Jhapa local bodies busy making plans for coming fiscal year

By Bishnu Pokharel  Damak, June 16:  The local bodies in Jhapa district have initiated the procedure of selecting plans to be implemented during the coming fiscal year 2022/23. 

The ward-level governance has already started selecting the programmes for the coming fiscal year to pass them from the municipal council. 

The ward level authorities are now busy selecting their plans within their budget limits. The plans and programmes will be implemented after being selected from citizen’s level and included it in the plan bank of the municipality. 

It is said that the incomplete programmes of the previous fiscal year will be completed in this fiscal year and some new plans will be added.

According to Damak Municipality, the plan will be selected from all the wards within the third week of June. 

Mayor Ram Thapa said that the plans and programmes of the local bodies would be prepared with the maximum participation of the people. 

The budget formulation procedure has been started in such a way that the entire city dwellers would belong to it, said Thapa.

Nabin Baral, ward chair of Damak Municipality-3, said the first board meeting of Damak Municipality has put at least Rs. 120 million budget ceiling for 10 wards. 

He said that this amount would be allocated to the wards on the basis of its population and geography.

Similarly, local bodies of Gauradaha Municipality have also started the process of selecting programmes for the next fiscal year, said Nagendra Bhandari, chairman of ward-1. 

He said the city dwellers of the Gauradaha were more focused on infrastructure development.

He shared that he had been reaching out to the locals to motivate them to come up with plans that would cover all areas. 

The local levels have been conducting municipal assembly by formulating working procedure for the assembly.

For the first time, newly elected people's representatives of 15 wards are now involved in the process of participating in the municipal assembly and selecting the plan.

Hukum Singh Rai, chairperson of Kamal Rural Municipality, said the local bodies of the rural municipality had also started selecting programmes and plans for the coming fiscal year. 

“I am hopeful that the local representative will select the programmes that will benefit the entire residents of their respective wards. We have asked them to choose a plan within the budget limits,” said Rai. 

“The major plans selected from the local bodies, which couldn’t be implemented solely by the municipality would be recommended to the provincial and federal government,” said Rai.