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VOL. 27, NO. 46, August 01 , 2008 (Shrawan 17 2065 B.S.)
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NEPAL-INDIA
Sharing Of Ideas
Nepalese local development officers share opportunities and challenges of local development based on Indian experience}
By A CORRESPONDENT
At a time when Nepal is in the process of restructuring of state through writing a new constitution for federal republic, Nepalese officials require more exposure on how various bodies including the local governance fit in federal system.
Although Nepal can benefit from the experiences of many other countries around the world, India's experiences of devolution of power may be more appropriate to look at as Nepal and India have many things in common including local environment and local culture.
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Nepal_india meet: Sharing of ideas |
Nepal has long experiences of functioning the local government in unitary system of government and Nepal's officials now need to know the status of local government in federal structure.
In early days, India supported Nepal to build institution of local governance through Tribhuwan Gram Viakas back in 1951 but it later shifted to other sectors. After the political change of 2006, India again has shown interest in local government.
To show Nepalese officials how India is experimenting local governance, all the 75
local development offices of Nepal recently completed their study tour in India.
After completing the visit to various Indian states and looking at the structure and function of local bodies in India, Nepalese officers had chances to see how local governance functions in three tier of government.
In the study tour that started in December 2007 and completed in May 2008, all local development officers of 75 districts visited – in separate trips - various Indian states for exchange of experiences and ideas on development administration.
Last week a program was organized in Kathmandu with the aim of encapsulating the experiences of these study visits.
Organized by Embassy of India in association with the Ministry of Local Development, Government of Nepal and B.P. Koirala India-Nepal Foundation held the program at Gokarna on July 26.
The one day workshop for local development officers discussed various issues regarding making the local development administration more effective and shared their first
hand knowledge about local bodies.
"Such visits constitute an important component of India-Nepal Economic Cooperation Program and also appreciate the role of the LDOs in implementing various projects under the program which at present has more than 280 large and small projects running in all 75 districts of Nepal with a total outlay of Rs 22 billion," said Rakesh Sood, Indian
ambassador to Nepal.
"We have been launching this program under India Nepal Economic Cooperation" said Pranay Burma, Economic cooperation Counsellor of Indian Embassy. "Under this program, more such visits will take place in future." Gopal Bagley, member secretary of B.P. Koirala India-Nepal Foundation, highlighted the objectives of the program.
The program was inaugurated by Secretary at the Office of Prime minister and Council of Ministers, Deependra Bikram Thapa.
"There is a need for continued interactions among development administrators of India and Nepal. Local administration includes district administration and local bodies in both countries. Local bodies enjoy more autonomy and power in Nepal in comparison to India. District magistrate or collector in India looks after local development, revenue administration and law and order. However, in the case of Nepal local development is mainly the job of LDOs," writes Hem Sharma Pokharel, under secretary, Ministry of
Local Development, in his paper.
"Community mobilization in India is in primary stage in some starts whereas it has jumped minimum level in other sates. Nepal has long history with effective community mobilization experienced in local development."
"Although Nepal has a long history of decentralization to local bodies compared to India, Nepal has still a lot of things to learn from them. Like Nepalese society, decentralization has been brining change in culturally diverse society in India," writes Mahesh Dahal, joint secretary at Ministry of Local Development. 'The challenge for local government in federal structure is the devolution of power among center, state and local bodies."
"In rural India, the reforms have created a three-tired structure, village councils (gram panchayat) at the base, block councils (Panchayat samitis) and Zilla Parishad at the top. There is a similar structure for urban India composed of municipal corporations and
municipal councils (Nagarpalikas)," writes Narayan Bahadur Thapa, under secretary at Ministry of Local Development.
"Except few incidences, the Nepalese society has been traditionally more cohesive than other heterogeneous developing countries in Asia. Now the country is moving towards federalism in the process of state restructuring, the issues of women, adivasi, Janjatis, dalits, Madhesis, Muslims and other backward castes will be addressed as there is a broad political consensus for the social inclusion and social justice," writes Surya P. Acharya and Reshmi R. Pandey.
