The Far Western Province government has allocated a budget of Rs 70 million for direct-seat MPs and Rs 50 million for proportional representation.
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The Sudurpaschim Provincial Government has presented the budget at midnight amid a long tug-of-war between the ruling parties over the division of funds. The budget presentation program has been boycotted by opposition party MPs.
Minister for Economic Affairs and Planning Bikram Singh Dhami has presented a budget of Rs 37.7 billion for the fiscal year 083/84 in the Provincial Assembly. The budget for the coming year is about Rs 4 billion more than the Rs 33.47 billion brought in the current fiscal year 082/83.
Minister Bikram Singh Dhami mentioned the total budget and budget sources in his statement, but did not present the figures for the current and capital budget allocations. According to sources, the government has not prepared a detailed program despite preparing the budget statement.
In his budget statement, Minister Dhami mentioned that the highest figure in the budget has been allocated for road improvements. He has allocated Rs 1.74 billion for road improvements. Similarly, Rs 65 million has been allocated for sheep farming in the high hill districts of Darchula, Bajhang and Bajura.
Similarly, Rs 285 million has been allocated for climate resilient projects in Bajura and Bajrang. He mentioned that budget has been allocated to establish a tourist support room and operate the Dewatavi tourism development program under the tourism sector development program. Budget has been allocated to run a nutrition improvement program in six local levels with high poverty rates - Dhakari Rural Municipality and Kamalbazar Municipality of Achham, Shikhar Municipality of Doti, Triveni Municipality of Bajura and Sigas and Shivnath Rural Municipality of Baitadi.
For health sector improvement, budget has been allocated to upgrade Seti, Mahakali and Tikapur Provincial Hospitals to 100 beds, and to upgrade district hospitals in hill districts to 25 to 50 beds. The statement mentions that the necessary budget has been allocated to strengthen the dialysis services provided by Seti, Mahakali and Tikapur hospitals.
The meeting scheduled for 5 pm could not be held due to disputes between the ruling parties, so it was postponed to 9 pm. The budget was pushed to midnight after the cabinet meeting could not be held by 9 pm. It was decided to increase the budget ceiling set by the Provincial Policy and Planning Commission due to the distribution. An official involved in the budget preparation said that Chief Minister Kamal Bahadur Shah was forced to increase the size after the commission initially gave a budget ceiling of 24 billion and the distribution did not meet the demands of the ruling party's UML and his own party's lawmakers.
A Congress lawmaker said that during the tug-of-war between the two parties since Sunday, the UML had threatened the Chief Minister to quit the government. After that, the Chief Minister was under more pressure. The budget brought by the Sudurpaschim government is the largest in size so far.
The government had initially prepared to provide a budget of Rs 50 million to direct-seat MPs and Rs 30 million to proportional-seat MPs for the coming year, and had prepared to ask for a list of plans from them. But after the MPs refused, a lump-sum budget of Rs 70 million was given to direct-seat MPs and Rs 50 million to proportional-seat MPs at the last minute.
