have a policy of building industrial village in all 119 local levels where we will teach people to produce goods of all kinds. We will also try to find market for locally manufactured goods. We must be able to find market for local products or else we cannot motivate people to invest in the manufacturing business.

In Bhaktapur, we have started selling locally made goods from Kosheli Kendra, which sells goods worth Rs 50,000 everyday. Industries have complained that they have to pay very high tax for raw materials that they import from foreign countries. This make it difficult for them to manufacture goods at a competitive price. We have told the finance minister to resolve their issues.

Tourism is another pillar of our economy and we need to make people aware of it. We do not have enough infrastructure to develop tourism. We have failed to maintain our religious sites, including the Pashupatinath temple and Lumbini. Cleanliness is also a problem at our religious sites. The government cannot build hotels at religious sites. Only private businesses can do that.

I think the government can provide incentives to entrepreneurs to build hotels in those places. One may think that tourists are not contributing to our economy but we must understand that if a tourist has tea at a religious site, then the payment made by the tourist goes to 20 to 22 places and thus tourist expenditure contributes to the economy as a whole. Tourism will play an important role in achieving progress.

What programmes do you have in the health and education sectors?

We introduced ‘one school one nurse programme’ in 20 schools last year which became quite popular in our province. We are planning to expand it to other schools as well. We are moving ahead with the programme of introducing technical education in all local levels. We have given minimum fund to government colleges to help them run their educational programmes effectively. In order to achieve the goals of development and prosperity, Province 3 government wants to launch development programmes in an integrated manner.

We are planning to start Chief Minister Health Check-up programme in the province which will enable the poor people to get their whole body checked. We are also trying to strengthen local government hospitals so that people can get good, affordable care in government health facilities. We will have Madan Bhandari Institute of Health Sciences in Hetauda.

People see province-3 as a model province. What have you done thus far to develop the province and what are your future plans?

It is natural for people to see Province 3 as a model province as Kathmandu, the national capital is in this province. We are going to set up a construction company which will construct major government projects. We are in the process of registering the company. The company will carry out major construction works in projects, which the government has accorded high priority to.

We will also set up a transport corporation to run electric buses with the aim of replacing petrol and diesel-based transportation within 10 years. We are also planning to construct Kulekhani-Bhimphedi tunnel project, which I think will lessen travel time from Hetauda to Kathmandu. This tunnel will reduce 227-kilometre transportation to 50 kilometres. The tunnel will be three-and-a-half kilometres long.

This tunnel project will be much cheaper if we compare it in the long term, and as such the project will have positive impact not only on the economy of Province 3, but also on the entire country. We are going to call a tender for this project within the next four months. This will be a game-changer project.

Province 3 is working to achieve major

progress in areas such as connectivity, transportation, economy, health, education and agriculture.

When will you decide on the name and headquarters of your province?

Let me remind you that in the last session of the Provincial Assembly, I had told the House that in the next session these two issues would be decided and I want to tell you the same.

Will the government put the issue to vote?

Yes, the government is going to put the issue to vote.

As far as provincial headquarters is concerned, I think it would be better if any city other than the capital city is named provincial headquarters because Kathmandu has all the infrastructure. The city that will be the provincial headquarters will have chance to develop its infrastructure.