Karnali Province Assembly remains obstructed due to lack of consensus on budget

Published On: June 30, 2024 09:20 AM NPT By: Nagendra Upadhyaya

SURKHET, June 30:The main opposition party , Nepali Congress (NC) has been continuously disrupting the provincial assembly, accusing the government of making public the budget for the upcoming fiscal year against the agreements reached in the past.

Several all-party meetings to resume parliament business have ended inconclusively. The Minister for Economic Affairs and Planning , Mahendra KC had presented the budget in the Karnali Province Assembly on June 15. Two days later, the NC protested against the budget saying that the answer given by the government was not satisfactory.

Since then, the province assembly has been summoned five times till Friday, but the NC has been continuously obstructing it. NC lawmaker Bedraj Singh, who is also a former finance minister, said the government has been urged to implement the eight-point agenda. The NC wants the government to commit not to implement the schemes mentioned in the budget book by specifying the names of individuals, private firms and companies. The Ministry of Land Management, Agriculture and Cooperatives, Ministry of Industry, Tourism, Forest and Environment, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Planning, Ministry of Water Resources and Energy Development have brought the budget by specifying the names of individuals, private firms and companies.

Similarly, the NC has demanded that the budget should be allocated to prioritize successive and multi-year projects. When Chief Minister Yamlal Kandel was the leader of the main opposition party, the then UML had disrupted the parliament.

Stating that supplementary, special and conditional grants have not been received in some local levels, the NC has demanded that the money should be sent to the local levels that have completed the process. The NC has demanded that all projects above Rs 10 lakhs, except agriculture, should be run through the contract process and one district, one model school, one municipality and one school building should be continued.

The Parliamentary Party chief whip of Nepali Congress Hikmat Bista said that the ruling party was not positive towards the opposition's demands.

A meeting of the province assembly has been called for Sunday. The Congress has taken a stance that the province assembly will not be allowed to function in the current situation.