English - Support to Participatory Constitution Building in Nepal ...

like health and education in another
province, or working and conducting trade
in another province. Social harmony should
be maintained between different ethnic,
religious, linguistic and cultural groups, and
provinces should cooperate on maintaining
peace and security and guarding against
crime.
Minority rights in the province: The second
group stressed that prime rights should not
be provided to any particular community for
the position of chief minister or head of the
government. Anyone elected by the people
of the province will be capable to serve as
head of the province. Similarly, there should
be equal access to the natural resources of
the province and the provincial government
should not provide
financial support any
particular
community.
As people are conscious
of ensuring minority
rights and promoting
minorities in the federal
structure, they suggested
reserving
separate
constituencies or seats in the provincial
legislative assembly to provide access to
minorities in the decision making level of the
province.
Basis for restructuring the state: The third
group noted that in the process of developing
a new structure for the state many historical
communities have been identified and
must be respected. Thus, ethnic habitation,
language, cultural density and history must
be considered. At the same time, geography,
economic potential, and the availability of
natural resources are other important factors.
The practice of
discrimination has not
ended, thus special legal
provisions are required.
-Bipin Dhakal
The federal structure should ensure that
government services are more accessible to
the people than they are currently. At the
same time, this structure should not defy
national unity and integration among the
people
Local government and its services: The fourth
group envisioned a properly functioning local
government with sufficient resources and
authority to manage local level services and
make them available and easily accessible
to the people. For local level security,
community and town police should be
provided. Revenue should be collected from
local taxes on land, water, forest, electricity,
house rent, etc. Local roads, village roads,
agricultural roads and irrigation should be
maintained, and there
should be an integrated
service center for
agriculture, livestock and
land preservation. There
should be management
of local markets,
including import and
export. The local courts
should include services for reconciliation
and mediation. Local languages, culture and
customs should be promoted. Telephone
and other modes of communication, such as
newspapers should be maintained.
For efficiency and accuracy the group
recommended that the local government
take responsibility for services like education,
health, maintaining records of unemployment
and other individual records. Thus, the Gaon
Palika should provide free education to the
secondary school level, and the municipality
should provide higher education. The Gaon
20 Federalism Dialogues Series 5