Due to the lack of budget, the employees of Far West are without salary

Khemraj Joshi, President of Nepal Civil Service Union Kailali, says that non-payment of salary has affected the daily life of employees. "Employees who have to pay room rent, shop loans, monthly fees for children, regular medical expenses, bank interest, etc. are in trouble," said Joshi, "Not all employees have savings. The holiday of the employees was affected as they did not receive their salaries. Female employees are also affected. Gaura, the big festival of the Far West, was also affected.'

According to the Office of the Chief Minister and Council of Ministers, there are currently 1,638 permanent employees in Far West. There are more than 500 additional employees in the form of temporary, contract and consulting services. There are many contract service employees in the district hospitals under the Ministry of Social Development. In the Far West, there are very few permanent staff above the officer level. There are 24 deputy secretaries in the administration service, only four are working in Far West. There are 68 branch officers in the administration service and only 14 are employed.

Jagdish Joshi, information officer of the office of the Chief Minister and Council of Ministers, said that the lower level employees are in trouble due to the stoppage of salaries. "There are lower-level employees than most of the officers," says Joshi, "Most of the lower-level employees will have difficulties if their monthly salaries are interrupted." Even though it is happening, it is difficult to express it. "There is no way to solve the problem by talking about it. However, there is no situation to remain silent," Joshi said. "It is not yet certain when the budget will come." State President of Nepal Civil Service Organization Krishna Bahadur Shahi also says that the employees are feeling pain inside because they cannot open their mouths. The office also has to come. However, there is no salary address,' said Shahi.

Due to the lack of budget, the risk of affecting the services of hospitals under the province has increased. Due to the lack of timely budget, some district hospitals are without specialist doctors. At Achham District Hospital, two doctors were appointed on contract service from the provincial budget. Jhapta Thapa, head of the store branch of the hospital, said that the process of appointing new specialists for the current financial year could not be started due to lack of budget after two doctors working in the last financial year left. "Achham Hospital is currently without a specialist doctor," said Thapa, "Due to the lack of budget, even the medicine that should be provided free of charge is forced to borrow from the businessmen to operate."

Head of Bajura District Hospital Dr. Samita Pun said that due to the lack of budget, the services are beginning to be affected. ``In the last fiscal year, a budget of 6 million was given for specialist doctors. From that, we hired specialist contract services. Now there is confusion," said Dr. Pun said, "We are taking services by requesting them to come up with a budget."

The date that the government will bring the budget is moving. The government initially said that it would bring the budget within the first week of August. After the first week passed, Chief Minister Kamal Bahadur Shah said that the budget would be brought within the second week of August. But after the second week has passed, he has promised to bring it within the third week. "Preparations are being made to bring the budget by the last week of August," said Jhalakram Adhikari, Secretary of the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Due to various reasons, it may be delayed for a few days.

Due to budget vacuum, the state government has been borrowing According to Joshi, the information officer of the office of the Chief Minister and the Council of Ministers, they have to spend their daily administrative expenses on loans. On the other hand, the employees say that the financial cycle of the state government has been disrupted due to the fact that the budget did not come until August. It is the period to bring the budget by the end of June and prepare the program implementation guidelines in July and August. Since there is no budget until August, the cycle of every program is going to be disrupted. The festival starts from Asoj and lasts till October. When the program is implemented, it will be affected when the program has to be prepared," said Joshi, the provincial president of the staff organization (civilian).

Not only the provincial government but also the local level have been affected due to the failure of the provincial budget. Local levels receive supplementary, special, conditional and revenue sharing funds from the provincial government under the Financial Equalization Grant. But the local levels of the Far West are not sure of the amount they will receive from the provincial government. "We are also confused as we are not sure how much budget will come from the provincial government," Amar Khadka, the head of Badimalika Municipality said, "We prepare the budget by estimating the budget received from the province. If 1 crore is allocated from the province for supplementary, we also have to allocate 1 crore. So far, the local level will be affected since the budget of the province has not yet been addressed.

Since then, the budget and planning are going on in the state government. "The parliamentarians are under the pressure of the workers for the plan, the ministers are under the pressure of the parliamentarians and the chief minister is under the pressure of the ministers," said a provincial parliamentarian, "What other reason is there for the budget to be late?" Everyone is trying to figure out how to increase their plans.'

The government has collected recommendations for the plan by allocating four crores to directly elected MPs and two crores to proportional MPs. There are 32 direct and 21 proportional MPs in the 53-member provincial assembly. One of the MPs of the ruling party said that preparations are being made to include the plans of MPs by allocating 1 billion 280 million for direct MPs and 420 million for proportional MPs. The government is preparing a budget by allocating a total of one billion 700 million for the parliamentarians. But MPs are not satisfied.

According to Chief Minister Kamal Bahadur Shah's aide Nrip Bahadur Sunar, the directly elected MPs are lobbying for a budget plan worth 40 million rupees and they need to get more plans. Even proportional MPs are not satisfied with two crores. "They are scrambling to plan the budget," Sunar said.

In the Far West, there is currently a joint government of UML and Civil Immunity under the leadership of Congress. It is natural for parliamentarians to lobby to increase the number of their plans. But everyone should understand the limitations of the budget," says Social Development Minister Meghraj Khadka, "Until now, due to lack of budget, the employees have not been paid, the daily administrative expenses of the offices have to be borrowed. Therefore, we are sensitive to the need to bring the budget as soon as possible and remove the budget vacuum.

The previous government under the leadership of Ghil Bahadur Sodari of the Integrated Socialists submitted a budget of 31 billion 62 crores for the current financial year on June 1. But after the ruling party UML left the government, the budget was neither passed nor failed. Sodari resigned from the post on July 18. Even after the formation of a new government led by Shah of the Congress in partnership with the UML and Civil Immunity on July 21, the budget confusion has not gone away. The new government brought an ordinance on revenue collection and loosened the knot of revenue collection from July 24.

Akkal Bahadur Rawal, the deputy leader of the main opposition Maoist Center Parliamentary Party, says that the current situation has arisen because the current government has made way for the previous government to bring the budget as well. He said that the current government should take full responsibility as it has maintained the state of zero budget till now.