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3.2 Regional Balance in Development
Development includes increase of infrastructures availability of facilities, creation of job
opportunities, improvement of living standard. Actually, development activities should
be conducted in all the parts of nation in a balanced way. The minimum requirement
of basic needs of people should be fulfilled in the local level. But, Nepal has a lot more
geographical diversities and development activities are not equally conducted in all
parts of Nepal. Different regions are not equally developed. Kathmandu valley and some
other cities in Nepal are more developed than other parts of Nepal. The mid western
development region and far western development region are quite backward. The entire
karnali region is backward. The facilities like health, education, security, transportation,
communication, employment, etc. are more centered on major cities including Kathmandu
valley. Hence, it is most essential to have regional balance.

Regional balance implies uniform distribution pattern of the planned investment among
different regions of a country.

Table: Human Development Index, 2011 of different regions
Regions Human Development Index
Eastern and Main Himalaya 0.475
Eastern and Middle Hills (Except 0.490
Kathmandu Valley)
Eastern and Middle Terai 0.463
Kathmandu Valley 0.622
Western Hills 0.511

Western Terai 0.480
Western, Mid-western and Far-western 0.398
Mountains

Mid-western and Far-western Hills 0.423
Mid-western and Far-western Terai 0.472
Source: Human Development Report, 2011

In the above table, we can observe the human development index of different regions in
Nepal. There are differences in human development index of different regions in Nepal.
The differences in human development index denotes that development activities are not
developed equally in all the regions in Nepal. The required facilities are not equally distributed
in all the places. Hence, many regions have quite less human development index.
Recently, Nepal has been divided into seven different states. There will be separate
government in those states. There will be decentralization of activities through those states.
They are given responsibilities for the betterment of their states so that the nation can be
developed. When the state governments start to work, they will conduct development
works proportionately in a balanced way. As a result, the required facilities like health,

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