Lawmakers elected through proportional representation expressed their anger in Wednesday’s Parliament meeting for not getting the authority to distribute budget under Local Infrastructure Development Partnership Programme.

One lawmaker even tore a copy of the budget spending guidelines for the programme, claiming that they were being treated as second grade lawmakers.

The programme, which is a modified version of the Constituency Infrastructure Special Programme and Constituency Development Programme, allows only directly elected lawmakers to allocate Rs 40 million for the development of the respective constituencies.

The lawmakers from the PR category were furious that the programme excluded them. 

Nepali Congress lawmaker Uma Regmi tore the regulation before Parliament, saying that it was biased against them.

“We should be treated on par with our elected colleagues,” she demanded.

Another NC lawmaker Laxmi Pariyar also vented her ire at the session.

 “This shows two level of treatments to the lawmakers. If we have different status, the government should allocate separate place for us in the House,” she said.

The government had released Rs 6.56 billion to local units for projects under the programme in January. According to the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration,  the budget was released to the local units, except in Parsa-3 after lawmaker Hari Narayan Rauniyar was suspended over a corruption scandal. 

The government has allocated Rs40 million each to 164 out of 165 constituencies as conditional grant to implement various development projects under the programme. Of the total resources sent to the local units, an estimated Rs13 million will be spent for administrative procedures, according to the ministry.