Donors likely to downsize assistance to local bodies

Bishnu Prasad Aryal
Kathmandu, July 17



The fate of a country-wide development programme appears to hang in a balance as donors sound out plans to review their commitment, unhappy about irregularities and mismanagement of the funds in the absence of elected local bodies.



Donors supporting the Local Governance and Community Development Programme (LGCDP) have indicated that they would slash their fund citing lack of accountability and fiduciary risk management in the local bodies, according to Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development (MoFALD) sources.


The development partners have not been satisfied with the governance system in the local bodies and have raised serious concerns about the misuse of development funds, sources said. "They have been demanding a sound mechanism, including fiduciary risk management, and an accountable body to check irregularities in the local bodies," MoFALD officials said.


They have committed to provide only about US$ 100 million till date for the second phase when the government has planned to bring some US$ 1300 million programme that the government will contribute US$ 1058 million and remaining about US$ 300M by donors. "The donors have assured us that they will assist three times bigger amount if the local elections are held," said Puroshottam Nepal, programme coordinator of the LGCDP at the MoFALD.



LGCDP, originally conceived between July 2008-January 2009, was re-designed into a four-year programme supported by a host of development partners comprising several European countries, the World Bank and the UN System in Nepal. The first phase of LGCDP concluded on July 15, 2012 and no cost tenure was extended till July 15, 2013 in order to prepare policies and programmes for the second phase and sign agreement. The second phase was supposed to start on July 16 to July 15, 2017.



The joint financing agreement with the development partners is yet to be signed. As on date, LGCDP runs into its second phase unofficially, said ministry sources as they looked forward to the signing of renewal agreement for the remaining period.

"The government is negotiating with donors and is in process of signing a renewal agreement," Local Development Secretary Shanta Bahadur Shrestha told The Himalayan Times.

However, programme coordinator of LGCDP Purushottam Nepal sounded more optimistic about the future of the second phase programme. "A draft agreement has been prepared and it will be signed by August," he said.


"The size of budget from the development partners may decrease this time due to absence of elected representatives in the local bodies," ministry sources said. The local bodies elections were held last time 16 years ago.


The total budget comprising of government of Nepal US$ 260.8 million (Block Grant Allocation to LBs) and donors commitment US$ 161.5 million was planned to invest in the first phase of the LGCDP. The development partners include Asian Development Bank, DANIDA, DFID, UN System (UNDP, UNICEF, UNCDF, UNFPA, UNV etc.), Government of Norway, Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC), GIZ, JICA, World Bank and Government of Finland.
However, the donors did not provide all the committed assistance of the first phase for the local bodies, citing irregularities in the local bodies, according to the MoFALD sources.

Out of about Rs 45 billion budget allocated for the MoFALD annually, development partners contribute about Rs 15 billion for 75 districts, 3,915 village development committees and 58 municipalities across the country.

Read More

Ex-minister 'doled out money' to cadres

Narayan Kaji Shrestha gave away development funds

BISHNU PRASAD ARYAL

KATHMANDU: The Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development has been found to have violated the rules, with the direct involvement of the former local development minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha, by distributing development funds among those close to his party.

According to the MoFALD, Rs 500 million of people’s participatory programme of the current fiscal year was distributed for 723 projects under the direct supervision of local development minister in the current fiscal year. Of the total budget of PPP of Rs 500 million, MoFALD contributes Rs 200 million while the rest is covered by the Ministry of Finance.

It has been revealed that former deputy prime minister and local development minister Shrestha distributed the development funds among UCPN-M cadres, in the name of constructing martyrs’ memorial buildings and parks, according to sources at the MoFALD. The Cabinet that had Shrestha as minister was replaced by the Khil Raj Regmi-led Cabinet on March 14. As per the rules, the minister can distribute up to Rs 500 million of PPP through the plans approved by district development committees. However, the funds were distributed arbitrarily among those who approached Shrestha personally, in violation of the existing rules, high ranking MoFALD officials told this daily requesting anonymity.

Regular irregularities
• Gaurishankar Khadka Smriti Pratisthan, Jhapa, Rs 500,000
• Jaya Gobind Sah Smriti Pustakalya, Mahottari, Rs 1,500,000
• Sahid Pratisthan, Rasuwa, Rs 100,000
• Sahid Smriti Bhawan, Bidur, Rs 100,000
• Sahid Smriti Sanchar, Dhading, Rs 500,000
• Shahid Pratisthan Nepal Shakha, Rolpa, Rs 2,500,000
• Different youth clubs in Ropla, Rs 4,000,000
• Siddha Tirtha Smriti Bhawan and Park, Kavre Rs 500,000
• Sahid Smriti Park, Jipupipal, Rukum, Rs 500,000
• Sahid Smriti Park, Kankridobhan, Rukum, Rs 500,000
• Sahid Smriti Park, Pyuthan, Rs 500,000

Rs 500 million of PPP can be given only for development activities of public concerns. As per the rules, such programmes are generally selected through DDCs on the basis of recommendations from other line ministries and the National Planning Commission. Memorandums submitted to high ranking officials after their field visits also need to be taken into consideration. “But the programmes were directly selected by then minister Shrestha in January-February,” the officials said. The government provides funds to national institutions such as Ganesh Man Singh Memorial Academy, Manmohan Singh Memorial Academy and Krishna Sen Ichchhuk Memorial Academy. But the development funds cannot be given to cadres of certain political parties. “We have been told that the funds allocated to different organisations were given to construct office buildings of a political party and to the cadres on one pretext or the other,” the officials added.

MoFALD Spokesperson Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya, said that the budget from the central level can be spent only on activities related to public infrastructure development and social development. “We will monitor them and will take necessary action if they are found illegal,” Thapaliya said in a style typical of bureaucracy.

Read More

Govt shifting development grant focus to Tarai

 • Plans to slash funds given to hill and mountain regions • Experts call it an irrational move

BISHNU PRASAD ARYAL

Fast facts • Tarai belt constitutes a little more than half of the total population of the country (50.2 per cent) • Hill and mountain belts constitute about 42.8 per cent and seven per cent of the total population‚ respectively • The Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development gets Rs 45 billion every year • As per the rule‚ each of the 3‚913 village development committees get Rs 1.5 million to Rs 3 million as grants • Each of the 75 district development committees get grants on the basis of performance • New rule says performance-based grants to the local bodies will be reduced‚ implying that each VDC will get only Rs 1.5 million and each DDC Rs 4 million

KATHMANDU: The Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development is planning to cut development grants given to the hills to provide the same to the Tarai region.

According to the national census 2011, the Tarai belt, smaller in area, constitutes more than half of the total population of the country (50.2 per cent) followed by the hill and mountain belts that constitute about 42.8 per cent and seven per cent of the total population, respectively.

“The remote hill and Himalayan regions, where poverty-stricken, marginalised and underprivileged people live, will be affected if the government’s plan to slash development grants is implemented,” said Dinesh Chandra Devkota, former vice-chairman of the National Planning Commission. “It will be an irrational move as marginalised people living in hills like Karnali region will be affected.”

The ministry is preparing to change the rules provisioned in the Local Bodies Resource Mobilisation and Management Guideline 2069 BS under the influence of minister for local development, Madhes-based parties and Unified CPN-Maoist, confidential sources at the ministry told The Himalayan Times. “This is a plan to spend more development budget in Tarai by cutting grants given to the hilly and Himalayan regions,” they said. “The government is planning to include this programme in the coming fiscal budget and programmes are being prepared for the coming year.”

THT’s repeated attempts to contact Minister for Federal Affairs and Local Development Bidhyadhar Mallik went in vain. He neither picked up his phone nor responded to emails.

The government allocates about Rs 45 billion for the MoFALD every year. Of the total allocation, about 70 per cent is spent on development activities and people-oriented programmes while rest is set aside for administrative purposes, according to the MoFALD.

Development grants are allocated as per provisions enshrined in the rules and regulations. Highly placed sources at the ministry told this daily that the plan was being chalked out with more focus on Tarai region in the name of population distribution.

Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya, Spokesperson for the MoFALD, conceded that the ministry was working to amend the rules. “This rule can be revised every two years,” Thapaliya said. “We can concentrate on densely populated areas while distributing grants,” he added.

The proposed plan will revise the existing system and send more budget to Tarai-based districts. Out of the total allocated capital expenditure, 50 per cent will be distributed on the basis of formula-based grants and remaining as per minimum conditions grants, according to the Local Bodies Fiscal Commission Secretariat.

Each of the 3,913 village development committees used to get Rs 1.5 million to Rs 3 million as grants while each of the 75 district development committees used to get grants on the basis of performance.

The performance-based grants to the local bodies will be reduced as per the new rule, which means each VDC will get only Rs 1.5 million and each DDC Rs 4 million.

Read More

Pashupati heritage pressed to donate land to NGOs

Culture Minister recommends PADT to distribute its land to NGOs


PADT officials object the proposal and decide to get approval from its committee

Bishnu Prasad Aryal
Kathmandu, May 29

Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Ram Kumar Shrestha has recommended the Pashupati Area Development Trust to provide the land of heritage site to the NGOs.

According to the PADT sources, Minister Shrestha recommended the PADT in written to provide about three ropanies of land to the private organisations. A meeting of the PADT Council chaired by Minister Shrestha was held yesterday to discuss on the issues.

Gajendra Narayan Singh Memorial Academy chaired by former minister Anil Kumar Jha and Bal Sarathi chaired by social worker Mala Kharel asked Minister Shrestha to provide two ropanies of land owned by the PADT at Gothatar of Kathmandu and nearly one ropani of the PADT land at Tilganga respectively.

The issues were tabled yesterday at the PADT council meeting held first time at the PADT premises after Minister Shrestha was appointed. Minister Shrestha was appointed in the cabinet in the recommendation of Pulshpa Kamal Dahal-led Maoist Party.

"However, the proposal was rejected in the meeting terming it as illegal," said the PADT officials. "We proposed to forward such proposals through the regular meeting of the PADT executive committee," they said.

Minister Shrestha might have personally recommended the PADT to provide its property to the NGOs, said the officials at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation. "We are officially unknown about it," said Jaya Ram Shrestha, chief of Culture and Heritage Section at the ministry.
Sushil Nahata, member-secretary at the PADT said that seven agendas were discussed on the PADT council. "However, they are yet to be approved," he said. "The state property cannot be given to any private organisation."

According to the PADT, the agendas discussed during the meeting are land issues recommended by Culture Minister, making Bagmati pollution free river, contract review of PADT land leased to then Hawai Sewa Bibhag (presently Civil Aviation Authority), providing a piece of land site to Madan Bhatta whose land was pooled during the PADT Master Plan, waiving interest and cost of land given to poors in place of pooled land and widening road at the PADT area.

Gargi Gurukul Pratisthan, chaired by Prof Angur Baba Joshi, also proposed to provide 25 ropanies of the PADT land at Gothatar of Kathmandu on lease. Pratisthan serves educating girls and women on Sanskrit and Hindu culture. "We decided to provide a building to the organisation at Gaurighat to run a school until it makes its own building," said Narottam Vaidya, treasurer at the PADT.

Vaidya further said that the PADT has also decided to amend PADT regulation regarding gratuity for retired caretakers, manage directives for priests and caretakers of the Pashupatinath Temple and effective management of auditing accounts.

The pagoda style Pashupatinath Temple, which is believed to be more than 2,500 years old, is enlisted in the UNECSO World Heritage Site.

Read More

Mob dictates democracy in local bodies for a decade

Bishnu Prasad Aryal

Kathmandu, December 31

Rabble culture has continued to dictate local bodies for more than a decade owing to the vacuum of elected representatives. However, neither the government nor the political parties dared to adopt the democratic discipline to hold local body elections despite their hollow buzzes to ensure good governance in the local bodies.

Everyone, who believes in democracy and election system to choose their leaders for the development and transformation of society, is compelled to think that there is no democracy in Nepal. On the one hand, legislative body is defunct; on the other hand, the local bodies are deprived of local government elected by them, of them and for them. “People can only experience the existence of government for service delivery if there is elected bodies in the local level,” said former chief secretary Bimal Koirala. “Democracy is not a gift given by elites. People in local level should realize and entertain it fully,” he added.

TIMELINE 2012

January 6:            All-party mechanism in local body dissolved after order from CIAA and local body employees assigned to work in place of elected body.

May 14:                Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development (MoFALD) was shifted to Singh Durbar premises from Harihar Bhawan, Lalitpur.

July 16:                 Donor funded first phase of LGCDP ended.

August 26:           18 local body officials of Dhanusha suspended for three months for gobbling up Rs 300M.

November 7:        Supreme Court ordered the government to hold local body elections.       

December 2:         Eight local body officials of Saptari suspended for three months misusing Rs 300M.

Koirala further said that neither the legitimized central government nor the local government were in democratic order in Nepal. “Present situation is no more than the state of mock democracy instead of functional democracy,” he said. “It is only lifeless democracy that has weakened governance system, issuing licence to involve in corruption.”

The Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development (MoFALD) has been huffing and puffing to rule the local bodies by assigning the civil servants and local body employees, claiming to ensure service delivery to the people. However, the misuse of development funds has increased rampantly in the involvement of the political parties, government officials including VDC secretaries and local body employees in the local level.

In the recent years, the government has allocated some Rs 45 billion, including about Rs 15 billion from the foreign aids, for the MoFALD every year. Additionally, the government allocates a huge amount for the local bodies through the Ministry of Health and Population, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction.

The local bodies constituted are 75 districts, 3,915 village development committees (VDC) and 58 municipalities throughout the country. Apart from their local resources, a VDC gets at least Rs three million to five million from the government yearly.

The donor countries have raised a serious concern about the misuse of development funds in the local bodies. They will be happy only if the elected body functions in the local bodies, said the government officials.

Senior officials at the MoFALD revealed that the donor countries and development partners were more interested in carrying out development activities themselves in the local bodies but not through the government bodies. “They want to invest assistance directly in the local bodies because they are worried about corruption of the development funds in the local bodies,” they said.

Though the elected government cannot end the corruption in the local bodies, they certainly can check and minimize risk, said Laxman Pandey programme officer at the National Association of VDCs in Nepal. “The elected representatives will be more responsible towards people. At this time no one is there to take responsibility and accountability,” Koirala added.

The cadres of political parties are playing foul against laws in local bodies while forming users committees to plan and use development budget and programmes.

This is more pathetic to reveal that the planning system in the local bodies is just opposite of the decentralization policy. The plans are imposed from centre to bottom instead of bottom to top. Even a single meeting of Decentralisation Implementation Monitoring Committee headed by Prime Minister could not be held throughout the year. It should take place at least once in each three months.

The government officials admit that two third of the fiscal budget has not been used properly though the amount is spent on any development head and activity. A study carried out by a team comprising of former chief secretary Bimal Koirala indicated to a similar finding.

It is a general rule in the democracy that people should be given opportunity to elect their representatives in each four to five years so as to establish culture of fresh mandate. The local body election was held 15 years ago in the country last time. The political parties and government officials blame on the transitional period and restructuring of local bodies based on federalism for failing to hold local body elections.

Structure of VDCs
(Based on Local-self Governance Act 1999)
Village Development Committee (13 Members) Village Council (13 + 36 + 4 = 53 Members) VDC Chair -1 Vice – chair - 1 Ward Chair - 9 Ward Members - 36 (Minimum 9 Women members) Nominated VDC Members 2 (Minimum 1 Women) Nominated Council Members - 4 (Minimum 1 Women)

  

“This is a mere example of avoiding responsibility of establishing democratic culture. Local body election never affects structuring the federal bodies. It will certainly take time to write federal statute. If the statute is not written for another four years, will it be reasonable not to hold local elections?” Koirala wondered. “If the new constitution is written within two years, it will definitely take at least four years to hold the next local body election.”

Dhakal argued that local body elections would certainly help contribute to writing new federal constitution. “Only elected representatives can represent the voice of people. The VDC secretaries are misusing their authority while issuing various recommendations for citizenship certificate and passports and so on,” he said. “Political parties are afraid of elections and showing unaccountability to hold the local body elections.”

Shanta Bahadur Shrestha, secretary at the MoFALD, said that they have faced series of hurdles to execute development programmes and deliver services to the people efficiently due to absence of elected representatives. “Though local body employees and civil servants are working to fulfill the vacuum of elected representatives, the role of accountability towards people could not be satisfactorily played. Every activity of governance and service delivery has been affected,” he said. “The ultimate solution to settle the problem is to hold local elections as soon as possible,” he added.

Read More

Bad governance continues unabated in local bodies

Political parties major elements of fiduciary risk; MoLD to issue warning letters soon

Bishnu Prasad Aryal
Lalitpur, November 5

About Rs 45 billion is allocated for the local bodies every year but the budget is widely misused in the involvement of the political parties.

A government official belonging to an union said that only 30 per cent budget allocated for development is properly utilised in the local bodies. "Some 70 per cent is misused in the involvement of political parties by preparing fake documents of development activities," he claimed.

Dr jagadish Chandra Pokhrel, former Vice-Chairman of the National Planning Commission, also said that the political parties were involved in distributing development budget equally in many districts. "Political parties have captured the tenders in local bodies. This chaos is very serious problem, which should be immediately addressed from national level with political debate," he said. "The governments are centralised but local governance is falling down and down," he added.

The Ministry of Local Development (MoLD) assesses the performance and development activities of about 25 District Development Committees (DDC) every year. The MoLD has recently monitored 20 DDCs in the current fiscal year. Among them, the ministry has received reports of 16 districts--Gorkha, Lamjung, Kailali, Kanchanpur, Rautahat, Dang, Dailekh, Siraha, Dhanusha, Mahottari, Sunsari, Jhapa, Gulmi, Rupandehi, Syangja and Baglung, according to the MoLD. The reports of four districts--Makwanpur, Lalitpur, Dhading and Sankhuwasabha are yet to be compiled.

The violations of rules and regulations, and bad governance are rampant in the majority of districts, said the members of the monitoring teams. "Only Some districts such as Makwanpur have better improved the performance," said Rishi Raj Acharya, chief at the Monitoring and Evaluation Section, MoLD.

There are 75 DDCs and 99 municipalities including 41 newly declared but unauthorised municipals and about 3,770 village development committees across the country. The government has allocated about Rs 45 billion including some Rs 15 billion foreign aids for the local bodies.

The monitoring reports revealed that the misuse of development funds, rampant distribution of budget under pressure of political parties, violation of Local Self-Governance Act--2055BS, unethical selection of plans and implementation and poor auditing system.

Read More

Local election a must to check misuse of devt funds

Bishnu Prasad Aryal
KATHMANDU: July 2
The main opposition Nepali Congress (NC) has rejected the proposal of the Ministry of Local Development that seeks to restructure the political mechanism at the local bodies on the basis of votes that political parties bagged in the Constituent Assembly elections. 

The NC was responding to the ministry’s call for suggestions from 30 political parties represented in the CA on whether to go for fresh elections or revamp the mechanism on the basis of CA votes. The deadline to offer suggestions expires on July 9.

The ministry is set to table the proposal to the cabinet, stressing restructuring of the political mechanism in all 75 district development committees (DDCs), 58 municipalities and 3,915 village development committees (VDCs) on the basis of CA votes, presenting fresh elections as an option, according to ministry secretary Sushil Ghimire. 

NC Vice-President Ram Chandra Paudel said the revamping of the political mechanism on the basis of CA votes is not acceptable as the votes will not mean much once the CA’s term expires on August 31. 

“There is rampant corruption in local bodies and misuse of development funds. The only solution is holding local body elections as soon as possible,” Paudel argued at a meeting with Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal today after submitting a report on the proposal to Khanal.

“We are also for holding local body elections as per Article 139 (1) of the Interim Constitution,” said Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya, spokesperson for the ministry. 

“If the government is not ready to hold elections, an interim local body mechanism should be formed to regulate the activities of local bodies till next local elections,” he said. 

“We should either go for election or form a new mechanism to check massive misuse of development funds in local bodies,” Thapaliya reasoned.

After the abolition of monarchy, five major political parties had decided to nominate their representatives in local bodies in the absence of elected representatives. 

The civic bodies have been running without elected representatives for about nine years.

If the ministry has its way, the revamped mechanism will have one representative each for 3 per cent of CA votes with a catch that a political party cannot claim more than 50 percent of total seats in each mechanism. 

The proposal has proposed five representatives in each VDC and seven 

in each DDC and municipality. “Moreover, the executive coordinator or the deputy must be a woman and other members should be selected so as to make the body inclusive,” Thapaliya said.

Read More

Govt intending to distribute Rs 900M to political cadres

Bishnu Prasad Aryal
Kathmandu, June 9

The Ministry of Physical Planning and Works (MoPPW) under political pressure has created new development plans of Rs 900 million at the end of the fiscal year intending to distribute the amount to the cadres of the ruling political parties.

The MoPPW created new 393 road plans of Rs 220 million about a month ago under 249 of the Budget Book at the end of the fiscal year. The Ministry of Finance (MoF) and the National Planning Commission have already approved the plans, according to the MoPPW.

The plans of Rs 220 are said to be approved under the pressure from MoPPW Minister Top Bahadur Rayamajhi. Of Rs 220, some 35 per cent will go for Rayamajhi's district Arghakhachi and about 20 per cent for Law Minister Prabhu Sah's district Rautahat while remaining portion for other districts, the government officials requesting anonymity told exclusively. Both Rayamajhi and Sah are from UCPN-Maoist party.

Following the first step, the cadres of the ruling parties--UCPN-Maoist, CPN-UML, CPN-ML, Madheshi Janadhikar Forum-Nepal among others demanded the MoPPW to create similar new programmes of Rs 680 million. The MoPPW approved these programmes and sent to the MoF and NPC for approval two weeks ago. "It will take about two weeks for approval. "How will the allocated budget be properly implemented in last two weeks of the fiscal year?" the officials wondered.

The government allocated Rs 500 million for about 3,000 road programmes under 249 of the regular budget programme for the fiscal year. The budget allocation varies from Rs 50,000 to Rs 300,000 to each of such plans. If such a road project links two districts, up to Rs 2 million is allocate for one programme.

The government officials are skeptical over the implementation of the new budget allocated in the last hour in development activities. "The regular budget allocated for the current fiscal year is unlikely to be spent more than 80 per cent. So the new budget is impossible to be implemented in time and more likely to be misused by the political cadres," they said.

KATHMANDU: The Ministry of Finance (MoF) has been preparing to transfer the budget of a development region to another region against the fiscal budget speech. Rs 60.7 million allocated for road development in the Far-West Development Region and an unknown amount of Mid-West Development Region are being transferred to other regions, said MoPPW officials. "The MoF did not provide additional budget for well undergoing projects as in the past years despite its commitment owing to low revenue collection and government plan to allocate unused budget for energy bank," they said. --

A meeting of the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on June 7 directed the MoPPW and the MoF not to transfer balance of payment to the smaller projects except national priority P1 and natural disaster rescue programmes. It also ordered the government not to release any budget to the NGOs in the remaining period of the current fiscal year.

NPC Vice-Chairman Dr Dinesh Chandra Devkota said that the NPC approved the MoPPW programmes of Rs 220 about a month ago thinking the programmes of new government. "The government can allocate additional budget up to 10 per cent of the total national budget," he said. "We approve only programmes. The MoF and MoPPW are responsible for budget implementation. I cannot say how they allocate the budget," he added.

"There is no chance of approval of the remaining programme of Rs 680 million following the PAC direction," said Devkota. "We will discourage ill-intentions."

Minister Rayamanjhi, who is in Gulmi district visit now, said on phone that the projects of Rs 220 were already started and going on. "The government is yet to approve Rs 680 million. We will monitor and not let them misuse the development funds," he claimed.

Read More

Nepal heading towards political collision?

Bishnu Prasad Aryal

KATHMANDU (Nepal), Nov 16-- Nepal’s struggle to become a Federal Democratic Republic makes no more a mirror reflect a thin hope for writing new constitution after the major political parties involve only in their partisan interests rather than national responsibility. Nepal in between two big nations—India and China-- is on verge of failed state leading to political uncertainty and anarchy.

Monarchy, some 240 years old, was abolished from Nepal on May 28, 2008 from legislature. The historical change came as a result of 19-day peaceful People’s Movement II 2006, following Royal take-over of the democracy on February 1, 2005 by then king Gyanendra Shah, who was crowned throne as successor of king Birendra, along with queen, two princes and a princess, who were massacred inside the Narayanhity Royal Palace in Kathmandu on June 1, 2001.

The incident took place during the last phase of a decade-long armed conflict ignited by the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-M) under the chairmanship of Pushpa Kamal Dahal aka Prachanda, killing some 15,000 people, including security forces and Maoist cadres. It announced ceasefire in late 2005. CPN-M was tagged terrorist by the Government of Nepal, USA and India among other countries. Although other countries withdrew the terrorist tag, the USA is yet to lift label tagged on the Unified Communist Party of Nepal Maoist (UCPN-M), then CPN-M.

Seven-party alliance including Nepali Congress (NC), a full-democratic party and Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Marxist and Leninist (UCPN-ML), middle path party, joined the hands in 2005 with CPN Maoist, ultra-leftist by signing 12-point pact to overthrow the monarchy from Nepal. The later agreed to follow democratic path while NC and UCPN-ML pledged to set up federal democratic republic of Nepal.

Constituent Assembly (CA) of 601-member poll was held on March 10, 2008 to write the new federal democratic constitution. The two-year tenure ended on May 28, 2010, which has been extended for one year. However, six months have just passed but there is no sign of dealing with the new statute, said constitutional expert Dr Bhimarjun Acharya. “The CA tenure can’t be extended again as per the constitution. Another CA election can be an alternative.”

On the other hand, the political parties have failed to form a new government by electing Prime Minister. The caretaker government led by Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, who resigned on June 30, 2010, is struggling to bring the fiscal budget for the current fiscal year that began on July 17.

The major political parties have been flexing muscles in blame games by neglecting to conclude peace process and write new constitution for a way out of impasse. The NC and UCPN-ML have criticised the UCPN-Maoist for failing to abide by past agreements. While Royalists are for reviving monarchy in the country.

More than 19,000 Maoist combatants, who are inside the cantonments supervised by United Nations Mission in Nepal, are desperate for their settlement. The political parties are yet to finalise the actual number of combatants to be integrated and rehabilitated as per their qualification.

The leaders of UCPN-M, the largest party in CA with 238 members but not with simple majority, have frequently reiterated their opinions over public places to launch another movement to capture state power and enforce communist rule exploiting transitional phase. Maoist chairman Prachanda have usually warned to ‘take over power through people’s revolt’ and appealed people to be ready for the change. UCPN-M senior leaders Mohan Baidya ‘Kiran’ and Dr Babu Ram Bhattarai have sung similar rhythm but are still uncertain of dates to usurp state power. They said that ‘foreign agents and anti-reactionary forces’ have blocked the Maoists to head the government and termed it as ‘feudalistic forces plotting conspiracy’ against them.

UCN-ML senior leader KP Sharma Oli lambasted the Maoists for conspiring to capture state power. “They will be responsible if the nation falls to a failed state,” Oli said a few days ago. “The dictatorship ultra party or another power is unavoidable unless a consensus is forged on the contentious issues.”

 Meanwhile, NC leaders are firm on their stance not to allow the UCPN-M to lead the government ‘unless it ensures to implement past accords, enshrine new statute and conclude peace process logically.”

The conflict among three major political parties has reached to climax by overshadowing the national interests, each party claiming to head the government. “They have overlooked the national interests for writing new constitution,” said Acharya. “If they fail to write new constitution and conclude peace process to a logical end before May 28, 2011, the country might have to face an abyss leading to political instability in the context of constitutional void,” he added. 

Thus, the Himalayan country will have to face hard times of totalitarianism or autocracy unless the situation turns to positive tunes by understanding national need and accountability. The jarhead politicians are yet to be enlightened with visions and realise the national interests for the sake of people and country to relieve from rising impunity.

Read More

National coffer bleeding from foreign trips of ministers

Bishnu Prasad Aryal
Kathmandu, June 15

A comparison between the foreign visits of present jumbo cabinet led-by Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal in a year and Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’-led smaller cabinet in nine months shows that the government ministers don’t care about emptying national coffer.

According to the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers (OPMCM), there are 43 members including PM, ministers, assistant and state ministers in the present cabinet while the Maoist-led government comprised of 24 ministers. The cabinet decisions reveal that the present cabinet ministers visited foreign countries 133 times from May 2009 to April 2010 and the Maoist-led ministers visited foreign countries 92 times from August 2008 to April 2009.

A record of the Finance Section at the OPMCM shows about Rs 4.45 million is spent on salaries for the present 43-member cabinet every month. The PM receives 306 litres of fuel; a minister gets 207 litres and a state minister is provided 180 litres per month. They are paid in cash instead of fuel.

Dhruba Prasad Sharma, secretary at the OPMCM, said that the expenses for each foreign visit varied on as per the size of the team, distance and number of days. A minister gets an allowance of US$ 200 every day excluding the bills of travel, food, treatment and accommodation, said Sharma.

Rs 1.2 million was spent on a minor treatment visit of Deputy Prime Minister Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar to Singapore a few months ago. This ratio indicates a huge amount of national coffer is spent on the foreign visits.

The highest scorer in foreign visits stands then foreign minister Upendra Yadav with a total visits by 15 times in nine months. Another Maoist cabinet-member Ganesh Shah visited nine times while PM Prachanda six times; Ministers for Agriculture and Cooperatives, and Local Development six times each; Tourism and Civil Aviation five times; Health and Population, Culture and State Restructuring, Finance, Labour and Transport Management, Commerce and Supplies, General Administration and Education respectively four times each.

Other Maoist cabinet members include Information and Communication, Physical Planning and Works and Water resources for three times each; Youth and Sports, and Law, Justice and CA Affairs for two times each. Similarly, Ministers for Defence, Industry, Home Affairs, and Forestry and Land Conversation once each.

Similarly, present cabinet decisions include PM Nepal for four times; Agriculture and Cooperatives 11 times; Labour and Transport Management, and Foreign Affairs eight times each; Tourism and Civil Aviation, Energy, and Finance seven times each; Education, Forestry and Land Conservation, Home Affairs, Environment, and Federal Affairs, Constituent Assembly, Parliamentary Affairs and Culture six times each; Health and Population, Information and Communication, General Administration, Commerce and Supplies, Physical Planning and Works, and Youth and Sports five times each.

The Ministers for Industry and Local Development got four opportunities each; Ministries of Law and Justice, Peace and State Restructuring three times each while Ministers for Defence, Science and Technology, and Women, Children and Social Welfare two times each, and Minister for Without Portfolio one time.

The innumerable visits of parliamentarians, government officials including secretaries and head of other bodies outnumber the ministerial visits. If the achievement from the visits is counted, it is disappointing, conclude the senior government officials.

Read More

Land-mafias using power centres to grab govt land

Bishnu Prasad Aryal
Kathmandu, June 11

The land-mafias have been eying the government land on the name of different organisations along with other land once the government acquisitioned by compensating the owners for the construction of roads.

According to the officials at the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works (MoPPW), a number of land mafias have tabled the files for withdrawing the land once they got compensation on the mutual understanding. They have now claimed that the compensation paid to the owners was very low compared to the real price of land.

The MoPPW acquisitioned a plot of land nearby Birtamod of Jhapa district in 1997. However, the mafias with recommendation from the Chief District Officer came to the ministry for withdrawing the land by proposing to return the government given compensation. Another mafia from Itahari in Sunsari district claimed the government land pooled 38 years ago by preparing fake documents belonging to the ownership.

The land mafias have also knocked the doors of the ministry to withdraw the land pooled for Banepa-Sindhuli section of BP Highway, said the senior officials at the MoPPW. The lands were acquisitioned compensating Rs 10,000 per ropani about a decade ago. However, the price of land went higher by manifolds now. “They have submitted the recommendations from CDO to withdraw the land,” the officials said in shocking mood.

The land was evaluated as per the price while they were compensated. Land-mafias are involved in vested interests due to the soaring price of land. They are trying to manipulate the political power centres to own the government land again, claiming that the land once pooled has remained useless.

The mafias are lured to have the land pooled to construct Ram Raja Bridge in Birgunj, which was built six years ago. The mafias were highly encouraged after the Maoist-led government provided 10 bighas of land to them in the name of Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industries in Nepalgunj.

“Now, the mafias in veil of different organisations are influencing the ministers to grab the land,” said MoPPW officials requesting anonymity. “There are bundles of such files piled in the Ministry. It is in mood to provide two bighas of land to the mafias through the Butwal municipality authority in Rupandehi district,” they revealed.

Just an instance, mafias are trying to grab some 50-60 ropanis of public land in Lalitpur in the name of an institute, said the sources. “It is reported that the mafias forced Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal to recommend Deputy PM and Minister for Physical Planning and Works Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar to provide land for an organisation. But it is still undecided,” a source quoted as saying the mafia network.

The ministry officials are worried about the political influence encouraging the mafias by misusing the political transitional phase ongoing in the country. “If this trend continues, the bureaucracy alone will be helpless to block such malaises under the pressure from ministers,” said MoPPW senior officials. “The bureaucracy has rejected to okay such files till date.”

Read More

Thousands flock the street against Maoist strike

Thousands of people from all walks of life landed on the streets in the Kathmandu to shun violence and strike called by the UCPN-Maoist, which came into peace process after a decade of armed struggle. About 14,000 people were killed during the Maoist insurgency.

This time, Maoists are on the street calling a general strike demanding resignation from Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and forming a coalition government led by the Maoists, who did not dare to follow the constitutional way by bringing no confidence motion in the parliament and voting for and against the government.

Read More

Peaceful demos Maoist ploy to deceive int'l society

Bishnu Prasad Aryal
Kathmandu, May 6

The supporters and cadres of Unified Communist Party of Nepal Maoists have been staging demonstrations peacefully more than it was expected. UCPN-M is still tagged in US terrorist list although Nepal government lifted it after it coordinated with other political parties to abolish monarchy and establish Federal Democratic of Nepal in 2006.

Maoists signed the papers with commitment to follow the democratic path and abandon violence. The ten year armed conflict ended as they came into peace process. However, they are still clinging in their goals to establish totalitarian communism. They are using strategies and tricks to empower them a for the final war. They accumulated force amidst their thin presence before entering into peace process.

They want to hold state power by forcing the other parties. So they are now on the streets for last five days calling the nationwide general strike, demanding the government to step down and form new coalition headed by Maoists.

Their artificial restraint was indicatively disclosed by one educated supporter while the supreme commanders  of the party were openly threatening  to seize power if their demands were not met. They are planning to seize state power within few months. They want first to win the sympathy from international communities by showing artificial restraint in the demonstrations.

"This is a diplomatic strategy to get international support and involve in the government," said demonstrator Hom Nath Nepal, a teacher from Sindhupalchowk district. "As we win the international support and are involved in the government, we will seize state power ousting all and will achieve final goal to set up communism in the country," he added in an media investigation in the Maoist demonstration at New Baneshwor yesterday.

Therefore, Nepalese people may face violence and democracy will be snatched once again if it is not understood in time and not managed to get help from UN and international communities to curb totalitarianism in the Himalayan country.

Read More

Maoist cadres parading in Kathmandu for May Day

It is as part of their revolutionary movement for 'final/decisive war'...Maoists want to seize power in the name of another people's movement by calling general strike. A historic people's movement abolished the monarchy from the country and established federal democratic republic of Nepal in 2006. The movement became successful when all the major political parties were united together to bring democracy and peace in the country. However, Maoists alone are trying to establish totalitarian communism in the country by capturing state power for which they are training their cadres.

Read More

19 ministries defy NPC order to improve performance

Bishnu Prasad Aryal
Kathmandu, April 24

The 19 ministries are found defying the recommendation of the National Planning Commission (NPC) to improve performances. The NPC suggested the ministries to take action against the secretaries and other related staff belonging to the concerned ministries for poor and low performance but to no avail.

According to the NPC sources, it has been monitoring 80 big and top priority projects and those impacting on public level in the current fiscal year. The monitoring and evaluation on the performances of those projects under 19 ministries in the first four months of the current fiscal year was publicised on the first week of January.

Those projects include Office of Prime Minister and Ministers-2, Ministry of Education-4, Ministry of Health and Population-4, Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare-1, Ministry of Physical Planning and works-15, Ministry of Irrigation-8, Ministry of Energy-7, Ministry of Local Development-9, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives-6, Ministry of Forestry and Soil Conservation-4, and Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation-2.

Similarly, others are Ministry of Science and technology-1, Ministry of Environment-2, Ministry of Finance-2, Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction-2, National Planning Commission-1, Ministry of Labour and Transport Management-1, Ministry of Land Reforms and Management-1, Ministry of Industry-1, Ministry of Commerce and Supplies-1 and Miscellenous-4.

Among them, only NPC, MoLTM and MoPR were able to meet the target. The NPC found that rest of those projects including Melamchi Drinking Water Project, distribution of biometric smart card and state facility ID cards from the Office of PM could not meet the target and some were not implemented at all.

“After monitoring, we recommended the concerned ministries to take ministerial actions such as decrease in grades and issuance of warning but none of them has been reported to us yet,” said Dhruba Prasad Dahal, joint-secretary at the NPC. “If the progress of a project is below than 80 per cent, the Office of the Auditor General can stop the budget release,” he said.

However, this is not implemented here. The reports of paper and desk based monitoring of the NPC are submitted to the Office of the PM for execution. The evaluation committee coordinated by Vice-Chancellor of NPC aims at finding out problems, challenges and solutions along with implementation of norms, review and formulation of future policies and strategies and budget allocation.

It is not our responsibility to take direct action against them, said Dr Dinesh Chandra Devkota, member of the NPC. “We only recommend them to improve the performance and take responsibility of the bad performance,” he said. “We are about to release the second four-month monitoring of those 80 projects. The secretaries should express commitment to meet the target in consecutive four-months. However, we have not received anything about the first monitoring from the ministries,” he added.

Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya, spokesperson for the MoLD, said that the ministry was ignorant about the direction from NPC and they were not obliged to submit the action reports to NPC. “We inform about internal affairs to the government Chief Secretary. The NPC can not take action against the government officers,” he added. “The reason behind the low performance belongs to the political causes.”

Read More

Political parties eyeing dev budget in local bodies

Bishnu Prasad Aryal

Lalitpur, April 10

The users’ committees in the local bodies are crucial agents for the development activities of more than Rs 13 billion annually. However, all of the committee members are politically appointed against the development discipline and spirit.

The monitoring reports of the Ministry of Local Development (MoLD) recently assessed in 10 districts reveal that the users’ committees to mobilise government grants in the development activities are appointees against the spirit of the Local Self-Governance Act-2055BS. A project below Rs six million is spent through the user’s committees, according to the MoLD.

“The committees should be transparently formed from the direct beneficiaries,” said Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya, spokesperson for the MoLD. “Government grants of some Rs seven billion is disbursed for the VDCs and more than Rs six billion for the districts,” he said. “All of the amounts are spent on the development activities through the user’s committees,” he added.

Users’ committees contribute upto 50 per cent of the project to the development activities in the local bodies whereas government shares at least 50 per cent of it. There are 3,915 village development committees and 58 municipalities in 75 districts across the country. A total of Rs 42 billion including Rs 22 billion for development and Rs 20 billion on administrative expenses has been allocated for the local bodies this year.

Dhruba Bandhu Aryal, under-secretary at the Local Development Section of the National Planning Commission, said the performances were badly affected due to the political appointees who are biased and work under the influence of certain political parties.

“User’s committees are under the capture of big parties while other small parties are excluded from the involvement in the development activities,” he said. “In the name of users’ committees, the development works are indirectly handed over to the contractors against the spirit of the users’ committees,” he added.

Thapaliya said the senior posts were allocated for the bigger parties and the junior ones to the smaller ones. “Even the parliament members come to recommend their cadres for the user’s committees. This kind of realised capture has created a loophole to misuse resources,” he said.

“On the other hand, the real people are deprived of the state resources for the development,” Thapaliya said. “The law provisions to appoint 80 per cent of the technical staff to carry out development activities in the local bodies but 80 per cent of the staffs are non-technical and only about 20 per cent technical staffers are appointed,” he said.

Aryal underlined the need of analysing state policies. “It is an urgent need to evaluate past and devise for the future goals to address the voice of the common people,” he said. Thapaliya focussed on a specific law to mobilise the committees unitarily.

The MoLD monitored whole performances including development activities and use of allocated funds in 10 districts--Morang, Ilam, Bara, Kaski, Rupandehi, Banke Surkhet, Dadeldhura, Kanchanpur and Rautahat. After the first phase, the monitoring is being carried out in other 10 districts. Five more districts will be scrutinised within the current fiscal.

Read More

Political parties forcing to practise non-existent law

Bishnu Prasad Aryal

Kathmandu, April 9

The political parties have still forced the District Development Committees to follow non-existent Panchyati law for misusing development founds for their vested interests.

The monitoring reports of the Ministry of Local Development recently assessed in 10 districts show that the budget has been allocated on ‘donation and financial assistance’ for the political parties, which is against the Local Self-Governance Act-2055BS.

“The political parties have forced the local bodies to allocate budget for them and their sister organisations in almost all districts, even Kathmandu,” said Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya, spokesperson for the MoLD. “There is no such provision in law to assist any organisation or person with more than Rs 300, not exceeding a total of Rs 50,000. It was practised in Panchyat era prior to two decades to pacify their cadres. But political parties are still stuck to this unlawful tradition,” he told THT.

An instance in Rupandehi district

·        Rs 120,000 for Progressive Teachers’ Union

·        Rs 500,000 for construction of Nepal Trade Union Office

·        Rs 137,000 for Nepal Sadbhavana Party (Anandidevi)

·        Rs 136,000 for CPN-UML

·        Rs 110,000 for Nepali Congress

·        Rs 89,000 for Madheshi Janasdhikar Forum

·        Rs 60,000 for UCPN-Maoist

·        Rs 53,000 for CPN (Unified)

·        Rs 25,000 for CPN-ML

·        Rs 25,000 for Janamorcha Nepal (Sherchan)

·        Rs 22,000 for Janamorcha Nepal

·        Rs 15,000 for Rastriya Janamorcha

·        Rs 12,000 for Nepal Sadbhavana Party (Mahato)

       ·        Rs 4,000 for CPN (Unified Marxist)

 The MoLD monitored whole performances including development activities and use of allocated funds in 10 districts--Morang, Ilam, Bara, Kaski, Rupandehi, Banke Surkhet, Dadeldhura, Kanchanpur and Rautahat. After the first phase, the monitoring is being carried out in other 10 districts. Five more districts will be scrutinised within the current fiscal.

There are 75 districts, 3,915 village development committees and 58 municipalities across the country. A total of Rs 42 billion including Rs 22 billion for development and Rs 20 billion on administrative expenses has been allocated for the local bodies this year.

Dhruba Bandhu Aryal, chief of Local Development Section at the National Planning Commission, said party share on budget, programmes and posts could be rampantly traced in the local bodies. “The voice of the people, who are needy, has not been heard even in the multiparty system,” said Aryal.

However, Dr Dinesh Chandra Devkota, acting Vice-Chairman, NPC, said they were officially ignorant about it. “The concerned ministry should take action on it. If we are reported, we will take action,” he added.

Thapaliya said the laws and regulations were not sincerely obeyed in the districts. “The ministry has given priority on productive sectors, inclusiveness, poverty reduction and completion of already started projects while implementing the allocated budget in the districts,” he said.

“However, it has not been focused on the issues and the political parties are interested in their own personal and vested interests,” said Thapaliya. “The development programmes are under grip of elite groups. There is lack of monitoring in the VDCs. The centre has also failed implementing laws well,” he added. “The local bodies are out of control thinking that they are autonomous bodies.”

Though the all-party mechanism has been formed in the districts in place of elected representatives, whose term was expired eight years ago, the mechanism is irresponsibly influencing Local Development Officers and engineers for vested party interests, said Thapaliya.

Nabindra Raj Joshi, Constituent Assembly member from the Nepali Congress, said law should not be violated at any cost. “However, programmes should be allotted on the basis of priority and necessity,” he said, indicating to provide reasonable support to the political parties.

Read More

Bottom-top devolution policy goes topsy-turvy

Bishnu Prasad Aryal
Lalitpur, April 6

Despite laws made for bottom-up policies and programmes, almost all the procedures in the ministries are forced top-down. The people in the local levels are not involved in formulating policies and plans.

The monitoring reports of the Ministry of Local Development recently assessed in 10 districts show that the plans and policies are directly forced from the ministries and political parties for implementation, which is against the Local Self-Governance Act-2055BS. Along with whole national governaning system, the Act has provisioned to devise plans and programmes originated from local roots.

Dr Dinseh Chandra Devkota, acting Vice-Chairman of the National Planning Commission, said that the devolution could not have been enforced in real sense as the actors of development activities in the districts were less interested and responsible. “The political mechanism in the local bodies should work responsibly above their partisan interests,” he said.

Dr Devkota said that the districts also failed to update them while making periodical plans and programmes. “Neither the centre is interested to devolve power nor the local level is using its rights. The joint efforts from the local level will play a crucial role in materialising the concept,” he said.

Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya, spokesperson for the MoLD and leader of monitoring team at Western Development Region, conceded that law was not enforced as per its spirit. “The reasons behind this drawback is lack of reporting and punishment system in the local bodies owing to the state impunity,” he said.

The MoLD carried out monitoring of 10 districts-Morang, Ilam, Bara, Kaski, Rupandehi, Banke Surkhet, Dadeldhura, Kanchanpur and Rautahat on the performances including development activities and use of allocated funds.

Similarly, the Ministry is monitoring other ten districts on the second phase. Those districts are Saptari, Panchthar, Parsa, Kathmandu, Tanahu, Kapilvastu, Dang, Dailekh, Kailali and Darchula. Monitoring of five more districts will be carried out within the current fiscal year. There are 75 districts, 3,915 village development committees and 58 municipalities across the country.

The senior officials at the MoLD said that concept of bottom-up policy was badly spoiled by the recommendations and order from ministers, political leaders and even parliament members. "Local bodies also don't want to make the centre annoy by suggesting centre and choosing plans and programmes from the local level," said Thapaliya. "Local bodies and political mechanism in the grassroots should be made more responsible towards people rather than ministry and government."

Dhruba Bandhu Aryal, under-secretary at Local Development Section of the NPC, said that the influence from the political parties and government was the major factor in making up-bottom policies. “Though it has been gradually reformed, we are yet to wait for bottom-up plans and policies,” said Aryal, who is also member of the monitoring team assigned for districts.

“We are working homework to make the devolution more effective by empowering local bodies for developing programmes and utilising resources on infrastructure development in the grassroots,” informed Devkota.

Read More

Water woes to remain another 15 years!

Bishnu Prasad Aryal

Kathmandu, April 5

The people of the Kathmandu valley will have to face scarcity of drinking water at least till 2025. If the government plans are not materialised, the shortage may linger to an uncertain period of time.

“If the government plans are materialised by 2025, the drinking water will be sufficiently supplied to valley denizens,” said Krishna Prasad Acharya, joint-secretary and acting spokesperson at the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works (MoPPW). “We are planning to supply 680 million litres of water per day (ML/D) by implementing Melamchi, Yangri and Larke drinking water projects by then,” he said. “The existing supply includes in it,” he added.

The MoPPW has planned to complete Melamchi drinking water project by 2013 and Yangri and Larke by 2025. Each of the three projects will supply 170ML/D.

At a time when the Melamchi drinking water project has faced tardy pace to begin, the government is optimistic to translate the plans into action. “If the socio-political obstruction doesn’t arise, the projects will be completed in time,” said Acharya. However, he was sckeptical about not facing any hurdle.

According to the MoPPW, at least 687 million litres of water needs daily to supply demands of about four million people in the valley by 2025. The Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited (KUKL) claims that it has been supplying about 100 million litre everyday through 167,000 taps. “But no water is supplied in my home,” said Ram Chandra Devkota, member-secretary of the Bagmati Development Committee.

Present demand is 203ML/D while it will reach 332ML/D in 2015, 446ML/D in 2020 and 724ML/D in 2025 along with the increasing ratio of people, says a survey prepared by the ministry.

A bid worth Rs 4 billion on Melamchi project was finalised in February 2009 and given to a Chinese construction company, which targeted to complete it in 54 months. Fourteen months have already passed and the project is yet to begin owing to the local protests.

Melamchi River is located at Helambu VDC in Sindhupalchowk district, about 27km away from Kathmandu. The project was conceived in 1985 and widely discussed since 1988. It has been already 10 years since the government started working on the project.

Acharya, who is also head of the Drinking Water Division at the ministry, said that the tunnel digging using excavator has been just started from Sundarijal in Kathmandu. “The setting up of camps at Sindu, Ambasthan and Gyalthum in Sindhipalchowk to dig has been undergoing. The digging of tunnel will begin soon from both directions of three places,” he said. “There is no doubt the well-equipped and high profile Chinese company will be able to complete the project within 40 months,” he affirmed.

Before then, existing water resources will be managed and services will be updated to minimise the shortage, said Acharya. “A recent ADB report reveals that US$ 300 million is necessary to revamp the present water supplying system and replace the old infrastructure for implementing new projects,” he said.

Read More