E-Kantipur

KATHMANDU, DEC 12 -

Alarmed by the practice among local governments to spend massive amounts of money on opening tracks for new roads, the National Planning Commission (NPC) has asked them to instead focus on upgrading the existing roads and building bridges.

A progress report of development programmes operated last year by the NPC has stated that most of development budget provided to local governments is being spent on new road construction and that they have not been following the Local Self-Governance Act.

Last year, new roads totalling 2,065 km in length were constructed at the local level while 1,638 km of roads were maintained regularly and 221 new bridges were constructed, according to the NPC.

In a guideline set for local governments for the budgetary programmes for the next fiscal year 2012-13, the NPC has also asked them to approve new roads as per the approved District Road Master Plan.

“Only after finishing the gravelling work on the roads under construction should work on new roads devised in the master plan be started,” states the guideline. “The tendency of scattering budget in new roads prevented completion of projects which could be brought into use soon,” said Pushpa Lal Shakya, joint secretary at the NPC. “This also caused soil erosion and posed natural calamity risk.”

The guidelines have also urged local bodies not use the budget for capital expenditure to make donations to political parties and their sister organisations, sharing the budget on the basis of political consensus and only spending on programmes decided by the

local council.

“As some DDCs were found funding activities of the political parties such as mass assembly, we had to direct them not to make such funding,” said Shakya. The NPC has already fixed the budget ceiling for local bodies at Rs 98.5 billion with Rs 71.05 billion for recurrent expenditure and Rs 27.66 billion for capital expenditure.

The local government bodies have also been told to compulsorily get local-level development programmes endorsed by a district council meeting by mid-March and send a copy of the decision to the NPC by March 23.

With regard to programmes being conducted in partnership with donors, the NPC has asked them to manage the required matching fund for those projects and allocate the budget to other programmes.

According to the guidelines, a certain amount from the budget allotted to village development committees should be allocated for development of the agriculture sector.

The NPC has also urged them to continue arranging the salary and facilities of teachers through banking channels. DDCs that get electricity royalty will have to spend the entire income on rural electrification until it is completed.

As the government has failed to manage counterpart funds for community electrification programmes, the NPC has asked it not to take any funds from the community at present. As per the programme, the community has to contribute 10-20 percent while the government contributes 80-90 percent.

Posted on: 2011-12-12 09:15

Post Your Comment

Please note that all the fields marked * are mandatory.
* Full Name
* Address
* Email Address
* Comment
* Captcha	Get another CAPTCHA code
Note:	Comments containing abusive words or slander shall not be published.