While there is a delay in passing the budget, policy and program of Dharan sub-metropolitan city, the municipal council of Dharan has been affected due to the lack of agreement between the political parties on budget allocation.

In the executive meeting held for the second time to approve the budget, policies and programs for the current financial year, the executive meeting was postponed and the Municipal Assembly became uncertain after the UML people's representatives boycotted the meeting.

In the executive meeting held on Friday, the ward president and executive members elected from UML boycotted the meeting saying that they were trying to confuse the public by overshadowing the budget issue by bringing out other issues than the proposals presented in the executive meeting on August 11. They expressed a different opinion by submitting a five-point letter to Mayor Hark Sampang.

UML representatives have demanded that taxes should not be increased under any title in this financial year, unnecessary funds such as mayor-deputy mayor fund, mayor vision, deputy mayor vision, and executive fund should be abolished. In the meeting, in the process of budget making, policies and programs, financial allocation bill, etc., should be studied once again and the budget ceiling should be re-created and some items in the budget should be removed. 

Similarly, the budget limit should be determined based on the actual income of the city, the plans passed by the city council and published in the red book should not be implemented by the city head without his approval, the projections of revenue in the name of meeting the deficit budget should also be addressed so that the representatives and the public are not confused.

While the tug-of-war is going on among the people's representatives to pass the budget for the current fiscal year, differences have arisen even among the major political parties—UML, Congress and Maoist—who have cooperated for a long time against the independently elected Mayor Hark Sampang.

Mayor-Deputy Mayor have agreed on the budget, while Maoists and Congress have also expressed their support for it. UML has stood in favor of not implementing the current budget. UML has taken the position that the budget should be shaped within the limits of the budget proposed by the Revenue Consultative Committee, deficit budgets should not be introduced, and programs such as Mayor's Vision and Deputy Mayor's Vision should be removed.

The budget ceiling committee has allocated 35 million rupees for the main vision and 20 million rupees for the deputy vision. The revenue consultation committee, which is the coordinator of the deputy mayor, proposed to make a budget of around 1.6 billion rupees, but the resource estimate and ceiling committee decided to increase the budget to 2.2 billion 74 million rupees.

UML disagreed with the decision and represented ward no. in the budget ceiling committee. Chairman of 15 Naresh Evaram and executive member Savitri Pariyar did not sign. According to Vivek Rai, the ward president of Dharan-10, unnecessary funds such as mayor-deputy mayor fund, vision, executive fund should be canceled and tax increase should not be done, he said.

He also said that the UML is of the opinion that the budget of the mayor-deputy mayor vision should be sent to the ward itself. He said, 'Mayor-deputy mayor fund, vision should not be allocated unnecessary budget. This budget should go to the ward. If the budget in the ward is more, the overall Dharan can be developed.'

He added, 'Deficit budget should not be prepared, deficit budget should not be made excessively so that Dharan cannot afford it. People should not be pressured by increasing taxes. Increasing taxes every year is unfair to the people and it is also against the law. Instead of increasing the tax, the scope of the tax should be expanded. He said that the UML's position is that the

should be confirmed as the source is not guaranteed. UML also made a proposal that the city development fund should be kept according to the legal process and law. In the meeting, Mayor Hark Sampang said that the meeting was held for the 18th time and the ceiling was made.

When the budget was being delayed, after the UML ward president and members boycotted the meeting, Mayor Sampang announced that the budget was passed by the executive meeting in the presence of the minority members. However, the meeting was concluded by asking the ward presidents to hold a meeting again to include everyone and consider their demands.

Mayor Sampang expressed the opinion that the development of the people and Dharan as a whole should not be hindered due to mutual political disagreements. He said that political parties should not put pressure in this way, after being elected, they should think about the development of the people and Dharan.

According to Surya Bahadur Bhattarai, the Ward President and Municipal Spokesman of Dharan-17, the members representing UML have been signing continuously in the ceiling committee meeting for the 17th time. But he said that he did not sign the 18th meeting due to internal disputes of the party.

He says, 'Last year too, the budget was allocated to the mayor-deputy mayor fund. This year is also celebrated. If you were going to protest, why didn't you do it last year?' He said. He said that there is a delay in passing the budget and as Dasai is approaching, the budget should be passed by the city assembly in August.

On the question of what will happen in the executive meeting, he says, 'Even though the budget determination committee has passed the budget, it has not been decided what to do next. Mayor Saab has yet to say what to do. What to do is decided only after mutual discussion. Now we are also confused.'

Savitri Pariyar, elected executive member from UML, says, 'Since the beginning, we have repeatedly disagreed with the mayor-deputy mayor fund, vision and not to increase taxes in the ceiling process. When they made the budget ceiling without listening to us, we left the meeting without signing in the 18th meeting.

As executive meeting cannot be held repeatedly, it has become more uncertain when the municipal assembly will be held. The budget of the sub-metropolitan city has gone to zero since the 1st of Shravan since the municipal assembly could not be held at the last minute due to the dispute of the people's representatives.

According to the Constitution and the Local Government Operation Act, 2074, there is a legal provision that the local government must prepare and pass the budget by the end of June. But due to the inability to pass the appropriation bill and budget proposed by the Municipal Assembly at the last moment, Dharan sub-metropolitan city has legally become without a budget.

Due to the failure of the budget on time, financial transactions have been disrupted and revenue collection has been affected. Bhesraj Adhikari, senior accounting officer of Dharan sub-metropolitan city's financial administration division, said that since 1 month, predetermined development works, public services, plan implementation, employee remuneration, payment of work etc. have been completely stopped.