Gandaki Province to not implement small federal projects

Chief Minister of Gandaki Province Surendra Raj Pandey has expressed his dissatisfaction over the federal government sending small-sized projects to the province.

The Chief Minister said that the provincial government will not implement projects in the budget that are worth less than Rs 500,000.

Addressing a provincial workshop here today organized by Town Development Fund, the Chief Minister added that the provincial government will not be obliged to implement such programs adding that they are insignificant.

"It is not got to hold the mega projects by the federal government itself against our commitment to strengthen province and local levels. The projects with less budget either should be sent to the local level or the federal government itself should run them," Chief Minister Pandey argued.

Saying that the provincial government was in the final stage of its preparations for the upcoming year's budget, Pandey made it clear that a minimum of Rs 3 million of the budget would be allocated for road infrastructure projects and not less than Rs 1 million for drinking water and irrigation supply projects.

The province government will leave the multi-million projects in limbo by allocating peanuts, he mentioned.

The Chief Minister of Gandaki Province also stated that fiscal federalism could not become robust due to the federal government's multiple moves including barring the local and provincial governments from taking foreign loans, fixing the cap of 12 percent to raise debt, seizing the allocated budget at the final stage and other reasons.

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