The provincial assembly meeting has been suspended indefinitely after growing dissatisfaction among ruling and opposition members over the omission of plans in the budget.
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The meeting of the Lumbini Provincial Assembly has been postponed indefinitely. The meeting, which has been continuously postponed since Monday, was postponed on Thursday as per the instructions of Speaker Tularam Gharti Magar until further notice.
After the meeting was postponed indefinitely, the discussion on the budget presented by the provincial government for the upcoming fiscal year on Ashar 1 has become uncertain. The government had presented a budget of 37.38 billion rupees for the upcoming fiscal year.
A meeting was called for last Monday to discuss the budget. However, the provincial assembly members demanded that the meeting be postponed, saying that they had not received the budget-related red book (budget annual program) and had not been able to study the budget. The meeting was then called for Tuesday.
In the tenth meeting of the eighth session held at 1 pm on Tuesday, Minister for Economic Affairs and Planning Dhanendra Karki had presented a proposal to hold a theoretical discussion on the annual estimate of revenue and expenditure for the fiscal year 2083/084. Similarly, a bill was presented in the meeting to make arrangements for spending and allocating some amount from the provincial consolidated fund for services and works for the fiscal year 2083/084.
Although the agenda for discussion on the appropriation bill presented in Tuesday's meeting was set for Wednesday, the meeting could not be held after most of the ruling party provincial assembly members objected to the budget presented by the government for the coming year.
Wednesday's meeting was postponed at the special request of the government. However, since the environment for holding the meeting on Thursday was not ready, Speaker Gharti Magar has postponed the eleventh meeting of the eighth session until further notice, Provincial Assembly Secretary Durlabh Kumar Pun informed through a notice.
In the budget announced by the Lumbini provincial government for the coming fiscal year, a budget ceiling of Rs 40 million was provided 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 submitted to the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure Development by directly and proportionally elected provincial assembly members from Bardiya district were not included in the plans, the provincial assembly members of the ruling UML Congress have been demanding a rewrite of the budget, warning that they will reject the budget.
Although discussions have been underway since Wednesday under the coordination of Chief Minister Chetnarayan Acharya to include the missing plans in the work procedure, no conclusion has been reached.
According to sources 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 the employees do not take decisions in the implementation of such plans, even if they agree now, there will be problems in the implementation phase, and the provincial assembly members have resorted to a strategy of not allowing the budget to be passed, or they will only attend the provincial assembly meeting after amending the budget.
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 very beginning of the budget are also planning to prevent the budget from being passed.
On Wednesday, a group discussion was held with Chief Minister Chet Narayan Acharya, the provincial assembly members who were left out of the plan, Minister for Economic Affairs Karki, Minister for Infrastructure Development Khatri, and the chief whip and whips of the Congress-UML. However, after failing to reach a conclusion, it was agreed to hold a meeting with the secretaries of the ministries on Thursday, but provincial assembly member Narmaya Dhakal said that Thursday's meeting was also inconclusive.
In the discussion on the budget, the ruling Nepali Congress, Janmat Party, and JSP Nepal, and the opposition parties, the Nepali Communist Party, the RPP, and the Rastriya Janamorcha, are continuing to protest, saying that the budget is unbalanced and does not match the policies and programs, priorities, and principles of the budget.
According to Dhakal, a provincial assembly member of the NCP elected from Bardiya, only Bardiya provincial assembly member and Social Development Minister Janmajya Timilsina has missed out on Rs 38 million worth of projects. Out of 11 projects worth Rs 20 million, Dhakal has only included Rs 10 million worth of physical infrastructure projects.
According to her, many projects of Bardiya's Rajkumar Chaudhary and Bhavneshwor Chaudhary have also missed out on projects. Although the ministers said that the projects were missed due to technical errors, Dhakal claims that the minister deliberately missed out on many projects in the same district. 'The Minister for Physical Infrastructure Development and the Finance Minister are trying to evade the issue by saying that this 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 us to find a solution to include the project and move forward.
