Deliberation on upcoming budget continues in HoR

The parliamentarians continued deliberation on the newly unveiled budget for the upcoming fiscal year 2023/24 in the House of Representatives (HoR).

In the meeting today, Arjun Narshing KC remarked that the Land Revenue Offices were becoming the centre for corruption and irregularities. He rued over delay surrounding the construction of Chhahare road and Balaju-Ranipauwa road in Kathmandu district and therefore demanded timely construction.

Similarly, Basudev Ghimire grieved that there was no budget allocated for the programmes they had demanded several times. Furthermore, he drew the government’s attention towards the anomalies prevailing in the cooperative sectors and called to protect and promote cooperatives of good repute.

Mahendra Bahadur Shahi complained that the budget did not include the plans and programmes that would win confidence of those Nepali migrants abroad and those deprived of medical treatment.

Likewise, Shiva Nepali expressed his dismay over the budget that, according to him, did not prioritize construction of infrastructures such as roads. Bina Lama frowned that there was no budget allocation for the programmes charted out for the northern part of Dhading district.

Udaya Shumsher Rana said that the budget allocation was not balanced and accused that of the three districts in the Kathmandu Valley, more budget was allocated to Kathmandu while Lalitpur was left behind.

Shovita Gautam opined that haphazard construction of roads and other infrastructures was becoming detrimental for the health of Nepalis and thus appealed to the government to mitigate the risk stemming out of haphazard construction.

Lekhnath Dahal protested that the budget that was being allocated for Sindhuli-Khurkot road in the past was cut off this year.

Sanjay Kumar Gautam expressed his qualm over allocation of budget indiscriminately. He requested with the government to not scrap the Cotton Development Committee.

Ranendra Baraili underscored effective implementation of the youth-oriented programmes included in the budget and pointed out the need to encourage the industries promoting self-employment.

Other parliamentarians Saraswati Subba, Ram Kumar Rai and Tara Lama Singh among others expressed their respective views on deliberation on various topics under the Appropriation Bill-2080 BS.