The country is celebrating the ninth anniversary of the promulgation of the Constitution of Nepal-2015. Province governments are claiming that they were effortful to prompt service delivery to people.
In this context, RSS Bagmati province office chief Raju BK has interviewed with Bagmati Province Chief Minister Bahadur Singh Lama about various issues including utilization of rights guaranteed by constitution, challenges seen in course of enacting laws, their implementation, achievements made and expectation with federal government in the context of the Constitution Day.
Q. What are the major achievements in province since the promulgation of the constitution of Nepal 2072 B S? How have you evaluated the provincial performance till date?
A. Despite the several difficulties, all the provincial governments have provided services to the people in line with the constitution. The citizens now have an easy access to the chief minister and the ministers to put forward their grievances and demand. The provincial
government at its extent of possibility has addressed the grievances and demand of the citizens. While, in the past where citizens had no access to the federal government, they can now put forward their issues directly before the Chief Minister and the Ministers in a fearless way. The citizens have felt and experienced the beauty of federalism.
The provincial government, in coordination and cooperation with the federal and local governments, has executed its functions quickly and efficiently. Having said this, it is also true that some services to citizens could not be effectively provided due to several constraints. But the faith of citizens towards the provincial government is increasing .I am satisfied working closely with people.
Several achievements have been made in the province since the inception of constitution. The provincial government has executed its functions that could be felt by the people in these seven years. Significant laws, acts to be made by the provincial government have been formulat
ed. Commendable progress has been made in the sector of roads and infrastructure with 1068 km new roads constructed by provincial government. Out of this, 1,040 km of roads have already been black topped. With 107 bridges and more than three thousand of community buildings constructed by province government, it has also facilitated more than 5 thousand people with access to drinking water and 13 thousands hector irrigation facility.
Q. What are the present structural and institutional provisions of the provincial government that remained as the bridge between two levels in the constitution for the effective implementation of its action plan? What are the other structural and legal provisions to make the provincial government more robust effective and credible?
A. It is true that provincial government is entangled with several problems to implement its plans, policies and programmes. Though several acts required for province government is already formulated It is now necessary to make policies, programme and
action plan upon the coordination with federal and local level .It has thus resulted into several problems. The local government should not invest in the sector where the province government has made, albeit the scenario is different.
The main role of province government is to ensure development, creation of entrepreneurship and promotion of employment .The federation should make no interference in it. There is duplication of plans from the federal government where the provincial government is working. The federation act as constraints for the programmes and policies made by the province. It is responsibility of province to maintain peace security and make the citizen feel secured and protected.
However, to execute this responsibility the province government has to rely upon the federation. The jurisdiction of police force is under the federation till date. So, it is impeccable for the federation to give more attention for the implementation of political administrative and fiscal federalism to make the prov
ince government effective and credible. The province government also has to quickly formulate the acts, laws to address the needs of public and increase the confidence of people towards the province government.
Q. The disputes between the three levels of government are quite visible upon the implementation of Constitution of Nepal .Often the issues have raised on curbing the rights of province by federal and of local level by province. What sort of role has province played specifically at this situation?
A. The constitution that we made has guaranteed the rights of all three levels of government .No interference can be made in constitutionally guaranteed rights .The federation should not refrain the rights provided by the constitution. It is to be kept in mind that, federation doesn’t provide rights which have been already guaranteed by the constitution. So sincere implementation on this part has to be made .The police and the civil servants have to been handed over to province .It is the duty of federation
to formulate national policies and projects. It is the role of province to develop and deliver to locals. It is the role of province government to promote tourism and aid in economic development, albeit it’s not at its best form.
The federal government is still dubious in the tasks of province government. This is why we have advocated to federation for the transfer of constitutionally guaranteed rights to province level. Even though we accepted the federalism through constitution there is still unitary system tendency running through our minds that led to inter-disputes between these two. In fact, the concurrent rights between two levels of government have to be managed under federal act and province act has to be made on this basis. But,the province could not formulate many laws given the federal act is still not made. We have been raising voices to transfer the constitutionally guaranteed rights to the province level. The federation shows less interest in this issue.
Q. Critics have often raised a voice
upon the existence of province government citing it as being financial burdensome to the state, not being financially and politically independent. At this backdrop, what are the measures to make the provincial government strong, stable, functional, people and result oriented?
A. I strongly condemn on the issue that the provincial government is spendthrift. There were also the provincial level structures previously which significant expenditures. If we look at the budget appropriated for each seven states, it is less than the budget of a single ministry of the federal government. So, how is it rational to say that the provincial government is extravagant. Instead with the formation of province government roads have been constructed in every villages and people have felt the hints of development. It is obvious to have the increased grievances of people whose demand and aspirations could not be fulfilled at once. There is no rational logic behind the pointing out the means of transport for increasing expenditur
e of province government. The provincial structure is less risky than earlier regional and VDC structure. Bagmati province has only accommodated 3.47 percentage of fiscal share out of the total budget of federal government.
Promoting good governance is the foremost need to make the province government stable, capable and more functional .Good governance has to be assured in each and every sector. There is rampant corruption and the statement of property of all needs to update to curb it. It gives a proper assessment of how much property each holds and it gives some insights upon the increment in their property through corruption. The province government is moving forward with the sole objective of creating employment opportunities by opening industries .The province government also seeks the revenue generating sources .The main source of revenue of the Bagmati Government is transportation sector .To make it well managed digitization of transportation date is practiced. Apart from this efforts have been made
to identify the other sources of income.
Q. In the context of effective management of province government operations, what are the laws made and remaining to be made as provisioned in the constitution?
A. If we evaluate past seven years achievements our province is leading in formulating the laws. Constitutionally province government has to make 99 laws and we have formulated 80 laws till date. Among them 19 laws, some are in the process of formulation while some awaits the formulation of federal laws .Citing this we have already made so many laws that needs to be made however problem lies in the implementation of such laws and we are moving forward resolving the issues .Law making is not a simple process, it’s a complicated one. Laws have been made upon the effective coordination with federal government and local government.
Q. What are the legal and institutional improvements carried on to provide pace to development projects?
A. Before my assumption of the post of chief minister, provincial pride proj
ects were already in implementation .Some of the projects are well implemented while some others are halted due to insufficient budget .The vice chair of Bagmati Provincial University is recently appointed .The province government has also appropriated Rs 85 million for the construction of physical infrastructure in the fiscal year 2080/81.The construction of the infrastructure of Madan Bhandari Academy of Health and Sciences is ongoing. Rs 150 million amount have been allocated for this projects in the fiscal year 2080/81.Similarly, under the Provincial Pride Projects. Post Bahadur tunnel way is halted since 3 years due to lack of cost resource guarantee. Furthermore, other works like Pushpalal Province Ring Road is being carried out .In this way Provincial pride projects have been carried out by the province with great significance.
Q. The Second five year plan is approved and is on the way of implementation. What are the basis to achieve the goals and objective of this periodic plan?
A. There are so man
y plans in the phase of implementation to achieve the goals and objectives set by 2nd five year plan. Many of the plans are directly connected the livelihood of people. It is as per the target set by the 2nd periodic plan .It is directed to update on the plans being operated at the province. Such update is significant to point out the specific problems in the plans .It is envisioned to successfully carry out the old plans and hold the new plan till. Bringing out the New and fragmented plans is not advisable. So importance is given to the old and big project in the province.
Q. At last, on the auspicious occasion of Constitution day what do you want to convey to the citizens and resident of your province?
A. We are observing the constitution day and national day on Asoj 3rd to commemorate the day of promulgation of historical constitution formulated by the elected peoples representative .So I want to extend heartfelt congratulations and best wishes to all Nepalese citizen inside Nepal and abroad on the occas
ion of national day 2081.There is a huge responsibility in our shoulder to push the country to the path of prosperity along with social justice. For this ,it’s the obligation of an hour to assume the responsibility set by the constitution for federation ,province and local level and direct the country towards achieving the set goals of national prosperity .For this lets unite with higher integrity.
Source: National News Agency RSS