Chief Minister of Gandaki State, Prithvi Subba Gurung, has said constitution could be amended if it is needed in course of the implementation.

CM Gurung said it while giving an interview to the National News Agency (RSS) on the occasion of the Constitution Day which the country is marking as the national festival. Speaking on the practical problems surfaced on implementation of constitution, CM Gurung observed that long list of concurrent rights of the federal, and State and local level governments were indeed a weakness.

Problems surfaced on formulation of laws relating to the concurrent rights. So, discussion and debates must be whetted, he underscored. He even said that the federal government interfering with the State government to exercise its rights and jurisdiction which has resulted in the lack of works in favour of constitutional provision and spirit. In a question responding to whether the State government has interfered on the local level on exercise of rights, CM Gurung however said there were very little things to be dealt by State government.

“We’ve been facilitating and assisting the local levels to conduct governance smoothly. In some cases, State government has not be able to extend assistance, which might have created problems at local level,” he said blaming the local levels that they were still following traditional methods of governance rather that paving way for new course in line with federal system. Considering this, the Gandaki State is providing assistance on legal and structural fronts.

The local levels are asked to formulate law making it congruous to State government’s plan and policies. CM Gurung further said, “In absence of good governance and inclusive policy making, federalism and republic do not function well. We’re planning how to transform local levels into digitalization while embracing digital governance by the State government.” In a question when would constitution be amended while the ruling party had argued it on the basis of necessity and rationale, CM Gurung who is also the leader of the ruling NCP, said, “Constitution is a living dynamic document. So, it is amendable.

It needs to be amended as per the need of country and situation. In absence of any mechanism to monitor the government activities at local level, the planning and development activities are in mess. In order to end anarchy at local level, constitution amendment is necessary. Similarly, it is quite impractical that the local levels are given the responsibility to handle education up to secondary level. It is impractical because there is no uniformity in holding exams up to 12 Grade which at present is not practical at 753 local levels. Moreover, he complained that the State government was not able to work forward on mobilization of police administration as the federal government had not prepared any standard. Only Police Act is not enough. Similarly, as there is no work procedure in line with Civil Service Act, the publication service commission at State level is not functional. CM Gurung however praised that there was well coordination among the local, State and federal government in terms of dealing with COVID-19 crisis.

“The State government has vital role on pandemic, we’ve fully utilized our capacity to control and prevent the coronavirus. As all district hospitals are under State government, the hospitals were mobilized well to control the spread of coronavirus. He concluded that present constitution is a historic document as it has fully embraced inclusive and democratic system.

“We from all sides need to work together to make it further successful,” he appealed. The interview was taken by RSS Gandaki State Office Chief Basudev Poudel and correspondent Hari Bastola.