KATHMANDU, May 9: The rhetoric ‘Singha Durbar in every village’ in the new federal setup still seems to be a far cry from reality. This is evident from the fact that the mayors, deputy mayors, chairmen, vice chairmen, ward chair, and ward Members who run the so called ‘Singha Durbar in the villages’ are now gathering at the main administrative center demanding projects from the federal government. Especially, there is a crowd of people's representatives at ministries involved in development activities.

The people's representatives who often complain that they are deprived of their rights and that all the rights are concentrated only in Singha Durbar have been making rounds of Singha Durbar to bag projects up to Rs one hundred thousand.

According to Urban Development Minister Sita Gurung's personal secretary Hemant Gurung, about 18,000 applications have been registered with the minister's secretariat for the next fiscal year (FY 2023/24). 

"We took the application till April 28, but federal parliamentarian, province assembly members, mayors, deputy mayors, chairmen, vice chairmen, ward chairs, and even ward members have filing applications even now," said Gurung, “They also ask for very small projects that cannot be included by the ministry.”

According to him, this year, the ministry will propose a minimum budget of Rs 2 million for such projects. In the current fiscal year, up to one hundred thousand schemes have been placed in the red book. 

"This year, assembly halls, view towers, temples, and community buildings have been given low priority, while rural roads and bridges have been given first priority," said Gurung.

According to Dilip Bhandari, head of the Planning Division of the Ministry of Urban Development, the budget of the ministry in the current fiscal year is Rs 61 billion, and the ceiling of the budget in the upcoming fiscal year will be Rs 56 billion. “This means that the total number of schemes will also decrease in the coming year. There are about 2,500 schemes in the current year and it is estimated that there will be 2,000 schemes in the next year.”

"It is natural to seek for big projects at the national level, but they (people's representatives) come to the ministry asking for very petty projects," said a joint secretary of the ministry.

According to the ministry, there is a rush in the ministry even for schemes up to half a million or one million rupees. According to Joint Secretary Bhandari, the ministry is preparing to send all the projects to the finance ministry within a couple of days. 

As per the division of labor in the new federal setup, only the municipality falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Urban Development. This ministry cannot oversee the plans of the rural municipalities. However, the chairpersons of the rural municipalities have registered their applications with the ministry seeking for  projects. 

Within the budget limit set for the current fiscal year, the Ministry of  Urban Development has prepared four schemes including those up to Rs  100,000.

“If the federal government prepares projects of up to Rs 100,000, what will the local government do?” questioned a senior official of the ministry. 

According to the official, plans have been made on the basis of access and not on needs basis. According to him, this trend will hinder the overall economic development of the country.

Likewise, Santosh BC, the chief personal secretary of Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Prakash Jwala, said that the ministry is being overburdened with proposals from mayors, deputy mayors, rural municipality chief, and vice chair, ward chairman and even ward members who ask for small projects.

Likewise, members of the House of Representatives, National Assembly and provincial assemblies also come to the ministry asking for projects, said BC. Such applications are registered and records are maintained. He said that so far about 7,000 applications have been recorded on the ministry’s software.

According to the Joint Secretary of the Ministry, Ramhari Pokharel, the budget of the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure in the current fiscal year is Rs 167 billion, and the ceiling of the budget for the upcoming year has been downsized to Rs 113 billion. "Therefore, the number of plans in the coming year will decrease slightly from the current year," he said.

Last week, there was a brief discussion between the senior officials of the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and a small team of people's representatives from Karnali Province. The people's representatives approached the ministry asking for additional plans of half a million to one million rupees, while the senior officials of the ministry argued that since the responsibility of preparing small projects rests with the local level, the center should only look after the big projects at the national level.

The Ministry of Physical Infrastructure is only authorised to look after the matters related to national highways. If this rule is followed, only 80 highways and major bridges fall under the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure. But contrary to the spirit of the division of labor in the federal setup, the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure is also looking after small projects.

 
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