The National Planning Commission is concerned over the possible development disparity if the government distributes Rs 50 million to each constituency as demanded by lawmakers. As the number of constituencies is lower in remote and mountainous districts where development needs are greater compared to districts having a higher number of constituencies that enjoy comparatively more prosperity, the NPC noted.

NPC Vice-chairman Govinda Raj Pokharel said the proposed modality of additional spending would increase disparity among the districts. “With districts having more electoral constituencies, four to five Village Development Committees form one constituency while in remote districts with lesser number of constituencies, the number of VDCs in a constituency is much more,” said Pokharel. “Geographically, fulfilling the demand will increase disparity in building physical infrastructure.”

According to the recently unveiled Human Development Report 2014, five districts of the Karnali regions including Bajura, Bajhang, Kalikot, Humla and Achham have the lowest human development index.

“Provided the government releases the budget as demanded by the lawmakers, the entire Karnali region will end up getting only Rs 250 million. On the other hand, Jhapa district which is much developed than the Karnali region will get Rs 350 million,” said Pokharel. “That’s why, I am going to draw the Finance Minister’s attention towards this fact.” Pokharel’s predecessor Jagadish Chandra Pokharel shares the similar view. “The proposed modality of distributing budget to electoral constituency will create imbalance in development as remote districts will continuously be neglected,” he argued.

However, lawmaker Ram Hari Khatiwada from Okhaldhunga-2, who is in forefront of CDF campaign, said that such gap in funding between the remote districts and accessible districts should be bridged through additional funding under other development programmes. The proposed CDF, if introduced, will replace the existing Parliament Development Fund. Currently, each lawmaker gets Rs 1 million to spend in their constituency through the District Development Committee under the PDF.

As the existing PDF has not been implemented as

envisioned, there are serious concerns whether the proposed fund will be utilised effectively. Former Finance Secretary Rameshore Khanal said the biggest concern is the possible misuse of the fund as there is no proper monitoring mechanism. “In order to ensure the fund is not misused, there should be a mechanism where elected lawmakers should not be involved in choosing contractors to rule out misuse of the fund in collusion,” said Khanal. Experts have questioned the lawmakers intents as their demand is 50 times higher than the currently available budget.

“With no elected local government in place, the government officials may not stand against the elected lawmakers when they seek budget through district development committees for their pet projects,” Pokharel said.