The ruling party's provincial assembly members and opposition parties have protested against the Lumbini government's budget and demanded a rewrite of the annual program (red book). After the ruling party's provincial assembly members opposed the budget, the discussion on the budget in the Lumbini provincial assembly has not even begun.  

The Lumbini provincial government had made public a budget of Rs 37.38 billion for the upcoming fiscal year on Asad 1.   The government's budget demanded a budget ceiling of Rs 40 million for directly elected provincial assembly members from Lumbini's 52 constituencies and Rs 20 million for proportional provincial assembly members.  

However, since many of the plans demanded were not included in the plans submitted to the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure Development, many of the plans of the directly and proportionally elected provincial assembly members from Bardiya district were not included.  

NCP provincial assembly member Narmaya Dhakal, elected from Bardiya, said that out of 11 plans worth Rs 20 million, only about Rs 10 million worth of physical infrastructure projects were included and others were left out.

According to her, out of the 40 million plans of the provincial social development minister, Janmajya Timilsina, only one plan worth Rs 20 million was included, leaving a total of Rs 38 million plans left out. Similarly, many plans of Rajkumar Chaudhary and Bhuvaneshwar Chaudhary from Bardiya have also been left out. Tara Thapa of Janamorcha has also left out a plan worth Rs 20 million for physical infrastructure development in Bardiya from the 20 million budget ceiling.

Although the ministers said that the projects were left out due to technical errors, she said that the minister deliberately left out many plans in the same district. "The Minister for Physical Infrastructure Development and the Minister for Finance are trying to evade the issue by saying that it is a technical error. It is not technical but planned and deliberate," she said. "That is why we have said that the budget should be rewritten." However, she said that Minister for Physical Infrastructure Ratna Bahadur Khatri and Minister for Economic Affairs and Planning Dhanendra Karki are urging them to move forward by finding a solution to include the plan.

According to a source in the Ministry of Economic Affairs, both ministers have tried to reach an agreement to reduce the budget set aside for the multi-year plan and include the missing plans. However, since employees do not take decisions in the implementation of such plans, even if they agree now, there will be problems in the implementation phase. Provincial assembly members have adopted a strategy of only attending the provincial assembly meeting after amending the budget, otherwise they will not allow the budget to be passed.

The main opposition party, the NCP, the disgruntled provincial assembly members of the Congress, and former ministers who were not able to become ministers in the UML and were forced to leave the ministry at the beginning of the budget, are also planning to prevent the budget from being passed.

Despite the opposition on the budget, the provincial assembly meeting was called from Monday to discuss the budget, but the provincial assembly meeting has not been held until Wednesday. Monday's meeting was postponed to 3 pm on Tuesday after a notice was posted. After the meeting could not be held on Tuesday either, it was postponed to Wednesday.

A meeting was held on Wednesday morning under the coordination of Chief Minister Chetnarayan Acharya with the provincial assembly members who had plans left, Economic Affairs Minister Karki, Infrastructure Development Minister Khatri, and the chief whip and whip of the Congress-UML. However, provincial assembly member Narmaya Dhakal said that the meeting ended without a conclusion. 'No conclusion was reached in the meeting, there is no way that our plans left can be implemented after sitting with the minister,' she said. 'Therefore, we will reach a conclusion on what to do with the provincial assembly meeting on Thursday after discussing with the secretaries of the ministries concerned.'

She said that she has also demanded that Wednesday's provincial assembly meeting be postponed and that if the meeting is held, she will continue the protest within the meeting. In the discussion on the budget, the ruling Nepali Congress, Janmat Party and JSP Nepal and the opposition parties Nepali Communist Party, RPP and Rastriya Janamorcha are protesting, saying that the budget is unbalanced and does not match the priorities and principles of the policy and program and budget. Some UML provincial assembly members, on the other hand, have planned to make the budget fail by saying that they will take important decisions during the budget passage and have put forward other provincial assembly members.

Indrajit Tharu, the main opposition party MP, said that most provincial assembly members are demanding that the budget be corrected and rewritten as it is unbalanced and does not match the principles and priorities of the province's periodic plan, policy and program and budget. However, he said that there is little chance of the budget being rewritten or amended.

‘The possibility of correcting or rewriting the budget book is low according to the current policy and method,’ he said, ‘The plan is to throw away the budget as it is now, which was also done last year.’ He said that with the help of disgruntled provincial assembly members, they are also going to launch a campaign to expose the budget. ‘Within the parliament, we are preparing to make public the errors and intentions of the budget,’ he said, ‘That is what the campaign to expose is.’