The Karnali provincial government has slowed down after the Gen-G-led movement. The government has neither put forward a concrete plan for the reconstruction of the structures damaged during the movement nor is development work accelerating.

In the first three months of the current fiscal year, the provincial government has been able to spend only 5.93 percent of the budget. This is the lowest expenditure so far.

After almost a month and a half of the agitation, a meeting of the Council of Ministers was held on Asoj 28. The meeting could not take any decision other than allocating Rs 88.5 million for the martyrs' memorial allowance. The government, which has brought a budget of Rs 32.996655 billion this year, will have to implement about 3,000 development plans.

Of these, only about 30 percent of the plans have been implemented. 'Work has been done only on multi-year plans for which resources have been assured,' said Ramesh Subedi, spokesperson for the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Urban Development. 'Last year's review and evaluation also took some time, and due to the festivals and agitation, the budget for new plans has not yet been authorized.'

According to him, the ministry has 743 plans this year. Of these, about 500 are projects. He informed that about 100 new plans have gone through the contracting process. According to the ministry, nearly 40 plans have gone to the steering committee chaired by the Chief Minister under the Provincial Planning Commission for approval.

‘Those plans are also in the process of being approved within 1/2 days, from there, the contract process will begin after the resources are assured in the Ministry of Finance,’ said spokesperson Subedi, ‘the implementation of the plans will accelerate from this month itself.’ The ministry has been able to spend only 507.1 million rupees out of the 11.1 billion rupees budget. The ministry has a budget of 10.73 billion rupees for development alone. 

Similarly, the Ministry of Water Resources and Energy Development, which has about 1,300 plans, has barely implemented only 100 plans. The ministry has spent only 85.3 million rupees out of the 3.83 billion rupees budget by mid-Asoj. Ministry spokesperson Padmaraj Devkota said that the expenditure in the previous quarter was reduced due to delays in the budget authorization and contract process, protests, Dashain-Tihar, etc.

According to the Provincial Accounts Controller's Office, only Rs 1.95 billion 5.2 million has been spent in the first quarter of the current fiscal year. Which is only 5.93 percent of the budget. In the first quarter of the last fiscal year, the government had spent nearly Rs 200 billion (6 percent). Former Deputy Secretary Khamba Prasad Thani said that looking at the government's first quarter expenditure, it seems that the development will continue this year as well. 

'The provincial government has failed to implement the budget every year by making various excuses, this year too the Genji movement was used as an excuse,' he said, 'Development and construction are at a standstill everywhere, service flow is also disrupted, how will the people feel about the provincial government in such a situation?'

The Karnali government has spent 2.82 percent on capital and 11.22 percent on current expenditure till mid-Asoj, according to the Office of the Treasurer. This year, Rs 12.39 billion has been allocated for current expenditure and Rs 19.98 billion for capital expenditure. Of which, most of the current expenditure has been spent on salaries and administrative expenses. 

During the Genji-led movement, 38 different structures, including the Karnali Provincial Assembly, have been set on fire and vandalized. However, due to the slowness of the provincial government, the details of the damage have not yet been confirmed. After the Provincial Assembly Secretariat was damaged due to the fire, the parliament meeting could not be held, said Jibaraj Budhathoki, Secretary of the Provincial Assembly Secretariat.