Formulation of plans at the local level: The process is not completed, the people's representatives are unaware

According to the guidance of the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration, there are 7 stages from the preparation of the budget to the approval of the local level.

In the first stage, plans have to be collected from the settlement level with the facilitation of the toll development committee. But in most Wadas of Achham, there is no plan selection at the settlement level. Dharmaraj Dhungana, President of Mangalsen Municipality-5 Pipaltoli Toll Development Organization, said that it was only formed as a toll development organization and no responsibility was given.

'What are the needs of the tolls, what plans are needed, what are the problems are never discussed with us. It is a village development organization in name only," he said. "We have not been given any responsibility. We have not been able to facilitate anything regarding the plan. Plans have been distributed based on access.

Ward President of Mangalsen Municipality-5 Jhankar Prasad Bhat said that plans are selected from the ward based on the plans and opinions collected by the ward members. This time, there was not enough time to hold a meeting in the village and choose a plan. At other times, when we went to Toltol, we understood what the need was. Accordingly, the plans have been decided," he said. But even the ward members are not aware of the plan to be selected in the ward and the upcoming budget.

'Plans are chosen without informing the ward members, the budget comes. We don't participate," she said, "women, children, senior citizens and people with disabilities don't have any planning hearings. We have no idea how much budget is allocated and where it will be spent. She said that the projects of the marginalized groups in the ward are not included in the current budget.

Bindu Rawal, vice president of Bannigarhi Jaigarh Rural Municipality, said that none of the local levels of Achham go through the seven stages of planning and preparing the budget. The ward president has finalized many plans. How can the seven steps be completed when the people's representatives are ignorant," she said, "All procedures are completed on paper. But practically nothing happens.

As mentioned by the ministry, the budget construction at the local level. The ministry has set a limit to complete the work of phase 2 within Baisakh 2nd, phase 3 within the middle of Baisakh, phase 4 within June 15th, phase 5 within June 5th and phase 6 and phase 7 budget and program presentation within June 10th. is Khakendra Sodari, the chief administrative officer of Mangalsen municipality, says that according to the guidance of the ministry, the budget has not yet been prepared at the local level. He says that the ceiling of the budget given by the provincial government should be reached by the end of March, but since it came in the end of Baisakh, the local level only gave guidance to the wards and compiled the plan.

The budget for the ward has not been given during the ceiling time. We will inform the ward president verbally about the estimated budget for the ward and ask him to come up with a plan. Now the ward has come up with a plan. The budget ceiling of the province has come. Now we will give a ceiling to the ward.'' He said that although the municipality asked to choose a plan for economic development, inclusiveness and the needs of the local people in the guidance given by the municipality, there were many plans for physical infrastructure.

An employee said that the guidelines given by the ministry in terms of plan selection and budget creation at the local level are limited only to the process.

Plans come from the ward. A budget formulation committee is appointed under the coordination of the vice president/deputy mayor. It also has 5 executive members. But this committee is like Bhasmika Vihan. It seems that the executive has taken all the rights,' said the employee, 'People's representatives at the local level try to allocate the budget according to themselves. There is a problem when the people's representatives do not understand. The 7-step budget is created only through the paper process. The attention of many people's representatives is more on infrastructure development than other plans.'