Kathmandu, June 30: Rajendra Prasad Pandey of CPN-UML, Govinda Bikram Shaha of RPP and Lilamani Pokharel of United People’s Forum proposed a reduction of Rs. 100 under the budget appropriation head concerning the Ministry for Local Development at the meeting of the House of Representatives today.

MP Pandey, presenting the budget reduction proposal at the outset, said the budget for village development committees has not been raised in proportion to the increase in the proposed budget and the amount apportion for the Ministry, the sources of income for VDCs have been cut down and there is a vast difference between the budgets apportioned for influential Ministers and those for the other MPs.

Referring to a double budget allocation for a single project and misuse of the national exchequer in budget allocation, he said real estate registration fees have not yet been released to the DDC.

He further complained that the government had no initiation of correcting some 16 contradictory clauses in the local autonomous regulations, setting out priority for projects recommended by the district council and the concerned MPs and classifying the district and central level projects.

He suggested that programmes such as Bisheshwar with the poor should be launched under the local bodies, a clear policy should be laid out for giving priority to the remote areas, and attention devoted to solid waste management in Kathmandu.

MP Govinda Bikram Shaha of RPP said the budget has been apportioned arbitrarily and efforts have not been made to make the local bodies financially strong and duly empowered.

Stating that budgets should be apportioned as per geographical regions, he said the amounts meant for constituency development should be properly utilised and transparency maintained.

He said that the Local Development Training Academy is under the control of the ministry even though its autonomy is provided for by law, the special area development programme has not been carried out properly and a lower budget has been apportioned for the local body consolidation programme.

He further demanded that the government devise long term measures for disposing of solid waste in Kathmandu Valley and bring out a bill concerning remote area development.

A realistic programme package for the oppressed and downtrodden community should be designed and taken down to the village level, he pointed out and said the Ministry should come up with a concrete programme for making the local bodies effective in view of the dual rule prevaling in a number of districts in the country.

Lila Mani Pokharel of United People’s Forum said that the proposed budget fails to identify the basic requirements of the county and its populace and accused the government of not being serious over formulation of the long term plan and its implementation.

He noted that the government should issue a white paper for effective implementation of developmental projects and said the proposed budget cannot meet its target since grants comprise 15.67 per cent of the total development outlay and loans 11.49 per cent.

Though there is a law for making the local bodies responsible, it has not been put into action, he said adding that since the development approach focuses on particular towns or leaders and ignores geographical features and demography, the system as a whole is wrong.

Chiranjibi Wagle of Nepali Congress said that user groups should be formed on the basis of an all party concensus for developmental work at village level, sufficient budget should be allotted for solid waste management in Kathmandu valley, local bodies should determine charges in consultation with the industries in order to resolve the dumping problem.

Mrigendra Kumar Singh Yadav of Nepal Sadbhawana Party said that though the local autonomy act and its regulations have been brought out, they have not been put into practice in a proper way and the people were unable to take advantage of the development due to politicisa-tion.

He demanded an increase in development grants for Saptari DDC and Rajbiraj municipality.

Hari Acharya of National People’s Forum said that every successive government has handicapped the local bodies when it comes to budget allocation, project selection and their approval.

He complained about politicisation over the agricultural roads and the rural community infrastructure programme and the limiting of the domain of work for people’s representatives concerning activities such as river training and selection of agricultural workers.

Narayan Man Bijukchhe of Nepal Workers and Peasants Party asked whether or not the government has a plan for developing Bhaktapur as a cultural town and said that any project involving costs below Rs. 50 million should be left to the local bodies.

NC’s Ramjanam Chaudhary and Ramesh Dutta Lekhak observed that the budget allocated for the Local Development Ministry is likely to ameliorate the condition of the poor, suspension bridges should be constructed, several provisions of the local autonomy laws are yet to be put into action and programmes for remote areas and special development zone are not balanced.

CPN-UML’s Birodh Khatiwada and Ganga Prasad Nepal noted that programmes devised under the ministry are politically motivated, there are many projects but there is no programme to complete them, several laws stand in the way of full autonomy of the local bodies and the Local Development Ministry has failed to fulfill its responsibility.

Narayan Prakash Saud, Ram Chandra Tiwari and Sabitri Bogati (Pathak) of the Nepali Congress observed that efficiency of local bodies should be enhanced and internal resources mobilized to make it autonomous, it should be made clear whether consumers committees should build agricultural roads or the DDC, local development programmes are likely to ensure the welfare of the poor sections of the society, such programmes as B. P. with the Poor will help alleviate poverty and local means and resources should be used for local development.

Mahendra Prasad Yadav and Sherdhan Rai of the CPN-UML complained that the ministry has not yet monitored the budget, allocation of the budget for VDCs is unbalanced, the budget is politically motivated and secretaries should be made available in all the VDCs, demanding that three suspension bridges are to be constructed in several places of Bhojpur including Dudhkoshi.

Kamal Prakash Sunwar, Dharma Prasad Shaha and Lalbabu Pandit of the CPN-UML remarked that the present budget is very disappointing, more budget has been allocated for general expenditure than for development works, there is no concrete programme to strengthen local bodies, women’s awareness programmes should be launched through local bodies, VDC grant should be raised from Rs 500,000 to Rs 1.5 million, allowances for elderly people should be sent to the districts on time and the B. P. with the Poor programme launched impartially.

NC’s Ramkumar Chaudhary, Romi Gauchan and Shivraj Joshi (Dailekh) spoke of the need to exploit local means and resources for conducting skill-oriented, income-generating and agricultural rural roads for the development of remote areas, fire engine should be provided to Rajbiraj municipality, the Remote Area Development Council Act should be brought in this session and villages with more than 10,000 people declared municipalities and the amount allocated for the VDCs used properly.

Fatik Bahadur Thapa complained that the amount allocated for 61 nationalities is not enough, there is no transparency in the B. P. with the Poor programme, the government is not serious about agricultural roads and the rural infrastructure community programme should be implemented in glum district.

Laxman Prasad Mehta of the Nepali Congress said there are good programmes in the appropriation bill, honesty shown in the implementation of the B.P. with the poor programme, the special region development programme is praiseworthy and budget for the villages should be allocated as per the population and area.

Til Kumar Meyangbo of the CPN-UML complained that the grant assistance for the VDCs is inadequate, there are problems of drinking water in Taplejung constituency No. 1, budget should be allocated for the protection of Tumyatar, budget for rural agriculture roads should be increased, as the budget allocated for Taplejung last year has not reached the district it should made available and attention should be given towards the lack of projects for construction of bridges in Taplejung.

Hridayaram Thani of the Nepali Congress said the programmes and budget for the local bodies is laudable, budget should be increased for the Ratamangra road in Surkhet, bridge should be built over the jhupra river and budget should be increased for development grant as the Rs 1,600,000 allocated for the Birendranagar municipality is insufficient.

Basanta Kumar Nemwang of the CPN-UML said the grant assistance for the DDCs and the VDCs is inadequate, no attention has given to the development of Panchthar district, budget should be allocated for the Fidim-Yasok motarable road, and budget should be increased for the agro road as the amount of Rs 1,500,000 allocated is very low.

Keshav Thapa of the Nepali Congress said the VDCs are without secretaries, the auditing should be done in the municipalities and the VDCs, additional facilities should be made available for the uplift of the Dalits and the national ethnic tribes, and drew the attention towards construction of a city hall in Ilam district.