Kathmandu, January 18

Along with the protest against government’s decision naming the temporary work stations in various parts of the country, the has begun setting up of provisional offices.

According to Secretary of the Ministry Dipendra Nath Sharma, the divisional offices of the ministry has started estimating costs for maintaining and setting up vital offices at the work stations from today. “Although today is a public holiday, our staffers have started their work as we are constrained due to time,” he added.

As per the constitution, the Provincial Assembly should be called within 20 days after the declaration of provincial assembly election results.

The Election Commission had declared the final result of provincial assembly result last Wednesday.

“The hall of the Provincial Assembly, Office and the residence of the governor will be managed soon”, Sharma added. He also informed that ministries and the residences of chief ministers, ministers and other offices would be managed in the second phase, the office of the chief secretary and related offices would be set up in the third phase.

The ministry has demanded RS 1.5 billion from Ministry of Finance for the set-up, which includes furnishing, painting, flooring and other necessary maintenance. “We will organise the offices as per the requirements of temporary work stations of the provinces,” Sharma added.

The ministry will reduce the procurement for purchase of materials for maintenance. “A tender notice will be brought within three to seven days for completing the work within the deadline and transparency will be maintained during the process. We will avoid extra expenditure as the work stations are temporary,” Sharma said.

Maintenance work will be managed by divisional offices in the respective provinces. The ministry has division offices in Biratnagar for Province 1, Janakpur for Province 2, Hetauda for Province 3, Pokhara for Province 4 , Bhairahawa for Province 5, Surkhet for Province 6 and Dhangadi for province 7. “We will fix the tender procurements tomorrow and the tender notice will be issued on Sunday,” he added.

According to former minister of urban development Dilnath Giri, transparency issues and resources for permanent office structure will be the main challenges for the provincial government. According to him, permanent set-up cost for provincial offices has been estimated at Rs 16 billion.