National Planning Commission (NPC) vice-chairman Min Bahadur Shrestha has said stress has been laid on coordination among the different government ministries to increase the development expenditure.

Speaking in an interaction organised in Beni of Myagdi district on Friday, he said, "Problem has been seen in the implementation and utilisation of the development budget due to the lack of coordination among the ministries, negligence on the part of the contractors and the consumer committees and the lack of willpower among the employees."

The NPC vice-chairman said that Prime Minister's Office and the NPC have taken initiatives to make the employees, the consumer committees and the contractors responsible and accountable by identifying the problems seen in programme implementation.

He added that the PMO and the NPC were regularly monitoring the development projects and prodding the different ministries to coordinate among themselves in implementation of development projects.

Vice-chairman Shrestha stated that development projects have been affected as the related ministries fail to release budget on time and the ministry of forests and soil conservation creates hurdles in infrastructure projects.

He also recalled that the government has set the target of expending 80 percent of the total development budget in the current fiscal year.

The NPC vice-chair also discussed with the district-based political parties and the office chiefs as well as stakeholders on the status of implementation of the development plans, the progress made in that regard and the problems encountered. RSS