Guided by the concept of balanced regional development, the government had formed five development regions, namely Eastern (Dhankuta as headquarters), Central (Hetauda), Western (Pokhara), Mid-western (Surkhet) and Far-western (Dipayal). This was done to bring the extremely backward remote areas into the mainstream of socio-economic development. The King recently directed the administrators to relocate all Mid-western regional offices from Nepalgunj to Surkhet within three months and all zonal offices to Kohalpur within six months or face departmental action. He had issued similar directives one and a half years ago during his visit to the same region and had given similar orders which were, unfortunately, not implemented. It is indeed logical that all regional offices should be relocated at regional headquarters. At present most of the regional offices are outside their officially designated headquarters. This explains why orders have also been issued to shift regional offices of Eastern development region to Dhankuta from Biratnagar.

Even during the Panchayat days, late King Birendra used to visit the regions in turns, covering each region a year and spending at least one month listening to people’s complaints and issuing directives. But this process did not achieve the intended results. There are still a number of districts in the West and Far-west that do not have access to roads, drinking water, education, health and employment facilities and they rank very low on human development and social development index. Despite the huge assistance provided by donor agencies, the results of development have not reached the poorer sections, thanks to the lack of good governance.

The fact that even regional offices could not be shifted to regional headquarters during three decades speaks volumes for the failure to achieve a balanced growth. One of the key conditions for development has been missing all along. Despite rhetoric about decentralisation, power has always been centralised. There has to be real devolution of power to the districts, including powers to collect and mobilise taxes, with the centre exercising control only over certain vital areas like security. Only such an approach will really help local self-governance and balanced regional development.