E-Kantipur

KATHMANDU, AUG 07 -

The government’s budget has substantially increased funds for districts in the Far Western Region in the current fiscal year. The government has earmarked Rs 87.33 billion for all the districts, and the share of the Far West this year has jumped to 12.06 percent from 8.23 percent in the last fiscal year.

According to the District Level Annual Development Programme published by the National Planning Commission (NPC), the Far Western Region has been allocated Rs 10.53 billion, up from Rs 6 billion last year.

The region has traditionally received the lowest budget, and the trend has continued this year. It contains the fewest number of districts among the country’s five development regions.

Former home minister Bhim Rawal, who has been campaigning for integration of the Far Western Region for national development, praised the increase in the budget for the region. But he said that it failed to give priority to key projects in the region including a polytechnic institute and Far West University. “The government has not allocated enough budget for the Seti and Mahakali highways,” Rawal said.

The growth in the budget for the Far Western Region has cost the districts in the Central Development Region with its share dropping to 28.37 percent this year from 31.72 percent last year. However, it still received the lion’s share of the national budget.

There is no big change in the share of the budget for other regions. The Eastern Region came second and the Mid-Western Region came third in terms of budget allocations. “We have tried to ensure justifiable distribution of the budget this year amid complaints of uneven distribution of government resources,” said Pushpa Lal Shakya, joint secretary at the NPC.

However, there is sharp uneven distribution of the budget among the districts in the Far West. Kailali has received the highest amount of Rs 2.54 billion which is more than one-fifth of the budget going to the region followed by Kanchanpur with Rs 1.24 billion. “Given the work going on in the Rani-Jamara irrigation project, the large population and greater number of electoral constituencies, Kailali district received the highest budget allocation,” said Rawal.

In terms of district-wise distribution of the budget, Morang topped the list from the Eastern Region with Rs 2.29 billion, Kathmandu from the Central Region with Rs 2.38 billion, Rupendehi from the Western Region with Rs 1.83 billion and Banke from the Mid-Western Region with Rs 2.19 billion.

These districts are represented by powerful leaders of the country too. Interestingly, the deputy prime minister and finance minister hails from Morang, Defence Minister Bishnu Poudel is from Rupendehi and Minister Lekharaj Bhatta represents Kailali.

Budget allocation

Development Region    FY 09-10      FY 10-11

Eastern                           21.07pc        21.19pc

Central                            31.72pc        28.37pc

Western                         19.26pc         19.17pc

Mid-Western                 19.72pc         19.21pc

Far-Western                  8.23pc          12.06pc

Posted on: 2011-08-07 10:00

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