The government had allocated such budget through lawmaker's fund for each of the constituency area as part of a special program aimed at expediting development of physical infrastructure in the area.
"The budget was allocated for the constituency area welfare but the lawmaker illegally shared the budget among his the party workers and the relatives," Dhir Bahadur Thapa, district president of Janamorcha Nepal accused adding that the lawmakers distributed the amount keeping the locals in dark.
Chandra Singh, district joint secretary of Bajhang of CPN (M) also claimed that last year, the lawmakers had manipulated the expenses through fake bills and distributed the money among the party workers and were repeating the same this year. "The lawmakers had secretly distributed the budget of about Rs. 26 million which was allocated for the constituency area-1 and 2 of Bajhang district last year and this year also they want to do the same," he added
Lawmakers should be treating all the people of the constituency equally and focusing on their development but the lawmakers have been not serious towards their responsibilities to develop their respective constituencies Singh added.
Locals claim that the total amount of Rs 15 million, allocated for constituency-2 of the district was entirely distributed among his relatives by lawmaker Lal Bahadur Rawal without holding discussions stakeholders of the constituency. When approached, lawmaker Rawal denied the allegations and claimed the funds were allocated after identifying areas that are crucial for the area's development.
Locals even accused lawmaker Man Prasad Khatri of allocating budget for developing projects in which his relatives and party workers were involved. "Even though I reminded the lawmaker about the different places which are lagging behind and suggested him to allocate the budget in those places but the lawmaker compelled us make the allocation of the budget solely according to him," a VDC staff said, requesting anonymity.
Even proportionally represented lawmaker Janak Budha is accused of allocating the budget without holding discussions with concerned stakeholders. Lawmakers Khatri and Budha did not respond to calls for their comments on the accusations leveled against them.
Related story
Constituency budget allegedly distributed among lawmakers' favo...
