Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has promised to address all the concerns of the provinces and the local level, chief ministers and local people’s representatives have said.

Dahal convened a meeting of the National Coordination Council for the first time on Saturday after the country adopted federalism in 2015. The 20-member council headed by the prime minister includes three ministers—holding law, finance and federal affairs and general administration portfolios—besides seven chief ministers, the chairs of the associations of rural municipalities and municipalities, and the representatives of district coordination committees, among others.

However, there are doubts whether the prime minister, who has failed to address their concerns until now, can fulfil his promise easily.

The chief ministers, who have been accusing the national leaders of ignoring the provinces and refusing to devolve the constitutional powers to them, said Dahal’s recent moves have given them hope that federalism would now be implemented effectively.

“Prime Minister Dahal has already convened three meetings with the chief ministers and has promised them laws necessary to adjust the police force and the one related to civil service at the earliest,” said Shalikram Jammakattel, chief minister of Bagmati Province. “We hope things have changed now and the stalled implementation of federalism is underway.”

The secretariat of the National Coordination Council is expected to make the decisions of the first meeting public within a few days.

The meeting, according to some participants, has decided to form a panel to identify the issues that clash between the three tiers of government within three months.

“Today’s meeting remained fruitful in the sense that we have started discussions on our conflicting issues and decided to form committees to find ways to resolve them amicably,” said Bhim Prasad Dhungana, president of the Municipal Association of Nepal (MuAN).

Laxmi Devi Pande, chairperson of the National Association of Rural Municipalities in Nepal (NARMIN), said that Saturday’s meeting, though delayed, has given hope to the local units that their concerns would be addressed and that no laws would be passed without consulting with them.

“We put forth all our concerns at the meeting and the prime minister promised that he would not take any step before consulting with us,” Pande told the Post over telephone. “The prime minister also pledged to hold frequent meetings of the council and discuss all issues among the three levels of government.”

The provinces and local units have also demanded that the federal government finalise the federal laws that are under consideration only after addressing their concerns.

Six chief ministers, excluding Hikmat Karki of Koshi, had handed over a 17-point charter of demands to the prime minister after their inter-provincial meeting on Friday.