Bagmati Province Government Faces Criticism Over Budget Allocation

Hetauda. Ruling party Nepali Congress MPs have expressed dissatisfaction with the Bagmati government's budget. The Province Government's Chief Minister is Indrabahadur Baniya of the Nepali Congress from the Congress-UML alliance. Under his leadership, the province's Minister for Economic Affairs and Planning, Prabhat Tamang, has presented a budget of Rs 66.93 billion for the upcoming fiscal year. Congress MPs have expressed dissatisfaction with this budget. MPs have stated that the budget discriminates against MPs and have accused it of proposing programs focused on the minister's constituency. They have alleged that 3 individuals are dominating the budget. Specifically, they claim that the Finance Minister has directly involved one minister and one MP in budget preparation according to his preferences, and has removed the projects proposed by MPs and added his own programs. According to a Congress MP, the Finance Minister has cut the budget according to the budget ceiling and focused it on his own constituency. He stated that the budget for remote and rural areas has been cut and programs for urban areas have been included. He mentioned that Finance Minister Tamang has allocated a budget of Rs 80 crore for the conservation of a single pond in his home district of Rasuwa and did not coordinate with the MPs afterwards. Congress MP Suna Pariyar said that the budget lacks policy clarity. She stated that although the budget presented by the provincial government for the upcoming fiscal year appears 'systematic' compared to the past, it has policy weaknesses. MP Pariyar alleges that ministers have prioritized personal budgets. She stated that the budget is dominated by personal influence of ministers and small-scale projects. According to MP Pariyar, the budget prioritizes ministers' personal and constituency-focused plans over ministry-specific policies. She stated that although the government has allocated a budget for the Dalit Development Program, the allocated budget is insufficient. She said that with a small budget, it cannot work effectively. She stated that despite an agreement among the ruling coalition parties not to include projects smaller than 5 million or at least 3 million rupees, it has not been followed. She mentioned that many small and fragmented projects have been included, especially under the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure. 'The budget is better than before. But it should have been more policy-oriented,' she said, 'Ministers have given more priority to their personal budgets, making policy-oriented budgets weaker and missing some important things. We had agreed not to include projects below 3 million rupees. But now projects of 1 million and 2 million rupees have also come. Even when demanding projects worth crores, small projects have been included. Why and how did this happen? I need to talk directly to the minister about this.' Budget Completely Failed, Finance Minister Violated System: Former Chief Minister Lama Former Chief Minister Bahadur Singh Lama said that the provincial government's budget for the upcoming fiscal year is not balanced. He claimed that the budget cannot accelerate the province's development. He accused the province's Finance Minister of including small projects against his own directives and violating parliamentary norms. According to former Chief Minister Lama, although the government issued a directive not to include projects below 5 million and 3 million rupees in the budget, at the time of implementation, projects of 2 million and even smaller ones of 10/5 million rupees were widely included. Lama commented that although the government's policies and programs appear attractive, they have no relation to the budget. He accused the Finance Minister of slashing the budget passed by the parliament. He also stated that the Finance Minister has set a wrong precedent by cutting budgets for large projects. 'The Finance Minister presented the budget against the directive he himself made. This is outright policy corruption and incompetence,' he said. 'In policies and programs, big things are said, but in the budget, small and fragmented projects are distributed. The budget does not recognize the policies and programs. Parliament is supreme, and the government cannot cut the budget passed by parliament. If the budget is insufficient, there is a process of surrendering it through the ministry. But here the system itself has been violated.' He stated that the province's spending capacity has also declined, and it is challenging to present a large budget at a time when grants from the center have decreased by 1 billion. He said that the morale of the employees implementing the projects has fallen due to cuts in their service and facilities, which will hinder the overall development process.