Nepal, Feb. 17 -- One year has passed since the three tiers of government were formed, and it is time to evaluate how they have performed and see what improvements can be made to make them more effective. The fact that there are challenges is nothing unusual, the fact that we have let the system run in business as usual mode is not. Federalism is a totally new system for Nepal, and it will take time to institutionalise it. The constitution has laid down curative approaches for the resolution of disputes that may arise among the federal, provincial and local levels. Problems are bound to crop up especially since there are overlapping, ambiguous and unclear jurisdictions for each tier of government.

The constitution has foreseen that there...