Kathmandu, April 25

Minister of Internal Affairs and Law of Province 3 Salikram Jamarkattel today accused the central government of not providing enough power to the states according to the new federal constitution.

“There is no doubt that we have all accepted the constitution from the thematic point of view. But in terms of implementation, we have been lacking and not giving enough power to state levels,” said Jamarkattel, during a programme organised by the National Concern and Coordination Committee of the National Assembly.

He said the local bodies and the centre had the same infrastructure and manpower after implementation of the new constitution. “But the province was something new. We bought the carpet for our offices. It has been only four to five months since we got civil servant from the centre,” he added.

Speaking during the programme, Chair of the National Assembly Ganesh Prasad Timilsina said the government has already registered a Bill on coordination between central, province and local levels. “We are going to work on it and complete the task,” he said. He also said bills required for the state and local levels would be completed from the federal parliament as soon as possible.

Timilsina said the government has already formed fiscal commission to solve problems related to fiscal issues.

Former lawmaker and leader of the Nepali Congress, who presented a paper on relations between three tiers of government, said Nepal’s federal constitution was based on cooperation, coordination and coexistence of the three levels of government.

Dil Kumari Rawal of the National Concern and Coordination Committee said the result of discussions would be collected and discussed in the committee’s meeting. “Then we are going to discuss those issues in the National Assembly meetings and send suggestion to the government,” she said.

Her committee has held seven programmes in the seven provinces regarding the problems faced by the three tiers of government on the implementation of the constitution.