Kathmandu, Nov 24: Lawmakers have stressed on increasing budget to the parliamentary committees. Required budget has not been made available, they complained in the meeting of the Legislative Management Committee under the National Assembly.
The Committee President Jayanti Devi Rai said it was increasingly difficult to run the annual programmes set under the Committee due to lack of budget. Presenting the annual programme allocation statement, 2080/81 BS for the Parliamentary Committee, she said the activities of the Committee could not be run well due to low budget.
The Committee member Dr Khimlal Devkota said economic situation of the Committee that represents the government is weak. Lack of budget has resulted in failure to meet the targets of committees’ programmes, he said.
However, Devendra Dahal, the Committee member, questioned the effective implementation of its annual programmes. Mentioning that the Committee received Rs 1.5 million last year, but the amount could not be spent timely, he stressed the need for focusing on selecting programmes instead of budget.
Another member of the Committee Jitendra Narayan Dev commended the work of the Legislative Committee as satisfactory.
Mentioning that she has already visited four provinces through the Committee, lawmaker Ganga Kumari Belbase urged the Committee president to set a plan for visiting Karnali, Sudurpaschim and Madhes Provinces.
For the functioning of 16 thematic committees under the federal parliament, the government through the federal parliament secretariat has set aside a lump sum of over Rs 20 million in the current fiscal year, 2023/24.
