KATHMANDU, June 12: The Supreme Court (SC) has issued a show cause order against the Madhesh Province government’s decision to distribute money to its lawmakers.

A single bench of Justice Saranga Subedi issued the order on Wednesday, summoning the government for a discussion.

The first meeting of the Cabinet, led by Chief Minister (CM) Satish Kumar Singh, had earlier decided to allocate projects worth Rs 50 million via lawmakers elected through the direct election and Rs 15 million to those elected through the proportional election system.

In response to this decision, Manish Kumar Mandal, Paritosh Kumar Sah, Bikram Bhandari, Ratan Singh, and Abid Husain filed a writ petition at the apex court on Tuesday.

The apex court has intervened in the program to be launched by the Madhesh Province government which is similar to the constituency development fund, enforced by the federal government for many years. The program courted controversy citing the misuse of the state’s financial resources.

Last year, the then Finance Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat, through the budget for 2022/23, allocated Rs 60 million to each lawmaker of the House of Representatives for a similar program.  But, the SC on August 23, 2023, issued an interim order directing the federal and provincial governments not to spend the money allocated for the Constituency Development Fund.

The concept of 'Infrastructure Development Fund' was started when Sushil Koirala was the prime minister. The fund was later renamed 'Parliamentary Development Fund' and 'Local Infrastructure Development Partnership Program'.

 
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