Nepal, March 4 -- For the past few years, Kantipur Media Group has been organising dialogue programmes on a wide range of political, economic and social issues. These forums have included sessions with the Chief Ministers (CMs) of provinces. In one such session, a metaphor was used: The provinces lack both the sanduk and the banduk. Sanduk, a money box, symbolises adequate fiscal resources, while banduk, a gun, represents police authority. Although the Constitution grants provinces the authority over policing, the federal government has yet to operationalise the provincial police structure fully.

The same concern resurfaced recently at the Kantipur Conclave session titled "Federalism on Trial: System or Solution?" The message from chief ...