Lumbini Province's Physical Infrastructure Development Minister Ratna Bahadur Khatri has also poured his own ministry's budget into his own constituency only. He is an elected MP from Banke 3 (1). He has allocated nearly Rs 400 million capital budget from various ministries of Lumbini Province in Baijnath and Khajura rural municipalities of Banke alone, which fall under Minister Khatri's constituency. He has allocated Rs 163 million more budget to two municipalities from his own ministry alone.

He became the Minister of Physical Infrastructure by removing UML's Bhumishwar Dhakal just 6 days before the budget was made public. Minister Khatri, who took office on Jestha 25, has been accused of cutting the plans prepared by the previous Minister Dhakal and focusing the budget and plans on his own district and constituency.

The provincial government had provided a budget ceiling of Rs 40 million to the directly elected provincial assembly members of Lumbini and Rs 20 million to the proportionally elected provincial assembly members. The provincial assembly members have also accused Khatri of cutting the plans and budgets of 5 provincial assembly members from Bardiya who submitted plans according to the budget ceiling provided in this way and allocating plans and budgets to his own constituency.

Minister Khatri is a resident of Khajura Rural Municipality-2 in Banke. In his rural municipality Khajura alone, he has allocated Rs 56 million for 34 plans from the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure, Rs 33.9 million for 22 plans from the Ministry of Urban Development and Drinking Water, Rs 30 million for 7 schools for social development, and Rs 7.8 million for 5 plans from the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation.

Similarly, Minister Khatri has allocated Rs 124 million for various 39 projects in Baijnath Rural Municipality, which is within his constituency, from his own Ministry of Physical Infrastructure, Rs 25.7 million for 18 projects, from the Ministry of Drinking Water and Urban Development, Rs 50 million for 9 schools, and Rs 15.9 million for 11 projects from the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation.

Minister Khatri has allocated Rs 163 million from Physical Infrastructure in two municipalities alone, Rs 61 million from the Ministry of Urban Development and Drinking Water, Rs 81 million from Social Development, and Rs 24 million from the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation. Similarly, the Ministry of Industry, Tourism, Agriculture, Forests and Environment has also allocated a budget with priority to Minister Khatri's constituency.

Narmaya Dhakal, a proportional provincial assembly member of the NCP elected from Bardiya, accused Minister Khatri of deliberately cutting the plans of provincial assembly members. He alleges that Minister Khatri has kept the plans of the provincial assembly members submitted under the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure Development in his own constituency by cutting more than 80 million rupees.

Out of the 40 million rupees budget ceiling provided to the provincial Social Development Minister elected from Bardiya, only one plan worth 20 million rupees has been kept. He said that no other plans worth 38 million rupees have been included. Provincial assembly member Dhakal said that out of 11 plans of 20 million rupees, only about 10 million rupees worth 10 million rupees for physical infrastructure have been included and others have been left out.

Similarly, many plans of Rajkumar Chaudhary and Bhuvaneshwar Chaudhary from Bardiya have also been left out. Dhakal said that the plan of 20 million rupees that Janamorcha MP Tara Thapa had submitted for physical infrastructure development in Bardiya has been left out from the 20 million rupee budget ceiling. ‘The Minister of Finance has deliberately cut our plans,’ she said, ‘so our main demand is to rewrite the budget.’

She said that if the budget is not rewritten, women members have launched a signature campaign demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Chet Narayan Acharya, Minister of Economic Affairs Dhanendra Karki and Minister of Physical Infrastructure Development Ranta Khatri. There are 31 women members in the Lumbini Provincial Assembly. She claims that 75 percent of them have signed, demanding the budget be rewritten or resigned.

Basanti Neupane of Banke, a member of the UML’s Provincial Assembly, also said that the budget will not be passed until all three of the Chief Minister, Minister of Finance and Minister of Physical Infrastructure resign. ‘Minister Khatri alone has allocated Rs 520 million from various ministries and Rs 280 million from physical infrastructure in his constituency,’ she said. ‘The budget is not fair, so the three ministers including the Chief Minister who prepared such a budget should resign.’ Earlier, the provincial budget booklet mentions that Economic Affairs Minister Karki had also allocated Rs 51.8 million for his ward and Rs 294.4 million for 104 projects in his municipality Gulmi Durbar Rural Municipality.’

The Lumbini provincial government had announced a budget of Rs 37.38 billion for the upcoming fiscal year on Asad 1. The budget included Rs 11.11 billion for current expenditure. Rs 22.71 billion was allocated for capital expenditure. Congress provincial assembly member Nima Giri is also dissatisfied with the budget brought by her own minister. She is also demanding a rewrite of the budget. ‘The budget is not equitable, the Finance Minister is repeating the same mistake again and again,’ she said, ‘Last year too, the plans selected by the MPs did not work, the Chief Minister and the Finance Minister have made a commitment not to repeat the mistake in next year’s budget. Now the same thing has happened again.’ She suggested that the Finance Minister and the Chief Minister, who are repeating the same mistake, should pave the way if they have moral conduct.