Call Province 3 Bagmati, moots NCP

Kathmandu, December 29

A meeting of the central secretariat of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) today decided to propose to the NCP-led Province 3 government to carry forward the process of naming the province Bagmati and designating Hetauda as its permanent headquarters.

Talking to THT, former prime minister and NCP secretariat member Jhalanath Khanal confirmed the decision.

The NCP decision comes amid differing opinions among NCP’s Province 3 lawmakers regarding the provincial headquarters, although the name of the province is ‘not that debatable’. NCP Province 3 lawmakers are divided between Dhulikhel and Hetauda as province HQ.

While some Province 3 lawmakers, including Chief Minister Dormani Poudel, have long been lobbying for Hetauda as the provincial headquarters, others have opposed the idea stating that Hetauda’s location is inconvenient. This is also one of the main reasons for the delay in convening the winter session of the provincial assembly.

Province 3 Minister of Internal Affairs and Law Shalik Ram Jammarkattel said the province’s failure to get a permanent headquarters and name even after two years of the assembly election was due to lack of uniformity in views among the NCP’s provincial lawmakers.

“It has become a contentious issue, with majority of lawmakers in favour of Dhulikhel as permanent headquarters,” Jammarkattel told THT. “Let’s see how the party’s decision will help bring uniformity in the views of provincial lawmakers,” Jammarkattel told THT.

However, provincial lawmakers representing both ruling and opposition parties criticised the NCP decision, terming it ‘encroachment upon sovereignty of the provincial assembly’. They said the party leadership could not impose its decision about something that was to be decided by two-thirds majority of the provincial assembly as per the constitutional provision.

Although the NCP has two-thirds majority in Province 3 assembly (80 out of 110 seats), the indecision is because of differing opinions among the ruling party lawmakers.

NCP Province 3 lawmaker Ratna Prasad Dhakal said the party’s decision was not only against the conditional provision, but would also have negative effect on the implementation of federalism. “This is not something that parties decide, it’s the sovereign provincial assembly that decides,” Dhakal told THT.

He added that they would not agree to whatever the party decided at the centre. “The decision should be taken following due process — voting in the provincial assembly. The permanent headquarters will be decided by two-thirds lawmakers,” said Dhakal.

Nepali Congress parliamentary party of the provincial assembly has decided not to issue whip on the issue, as it was something to be decided by the people’s representatives respecting the people’s aspirations, according to NC Whip Tsering Dorje Lama.

He said the NC parliamentary party had decided that they would agree to whatever the people’s representatives decided rising above partisan interests. “However, the ruling party deciding at the centre about the province’s name and headquarters means controlling provincial lawmakers,” Lama told THT. “No matter what our personal views are, the provincial assembly must be independent and it should be the one that decides.”

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