PASHUPATINAGAR, Jan 5: The spread of coronavirus infection has severely impacted construction works and the agriculture sector in the districts across Province 1. 

As local governments adopted measures to contain the spread of coronavirus by reducing development budgets, the projects selected through people’s participation are in limbo. The projects were badly hit by the pandemic. 

The Province 1 government has given a nod to spend just 50 per cent of the budget in the regular cost of different agencies. 

Crop Conservation Officer of Agriculture Knowledge Centre, Ilam, Hemraj Panta said the Province Government has frozen 20 per cent budget in the second phase after 30 per cent in the first phase.   

The Province Government has allocated Rs 604.4 million for the Centre in the current fiscal year. Last week, the Centre received permission to spend only 50 per cent of its budget. 

Most of the programmes for commercial and cash crops have been curtailed in Ilam, Panta shared.  

However, the Centre has received a nod to implement all the programmes from the Federal Government. All the programmes of Rs 32.8 million from the Prime Minister Agriculture Modernisation Programme received from the Centre have been approved.  

Likewise, the Urban Development and Building Office Division, Ilam, has also received approval to spend just 50 per cent of its budget from the Province Government. Division Chief Rudra Narayan Mishra said that his Office will now spend only Rs 160 million. 

The Province Government has also written to the offices not to implement projects that create new liabilities. A number of other agencies carrying out development activities under the Province 1 Government are also facing the same fate in Ilam, officials complained.

 
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