Provincial executives of all seven provinces have urged the federal government to reconsider the budget allocated for their provinces.

A joint meeting of the ministers for internal affairs and law from all seven provinces held in Hetauda on Sunday concluded that the central government prepared the policies and programmes as well as the budget against the spirit of constitution and federalism. 

They blamed the federal government of ignoring the large projects and distributing budget to the projects that could be developed by local units.

“The government should present federalism-friendly budget. This budget needs to be reconsidered,” said Province 5 minister Kul Bahadur KC.

The meeting also agreed to lobby the federal government to keep district-based security agencies under the control of the concerned provincial executive.

Province 3 Minister for Internal Affairs and Law Shalikram Jammakattel said the meeting decided to constitute provincial police departments and provincial investigation bureaus in all provinces by formulating necessary laws.

The joint meeting was organised to formulate uniform law in all the provinces. Internal Affairs and Law Minister of Province 7 Prakash Shah said the meeting also discussed the situation of law formulation and what laws needed to be formulated to run the provincial governments and their agencies effectively.

Province 3 Chief Minister Dormani Poudel said the provincial governments were still in a fix over formulation of laws and mobilisation of security agencies.

“The provincial governments are still in transitional phase due to the lack of necessary laws. Only a dozen or so of the total 99 laws have been enacted so far,” the chief minister said.

Demand to name Chitwan Province 3 capital

HETAUDA: A proposal has been registered at Province 3 Secretariat recommending Chitwan as the provincial capital. Thirteen legislators representing Chitwan district registered the proposal on Sunday. Bijay Subedi of Nepal Communist Party and Rina Gurung of Rastriya Prajatantra Party (Loktantrik), who are the members of the committee formed to study possible provincial capital, also supported the proposal. Earlier, the assembly members of Kavre, Nuwakot and Bhaktapur had also registered proposals of their own demanding that their districts be made the provincial capital. (PR)