Chief Ministers' common charter of demands handed to PM

A common charter of demands containing the conclusion of the inter-province chief ministers' meeting held in Pokhara was handed to Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal.

After the meeting, Chief Minister of the Gandaki Province, Surendra Raj Pandey handed over the charter with 17-point demand to the Prime Minister.

Among the demands included in the charter were immediate adjustment of police for keeping law and order, managing disaster on time and coordinating with security agencies; prompt introduction of Federal Civil Service Act and transferring ownership of land and buildings being utilized by the provincial governments to the province.

The charter also included a demand that the federal government should put in place an arrangement to send employees to the province only after building consensus with the provincial government. Until and unless there is management of adequate human resources in line with the province law, an arrangement should be placed to send the province secretary and chief administrative officers of local governments in the respective provinces deputed by federal ministry to the Office of Chief Minister and Council of Ministers in bulk and thereby make their posting accordingly.

The meeting also called for allowing the province ministries to establish direct linkage with the federal ministries as per the Federation, Province and Local Level (Coordination and Interrelations) Act, 2077.

Also included in the demand was formulation of federal laws to facilitate the implementation of concurrent rights and exclusive rights bestowed by the Constitution to the federation, province and local level.

The meeting identified the need of redefining the duties and jurisdictions of the three-tier of the government and for reviewing the report about the allocations of works for making them further clearer.

It demands the amendment to the provisions in law regarding the land acquisition to clear obstructions in undertaking development endevours, to establish an industrial area and to build required infrastructure for effective service delivery.

The gathering also pointed out the need of amending the Local Government Operations Act to ease the sharing of revenue from the supplies of river-based products between the local and province government.

It raises concerns over the forest Act and regulations specifying the jurisdictions relating to the management of national forests under the federal government even though the Constitution guarantees such rights to the Province government.

It has demanded the prompt repeal of the Urban Area Public Transport (Management) Authority Act- 2022, an increase in the fiscal equalization grants to the Province, amendment to the “Intergovernmental Fiscal Arrangement Act-2017, deposition of revenue from the traffic rules violation in the Province Reserve fund, right to the Province to branding the locally produced liquor and enabling the role of province government to increase investment-friendly atmosphere and coordinate in the selection and implementation of the big projects based in the Province.