Federalism needs to be consolidated: Prime Minister Oli

Kathmandu, Dec 9 : Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has stressed that the country needs to be taken ahead on the basis of collaboration between the federation, province and local level. 

Addressing the first meeting of the Inter-provincial Council at Singha Durbar today, he said as Nepal is in its preliminary phase of implementation of federalism, all should work to strengthen it by learning from experience.

As federalism is new to Nepal, all need to work to make it structurally strong. “Federalism is a new game for us, but we all will prove ourselves champions in it,” he said.

Stating that the government needs to increase it speed to implement federalism, the Prime Minister said, “We have not taken the wrong path. The implementation of federalism is yet to gain speed.”

In today’s meeting, Chief Minister of province no. 1 Sherdhan Rai, of province no. 2 Lal Babu Raut, of 3 Dormani Poudel and of Gandaki province Prithivi Subba Gurung expressed their views. The Chief Ministers of the remaining three provinces will be expressing their views tomorrow.

At the meeting, Secretaries of the Office of the Prime Minister, Home Affairs, Federal Affairs and Local Development, Law and Justice and Finance had shared about the initiatives being taken by their respective ministries for implementation of federalism.

The meeting will resume at Singha Durbar at 10:00 am tomorrow, according to a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s press coordinator Chetan Adhikari.

The first ever meeting of the Inter-provincial Council that is mandated to resolve disputes between the federation and province, and among the provinces began at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, Singha Durbar.

The council is provided in Article 234 of the Constitution of Nepal. The Council chaired by the Prime Minister includes all the Chief Ministers as members, along with the Minister for Home Affairs and Finance Minister.

Other Federal ministers and secretaries were also present in the meeting today as invitees. (RSS)