Nepal: Increasing MP Development Fund

Speaking to the anchor of the morning program called ‘antar-sambad’ of the Radio Nepal on July 5, 2014, NC member of parliament Purna Bahadur Khadka said that the media had wrongly stated the MP Development Fund; it was a Constituency Development Fund; a special mechanism would be developed to effectively use this fund; so far, the government had irregularly allocated development budget to the districts; some districts received billions of rupees other received only millions causing unbalanced development; this fund was to make equal allocation of budget to all districts.

However, if we were to take a serious look at the so-called constituency development fund it was in fact the incarnation of the MP Development Fund. The reporters had been used to the name of this fund so they used it. No matter what Minister Purna Bahadur Khadka said the fund was to fill out the pockets of the MPs with the taxpayers’ money.

Recently, MPs have been demanding MP residence, MP vehicles, and MP allowances and so on in the name of providing security to the MPs. These shameless MPs have been for grabbing everything from the State treasury. So, they gave the example of a recent incident of a man slapping a woman MP traveling on a three-wheeler.

Slapping Chairman of UCPN-Maoist Prachanda, and Chairman of CPN-UML Jhalanath Khanal had happened, too. An enraged man threw a chair at Sushil Koirala: the current prime minister also the president of NC narrowly missing the target. What the MP wanted to do to prevent such incidents? Whether they wanted to keep the leaders in bulletproof cases.

As in the past at the time of NC administration, currently, MPs have been demanding duty free vehicles for their private uses. In the past the MPs had purchased the most expensive and luxurious vehicle called by the brand name of pajero with the government giving the duty exemption concession. Some of the pajero vehicles landed in the garage of rich traders and industrialists. Obviously, MPs had simply made a large sum of money out of the duty concession the government had given them for purchasing pajero. The duty on such vehicles was 200% of the purchased price. So, the media had even dubbed the pajero MPs.

Currently, MPs had been even dreaming to build beautiful bungalows with garages to park newly purchased cars, and then drive those cars to the parliament for a snooze or go to do some other businesses but claiming the allowances for the attending the parliamentary sessions. Clearly, the disease of corruption has infected these MPs, too. The previous regime died of the infection of this disease.

These MPs had forgotten that majority of the voters living in the sheds not better than shelters for animals had elected them to the MPs. Some of the MPs also had lived in similar sheds. However, MPs did not think of taking those voters out of the poverty but the MPs wanted to live as luxurious as possible on the money paid in the name of VAT or consumer tax by the same voters. Thus, the MPs elected by the majority of the voters living in sheds had been dreaming of the highly luxurious lifestyle riding on pajeros, and living in beautiful bungalows like palaces but keeping the voters as poor as they had been.

Some reporters had written that if MPs were to be development workers, they either should go to be the Chairmen of District Development Committees, or take the jobs of Local Development Officers employed by the Ministry of Local Development; if they were to remain as MPs their duty was to make laws not indulge in the development of constituencies.

Only the directly elected MPs were entitled to receive their demand for Rs 50 millions. This sum of money was too heavy for the single pocket of every MP. The gorkhapatra of July 5, 2014 wrote that Deputy Prime Minister Prakashman Singh said that a mechanism should be developed to include the MPs elected through the proportional representation under the coordination of the directly elected MPs to share the constituency development fund among the MPs.

Proportionally elected MPs had no constituencies. Their constituencies were the political parties that had favored them to be the MPs. They would not receive Rs 50 millions for their party development. So, DPM Singh proposed the directly elected MPs to share the Rs 50 millions with the proportionally elected MPs. I did not believe that DPM Singh himself would be willing to share his Rs 50 millions with other proportionally elected MPs.

If the government were to allocate Rs 50 millions to each MP, then the government would waste Rs 50 millions x 240 constituencies = Rs 12 billions. It was not a small amount for the country such as Nepal. We needed to use every single rupee to develop the country for lifting the millions of Nepalis currently living under the poverty line. However, we would be wasting billions of rupees in the name of constituency development. So, it was not a surprise that Nepal was a least developed country.

The current government declared that it would lift Nepal to the status of a developing country by 2022 in other words in eight years. Hardly anybody would believe in it if the government were to waste so much money in the name of the constituency development.

On July 8, 2014, the local media reported that before leaving Kathmandu for the US for medical treatment, Prime Minister Sushil Koirala had instructed Finance Minister Dr Ram Sharan Mahat to provide MPs each with Rs 5 million if it were permissible but not Rs 50 million. So, the chance of MPs getting Rs 50 million was slim. Rs 5 million would be just sufficient for purchasing a pajero vehicle. With this sum of money, MPs could still enjoy the lavish life style riding on pajeros in comparison to the majority of voters that ride on bullock carts.

The local media also reported that most of the MPs had misused the one million rupees they had received in the past. All MPs had claimed the ten percent of the one million rupees for running an office at the respective constituency of each MP but most of them had not even set up any office. They did not need to submit the accounts of expenditure for this amount. How nice to have one hundred thousand rupees (ten percent of one million rupees) to have for doing nothing for the constituency.

Kathmandu, July 3: Speaking at the joint meeting of the NC central committee and the parliamentary party in Kathmandu on July 3, 2014, Minister for Irrigation Narayan Prakash Saud said that the government would increase the MP Development Fund as much as the economy can following the demand of members of parliament.

The government has been obviously for increasing the MP Development Fund for distributing Rs 50 millions to each directly elected MP as demanded by the MPs. The MPs demanded that the amount allocated to the MPs under the MP Development Fund be increased from the current one million to 50 millions.

Minister Saud said that the MPs called for increasing the amount with a view to allocating the budget in the 240 electoral constituencies in a balanced way and to making the development effective through prioritization of the plans and programs.

The central committee members and lawmakers for the last four days have been holding discussion, making comments and providing recommendations for the policy and programs presented by the government. They have demanded that the budget should address the problems of their districts and constituencies.

At the meeting, the lawmakers stressed that the government programs and budget should be distributed in a balanced way so that people could feel a sense of development through the budget rather than proximity to power, Minister Saud said. (Source: Gorkhapatraonline.com, July 3, 2014)

Kathmandu, July 5, 2014: One day after the parliamentary committee of the NC decided to demand a large amount of money for each constituency, Vice-chairman of National Planning Commission Gobinda Raj Pokhrel said that Rs 50 million per constituency would fuel disparity among the districts. Underdeveloped districts such as Dolpa, Solukhumbu and Manang would be entitled to receive only Rs 50 million whereas Morang and Jhapa, both developed districts Rs 450 million and Rs 400 million respectively. Kathmandu alone would receive Rs 500 million.

Former CA member Hari Rokka said that this uneven budget allocation would be counter-productive and create economic disparity between regions. “Migration from the hills and remote areas is increasing due to unavailability of basic facilities like education, health centers and roads,” said Rokka, adding that this uneven allocation will fuel further migration and imbalanced development. However, he also was of the view that the constituency-wise budget disbursement could stop the current practice of ministers and powerful leaders acting with highhandedness and concentrating budget allocations in their respective constituency. He also expressed doubts about the proper utilization of the fund, as there were no local bodies to implement the scheme.

The disparity among development regions was also striking. The Eastern Development Region would have Rs 2,800 million while the Central Development Region and Western Development Region Rs 4,050 million and Rs 2,450 million respectively, the Mid-Western Development Region and the Far-Western Development Region Rs 1,650 million and Rs 1,050 million respectively. (Source: myrepublica.com, July 5, 2014)

ENDS

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