Miscellaneous
Writ against govt implementation of CISP, CDP
A newly elected member of House of Representatives on Tuesday filed a writ at the Supreme Court against the government’s decision of implementing the projects chosen by ex-lawmakers under the Constituency Infrastructure Special Programme (CISP) and Constituency Development Programme (CDP).Prithvi Man Shrestha
A newly elected member of House of Representatives on Tuesday filed a writ at the Supreme Court against the government’s decision of implementing the projects chosen by ex-lawmakers under the Constituency Infrastructure Special Programme (CISP) and Constituency Development Programme (CDP).
The government has allocated Rs10 billion for the projects to be implemented under the two programmes. It had allocated Rs 30 million for each of the old constituencies to be implemented under the CISP and Rs 5 million each to ex-lawmakers for implementing projects under the CDP.
Following the election of new lawmakers, the government’s move to resume the projects under these two programme has been controversial.
Given this context, Jhapat Bahadur Rawal, a newly elected member of House of Representatives from Kailali-2, filed the writ demanding that the decision taken by Ministry of Federal Affairs and the Local Development (MoFALD) on December 28, to resume the controversial scheme be scrapped until newly elected members of the Lower House take oath of office.
In the writ, Rawal has mentioned that as border, population and geography of electoral constituencies have changed as a part of state restructuring, the projects chosen on the base of old boundary and population cannot be implemented. The number of electoral constituencies has changed from 240 to 165 and the number of lawmakers representing at the Lower House has come down to 275 from 601.
The writ also says following the fresh public mandate, the implementation of the projects chosen by the ex-lawmakers would deprive the newly elected lawmakers from getting involved in development activities. “Nobody has the right to reject fresh mandate of people on the pretext that the election code of conduct is no longer valid now,” says the writ. The Election Commission (EC) on October 29 had asked the government to cancel all the projects meant for the then lawmakers arguing that election code of conduct bars from carrying out any activities that could influence the voters.
After the EC decided to discontinue code of conduct from December 12, 2017, following the conclusion of elections of House of Representatives and Provincial Assemblies on December 7, the MoFALD decided to resume the projects chosen by ex-lawmakers.
On December 31, the MoFALD wrote to the District Technical Offices to implement the projects chosen by ex-lawmakers within October 14, the date when tenure of ex-lawmakers expired, in line with the suggestions given by the Law Ministry.
Since the EC issued notice stating the election code of conduct no longer valid, the MoFALD faced strong pressure from ex-lawmakers for implementation of the projects under the CISP and the CDP.