A government official told Republica that the budget will take up the 122-MW Upper Seti hydropower project, the 86-kilometer Hetauda-Kathmandu fast track road and Siktta irrigation project as the core projects of national pride. “A new and vigilant high-level mechanism will be put in place to ensure that construction of these projects goes absolutely as planned," said the official.[break]
The budget will announce a third-party insurance scheme to ensure due and timely compensation for victims of road accidents or their families. We often see hours-long road blockades staged by locals demanding compensation for victims of road accidents, said the official. The scheme will not only fix different amounts of compensation for different levels of accidents, but also ensure quick release of compensation amounts from a fund, which will later be reimbursement by the insurance companies.
Apart from quick-fixing problems like disputes with contractors and local people and labor issues, the mechanism will work to build political consensus among political forces at not only local but also national levels, said the official.
In this connection, a proposed announcement of three-year budgeting, at least for major projects, will be one of the major reforms for dealing with the chronic problems of weak implementation of development projects.
The proposed program will end the existing practice of calling tenders every year for multi-year projects and thus will cut the tender-clearance period, which is generally up to three months. The reform will provide more time to concentrate on project construction activities, said the official.
In short, the budget will be a blend of continuation of some of the previous government´s good programs and some new people-focused programs targetted specifically at fighting poverty and youth unemployment, the most serious social ills of contemporary Nepal, said the official.
Apart from continuing the Youth Self-employment Program but under a modified framework with the focus on providing quality vocational training for those who have applied for the program, the government is to announce a low-cost housing scheme for homeless Dalits of the Terai and hill areas. “Homes costing Rs 100,000 each and with an area of 30 square meters will be built and handed over to around 4,000 homeless families,” said the official.
In order to promote youth employment particularly in the Terai, the budget will also bring in at least five river embankment projects. These programs, short-term in nature, will immediately bring duel benefits: they will control riverside fertile land and unlike road construction, which has been highly mechanized, construction of river embankments generate huge levels of employment, said the official. Likewise, expansion of Dhangadi Airport to a regional airport and a road network construction in the far western region are some of the employment-generating programs to be announced in the budget.
The new budget will also announce a nationwide early childhood nutrition program for children aged four months to five years. This will be an important program because physical weakness and inadequate mental development among primary school children, due mainly to lack of nutrient diet during early childhood, are the main reasons behind the failure to excel in education, he said. The budget will also incorporate a nation-wide literacy program to be implemented through community schools.
Related story
What is missing in budget for agriculture?
