The provincial assembly meeting called to discuss the budget of the next financial year 2082/83 of the Bagmati provincial government has been adjourned.
Speaker Bhuvan Pathak adjourned the state assembly meeting which was called for 1 o'clock on Monday and called it for 4 o'clock. Speaker Pathak informed that the meeting was adjourned to be held on Thursday 19th at 11:00 a.m. as no agreement was reached on the budget even by 4:00 p.m.
After the state government presented a budget equal to 67.47 billion rupees on June 1, the state assembly was convened for the first time on June 12 to discuss the budget. However, the provincial assembly could not be held after the dispute over the budget escalated within the Nepali Congress, which is leading the Bagmati government.
Bagmati Chief Minister Bahadur Singh Lama and Economic Affairs and Planning Minister Kundanraj Kafle have accused their own MPs of capturing the budget. The Congress MPs raised issues such as their plans not being included, middlemen dominating the budget, plans of MPs not required in the constituencies, but plans of the same nature coming from outside need to be investigated.
In the previous meeting of the party, Congress MPs warned that they would not participate in the discussion on the budget, so the meeting was postponed and scheduled for June 16. However, Congress MP Chhiring Lama said that the meeting of the Congress parliamentary party held from 11:30 on Monday to resolve the dispute was adjourned again as no consensus was reached.
Dissatisfied MPs have demanded that they be able to present themselves freely on the budget issue at the meeting of the Congress parliamentary party . According to Lama, the chief minister and finance minister were warned in the meeting to claim that they have brought a budget and program for the people. MP Lama says that disgruntled Congress MPs are not ready to block the House.
Congress and UML have also formed a four-member study team to study the issues raised by the MPs after a dispute arose over the implementation of the budget. On June 12, a study team of Congress' Ramesh Kumar Mahat and Prabhat Tamang UML's Madhusudan Paudel and Keshav Prasad Pokhrel was formed.
