Kathmandu, January 3
Officials elected at various local governments from last year’s local level elections have demanded that the federal government provide them as many as 2,000 vehicles. The government, however, says it does not have sufficient budget to afford the demand.
An official at the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development says people’s representatives from 753 local units of the government forwarded the demand.
The official informs that the Ministry has already sent the demand for 835 vehicles to the Ministry of Finance. According to the Ministry’s plan, a rural municipality would be given one vehicle and a municipality two in general.
“It has been estimated that the vehicles will cost at least Rs 3.32 billion,” Joint-Secretary Suresh Adhikari says, “We have forwarded the plan. But the Ministry of Finance has already informed us informally that there is no sufficient budget now.”
Meanwhile, the government is also preparing to hand over property of various offices, which will be dissolved after the full implementation of federalism, to local governments and the local officials can get some vehicles from them, according to an official.
The Ministry is preparing to table a proposal at the Cabinet meeting to form a committee in each district to facilitate the handover, according to Secretary Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya.
