RTI activists seeks expense details of Melamchi water supply project

KATHMANDU, Oct 9: A Right to Information (RTI) activist has sought details of all the expenses made by the donor agencies and the government for the construction of the Melamchi Water Supply Project since the very beginning of the project.



Dan Bahadur Karki of the Information Support Centre under Freedom Forum lodged a request letter with the Ministry of Physical Planning, Works and Transport Management seeking details of the expenses made so far in the project.[break]



Karki demanded the expense details of the project as per Clause 3 of the Right to Information Act, 2064. He demanded details of expenses for the construction of the road from the water source to Sundarijal and the compensation provided to the locals under different headings for the land acquired for the construction of the project infrastructure.



Similarly, Karki has sought the details of the amount spent under different heads under the economic and social programs conducted in the project-affected VDCs and the audit report as well as the progress evaluation report.



It may be recalled here that the Chinese construction company has already broke the contract agreement after the government turned down its condition that the project cost be increased by 200 percent on average from the amount it had stated earlier in the contract.



The contractor has broken the contract one year before the stated deadline of the contract. It has only constructed six kilometers of tunnel of the project so far.

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