Gandaki to implement development works through dedicated bank

By Narendra Dhakal,Gorkha, Aug. 2: Gandaki Province is set to conduct the development related constructions and other works through a dedicated provincial project bank. 

“From this year we are establishing a project bank. From the next fiscal year 2024/25, the budget will be allocated only to the schemes selected by the project bank,” Chief Minister (CM) of Gandaki, Surendra Raj Pandey, said while addressing various programmes organised in his home district Gorkha on Tuesday.  

According to him, the trend of random budget spending should be stopped.

The CM said that the concerned provincial offices will reach the local units to discuss and finalise the projects. Such discussions would be held in coordination with the local governments and representatives at the provincial assembly. Projects would be chosen on the basis of priority and included in the bank. 

CM Pandey said that the provincial government would set a ceiling for the selected projects and contribution of the province and local body would be determined. “If the plans are beyond the execution capacity of the provincial government, they would be sent to the federal government,” he said. 

According to him, budget to the upcoming projects would be allocated only through the project bank maintained at the provincial policy and planning commission. 

He said that representatives of the provincial Planning Commission, people’s representatives of the province and the employees of the offices under the Gandaki government will go to villages to discuss the future plans from September-October 2023. 

CM Pandey claimed that Gandaki province has started some reform programmes from this year. “We have said that we will not make plans of less than Rs. 3 million for roads and we want to increase the size of the project that the province handles. No project of less than Rs. 1 million would be designed in water supply and irrigation,” he said. 

He also maintained that the plans smaller than that should be handled by the local bodies and large projects should be executed by the federal government. 

Likewise, CM Pandey said that a significant portion of the provincial 

budget has been spent in unproductive areas, so the government in Gandaki has decided not to allocate budget for the construction of community buildings from this year. Priority should be given to upgrading the roads that reach at least all the ward offices, he added.

Addressing the gathering of judicial committees at all 11 local bodies of Gorkha, CM Pandey, who also holds the responsibility of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Law, said that the Gandaki government has introduced various plans and programmes for capacity building of judicial committees.

“We are sending law officers or their assistants to all 85 municipalities for your support,” he said.