Kathmandu, May 3
The government of Nepal on Friday afternoon announced an ambitious annual policy and programme for the fiscal year 2019/20 which begins from mid-July. The government will announce an annual budget plan based on this policy and programme in the last week of May.
Lawmakers associated with the main opposition, Nepali Congress party, have criticised the announcement, claiming it was just a compilation of false assurances and egotistic statements.
In the 218 point policy read out by President Bidya Devi Bhandari at a joint meeting of both houses of the Federal Parliament, the government has claimed that the next year will be ‘the year of speedy development in the history’.
For that, the government assured it would work on ambitious development projects like upgrading highways so as to make them suitable for emergency plane landings and establishing a gemstone factory.
The government said that the new roads to be constructed since now would be of at least two lanes. Whereas two of 77 district headquarters are yet to be connected to the national road network, the government said Humla and Dolpa district headquarters would also be linked by the end of next fiscal year.
Likewise, all local units have blacktopped roads within next four years.
The opposition’s criticism
Speaking with the media after the announcement, influential Nepali Congress leader Gagan Thapa objected to the language used by the President in her address.
Whereas the President would use ‘this government’ or ‘Nepal government’ to refer to the government in previous years, she referred it as ‘my government’ this year. Not only opposition leaders, but members of the public have also expressed their concerns over the style.
“Now about the context, in reviewing the government’s activities this year, the government did not criticise itself anywhere. It is full of self praise. It carries an illusion that people are so happy from the government.”
He added, “This is hollow. Such a baseless plan would not take us anywhere.”
