Janakpurdham, May 31

Province 2 Chief Minister Lalbabu Raut has expressed dissatisfaction over the decision of the Federal Public Service Commission to announce vacancies for local bodies, saying his government will go to the court and protest against the decision.

Addressing a meeting of Province Coordination Council at Mahottari’s Bardibas today, Raut said, “The openings for 9,000-odd positions at the local level by an apparatus of the central government is clearly against the spirit of the constitution, and we will seek a legal remedy against the move of the central government.” He added, “We won’t accept this trampling on the rights of the provincial government entitled to us by the constitution.”

“Federalism is about sub-national governments running the administration in an area under their jurisdiction, but in our case, the central government seems to be violating the rights bestowed upon us by the statute, which is unfortunate,” said the chief minister. He added that development would be a far-fetched dream without proper coordination between provincial and local governments.

Physical infrastructure development minister Jitendra Sonal reminded that the onus to develop the province lies on the provincial and local governments. “As development of a province is the responsibility of local and provincial governments, they need to work in tandem, to achieve the desired goals,” he said.

Internal affairs and law minister Gyanendra Yadav, Minister of Industry, Tourism, Forest and Environment Ram Naresh Raya and local body representatives were present at the programme.