SINDHULI, Aug 15: Spending a huge sum of money from the government budget, the elected representatives of Kamalamai Municipality along with the chiefs of few other rural municipalities have left for an excursion.
Before the local polls, the chiefs of various government authorities used to go for an outing after wrapping up the work of the last fiscal year. Giving continuity to the same practice, the local representatives have headed for their first joint excursion. A team of 23 representatives of Kamalamai led by Mayor Khadga Bahadur Khatri kicked off their visit on Tuesday.
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In recent days, the representatives have been accused of paying more attention to fulfilling their vested interests than thinking about public welfare. When people asked for repairing the pathetic roads, the municipality showed financial problems. Surprisingly, it has budget for the excursion of representatives but not for development projects, say the locals. "It is inappropriate for them to go on a visit by using public tax," said one of the locals.
As per the sources, the municipality has sanctioned Rs 1 million for the excursion. The representatives claim that the purpose of the visit is the observation of development in other districts. "Our representatives have gone on a seven-day excursion," said the municipality's Information Officer Binodbabu Khakurel.According to Deputy Mayor Manju Devkota, the municipality had initially planned to form two groups for the visit. "It will be difficult to handle the day to day work of the local unit in the absence of all staffers. So, some of us had to stay here," said Devkota. She refused to shed light on the budget spent on the excursion saying she has no idea.
Meanwhile, Mayor Khatri stated that the team will be observing development policies, physical infrastructure and other sectors of neighboring districts. He also said that they will visit Palpa, Hetauda, Chitwan, Rapti, Butwal, Pokhara and Baglung in a week.
Recently, Karsang Tamang, chairperson of Hariharpurgadhi Rural Municipality and Karna Bahadur Thapa Magar, chairperson of Tinpatan Rural Municipality too returned from their visits. There are two municipalities and seven rural municipalities in the district. While the locals are struggling with various problems, their representatives entrusted with the responsibility of solving their problems are more interested in going for visits. This has greatly disappointed the people.
